When President Donald Trump fired off his racist tweets about Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), he sent Trumpworld and the GOP into a tailspin.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that, like he so often does, Trump acted alone when he tweeted last week that the four American congresswomen should “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came.” And when he did, aides and allies tried to convince him that it was a bad idea–without actually telling him so directly.
“You put your head up, and you get it cut off,” an unnamed staffer involved with fundraising for Trump’s reelection campaign told the Post. “And then everyone remembers you weren’t loyal when this blows over.”
Though only four House Republicans broke rank to vote with Democrats to condemn Trump’s tweets, several GOPers and Trump’s own aides behind the scenes were reportedly at best uncomfortable with Trump’s racist rhetoric.
Trump’s campaign and the National Republican Committee were silent about the tweets. A senior Republican senator told the Post it was “dumb politics.” And above all, “nobody wanted to touch it.”
But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), like some of Trump’s other allies, just wanted to ride out the disaster.
“Well, he always doubles down,” Graham told the Post. “Then he adjusts.”
Trump’s response to the Post’s story on Sunday morning was fairly predictable:
The Washington Post Story, about my speech in North Carolina and tweet, with its phony sources who do not exist, is Fake News. The only thing people were talking about is the record setting crowd and the tremendous enthusiasm, far greater than the Democrats. You’ll see in 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2019
“The most emotional and primitive person in the room commands the most attention.”
Unnamed staffer huh? Consider this story fiction. This isn’t news.
Trump likes to attack people who apologize. He sees apology as weakness, and only under the most dire circumstances would he consider it himself (and in such a case, we can expect the most mealy mouthed apology every composed). Instead, he just makes his case worse and worse, and for the most part, he gets away with it. (Let us hope that in 2020, he fails to get away with it.)
It’s not Trump.
It is the social structure created especially for Trump. There are nations in which Trump could not do what he is doing, even if he were twice as crazy.
We spend not enough time and energy on the GOP and people like Graham.
The title of this article contains the problem. “Trump Allies”… The most detestable individual in politics has “allies”.
Think about that.
The GOP only sees an unmanageable president and worries about the optics and possible workarounds. They are seemingly oblivious to the damage, which they are complicit in, being done to the country and the rest of us, every second, every hour, every day.