Trump is the consummate bullshitter. Verbally, he’s all over the map when discussing most issues, catering to what he thinks his audience wants to hear, and listening to the last person who leaves the room. Healthcare is a good example. He would have signed any bill–tiny, incremental piece of shit, or major sweeping reform–as long as it was perceived as a “winning” Obamacare repeal.
One (maybe the only) thing he won’t bullshit about is race. He could jettison these fucking nazis in a second without any ill effect. Yet he stubbornly and persistently refuses to make any significant, long-term criticism of white nationalists.
The only reasonable conclusion is that he really believes in white nationalism. Today, again, we’ve seen the core belief of a man who is otherwise has the moral clarity of a carnival barker.
Update:
Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa https://t.co/tTESdV4LP0
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 15, 2017
Curtis
Yes, this. The only other core or strong belief I’ve sensed from him is his anti-EU and/or pro-Russia tendencies.
Major Major Major Major
@Curtis: Exactly. The only beliefs he’s ever consistently shown over the years are that he hates minorities and women, thinks we’re too tough on Russia, thinks we need to abandon NATO, and thinks China is eating our lunch.
schrodingers_cat
Yes this explains his anti-immigrant platform too. Expect more people to die to in ICE detention camps.
randy khan
I don’t think this is particularly more optimistic than what you’re suggesting (or even more probable), but one other possibility is that he sees the white nationalist folks as his most loyal supporters and figures that he needs them. Of course, it also could be both.
Bobby Thomson
Why are you misspelling white supremacism? Call it what it is.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major: He was also consistent in his denigration of Obama.
Mike in NC
Fred Trump was KKK, so it’s in the family DNA at this point.
Bobby Thomson
@randy khan: no, he’s a stone cold racist. Anyone who watched his game show knew that. Plus the Hitler speeches on the bedside table and the old man’s Klan arrest.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: I was trying to go back over the decades, but that too.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Andrew McCabe who who plays the cartoonish villain (A British Major General on the frontline in NE India) in Rangoon, says in the course of the film.
T believes that.
FlipYrWhig
@Mike in NC: He has the best genes.
mistermix
@Mike in NC: I think you’re right – Trump idolized his dad. Also, why are we just finding out about this now? Because the media fell down on the job of reporting on Trump, because they thought he couldn’t win.
Mnemosyne
Since I’ve seen idiots on Facebook today try to argue this: yes, the Civil War was about slavery. Anyone who told you otherwise lied to you.
mistermix
@Bobby Thomson: @randy khan:
I think a small part of why he isn’t denouncing is that he looks at political approval like TV show ratings. A small share of the public is a very successful TV show. But the bigger part of it is that he’s a fucking racist.
mistermix
@Mnemosyne: And, no, Robert E Lee wasn’t a reluctant slaveholder. And the reason that we won’t be pulling down statues of Washington anytime soon is that his sole claim to fame wasn’t leading a traitorous army of secessionists.
A Ghost to Most
He’s a bullshitter, but not a good one. He lacks the ability to charm non-willing listeners.
J R in WV
I am so naive and innocent.
I keep being astounded at the ease with which Trump spews unbelievably evil thoughts and memes into microphones for the whole world to hear, and the lack of repercussions those despicably evil speeches have on his administration.
I keep thinking that a crowd of congressmen and congresswomen will assemble, vote, and call on the Senators to do their job. The whole thing could be done in a couple of hours, IF WE HAD RESPONSIBLE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND THE SENATE!!!
But there you are, the President is a racist bigot who wishes he could have been in that crowd with a NAZI flag on a spear to jab at patriotic Americans. And no one is willing to take the proper steps to end this national nightmare and put Trump in the home he belongs in. All alone with Jared and Ivanka to care for him. And no responsibilities to the nation he so obviously hates.
p.a.
As if tRumpf and the Central Park 5 wasn’t enough proof, especially if we had a functioning media.
MisterForkbeard
To be fair, Trump also can’t stick to saying anything bad about Russia or Putin. He’ll say something, and then walk it back or immediately make some concession to Russia. Or try to blame something on Obama instead of the Russians.
So now we’ve got two things Trump has to protect and can’t criticize:
1) Russians and the Russian dictator.
2) Nazis, racists and white supremacists.
MisterForkbeard
@Mike in NC: I’d forgotten that. His dad was in the KKK, so far as anyone can tell. Guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.
At least in some senses. Donald got Fred’s racism, but not much of his business acumen.
@p.a.: I was always surprised this didn’t get more coverage. Trump took out a fullpage ad in the Times to say we needed to kill these five people immediately and let the police brutalize and hurt more people.
And when asked about it later after they were proved innocent, he STILL wouldn’t take it back. “Trump advocates execution of five innocent black men” would kind of be a great story, don’t you think? Especially the media decided to think about why Trump might be so stuck on killing them?
oatler.
@p.a.:Chuck’s Twitter:
Chuck ToddVerified account @chucktodd
If it’s Tuesday…President Trump doubles down on “many sides”
and then goes on to retweet a bunch of Marco Rubio shit
cthulhu
@randy khan: “…one other possibility is that he sees the white nationalist folks as his most loyal supporters and figures that he needs them.”
Well, he would have to be assuming that OVERT racism is really more popular than it seems. That many people who see KKK/neo-nazis actually think they could be “good people.” Because overt racists like this make up a small percentage of the level of core support he still has. The fact that he may believe the US is even more racist can argue that he personally thinks racism is fine and normal.
Sasha
I don’t necessarily think Trump’s a white nationalist. It’s just that white nationalists give him the unreserved adoration and respect he desperately craves and so he’s entered in symbiosis with then.
Hell, I suspect he’d equivocate for NAMBLA if they could provide him the same fix.
ciotog
What the fuck is David Duke a doctor of?
Brachiator
@Sasha:
Yes, he is. I don’t know why people don’t want to accept this.
Johnnybuck
@mistermix: We only like Generals that win…
Laura
@oatler.: where, oh where could trumpf have gotten that pesky bothsiderism chuck todd, Mathew dowd, Ron forneier, David f’ING brooks?
And yes, he’s as racist and white nationalist as his dad. Woody Guthrie had their number decades ago.
Brachiator
@Mike in NC:
As much as I detest Trump, I am not sure that your assertion here is proven.
JustRuss
@oatler.: Criminy, if Herr Orange can get our Chuck Todds to kick their “Both Sides!” habit, it might be worth all the crap he’s inflicted on our country. Not holding my breath, but miracles do happen.
Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)
@Brachiator:
People are way overthinking this. Trump is not complicated. He is a garbage person: a none-too-bright racist, misogynistic bullshit artist. He has not changed one iota from the time I became aware of him in the mid-’80s until now. The only thing that surprised me about him was that more people didn’t see through him and he was able to win the Presidency.
SFAW
Oh, look, it’s “shomi” with a new nym/nom.
Mnemosyne
@mistermix:
Yup. But these assholes really do think that pathetic losers like Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson are the equals of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)
@SFAW:
Harsh, dude, especially since I was agreeing with him. (I’m not shomi, either.)
SFAW
@Bookeater (formerly JosieJ):
Wasn’t talking about you, nor Brachiator.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sasha:
I’ve seen white supremacists on Twitter insist that they are not neo-Nazis. As though that matters. From the POV of a decent human, the functional difference is negligible.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
Typical libtard. I don’t think TJ had as many military victories as Stonewall, and I don’t think GW was as proficient at being a traitor as Davis was.
So there!
Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)
@SFAW:
That’s a relief! Even though I mostly lurk, I don’t want to get that kind of rep!
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: Yep. Trump is definitely a cartoonish villain.
Lurking Canadian
@SFAW: Isn’t he the guy who spent 2016 sneering at anybody who expressed concern about the election for being a chicken little because obviously Clinton would win?
I mean, I get thinking Trump had no chance, but if you spent the better part of a year mocking anyone who disagreed with utmost condescension wouldn’t you…be less of an asshole after you were proven wrong?
J R in WV
@MisterForkbeard:
But today, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russian Nationalist absolute rule, is there any perceptible difference between these two items on this short list?
No, there isn’t. Racists and Nazis and white supremacists are who is in charge in Russia today. Putin himself is a Nazi!
SFAW
@Bookeater (formerly JosieJ):
Too late for that!
(I’m kidding, of course.)
SFAW
@Lurking Canadian:
Don’t recall re: that. I just recall him as being the guy who had “pet” names for some of the front pagers, and would start out by pointing out how fucking stupid each one was (in their posts, that is). As with Native Russian and RtR, he was pretty much a one-note asshole, but with infrequent flights of reasonableness.