Another Weekend, Another Racial Trump Tweet

You might think that a politician who spent the better part of the last two weeks defending himself against charges of racism would be careful about what he says. In the case of Donald Trump, you’d be wrong.

After drawing intense criticism for his tweets telling unnamed “’Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” to “go back” to their home countries, President Trump was at it again this morning with a series of tweets attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). In the tweetstorm, Trump called Cumming’s Baltimore district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” To top the rant, Trump alleged that Cummings was a thief.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155073964634517505?s=20

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155073965880172544?s=20

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155076476930338816?s=20

Where Trump’s “go back” seemed bigoted and tiptoed up to the line of racism, today’s tweets jump over the line with both feet. The statement that “no human being” would want to live in the district, which is 55 percent black, has clear racial overtones.

There are several accurate statements that President Trump could have made about Cummings’ seventh congressional district. It is the poorest district in the state with almost 18 percent of its residents below the poverty line per data from BiggestCities.com. It ranks dead last among Maryland districts for income per household. Crime is a problem in parts of the district. On the other hand, the Washington Examiner points out that the district is in the upper half of House districts nationally and also includes many upscale neighborhoods, including one named the safest place in the country in 2018.

I’m not going to call Trump a racist. I don’t pretend to know what is in his heart. What I am going to say is that Donald Trump says things sound bigoted on a fairly regular basis. He seems to relish the controversy and the attention that his outlandish statements bring, perhaps holding to the theory that any publicity is good publicity.

That doesn’t necessarily hold true in politics.

Trump’s antics regularly distract from the news cycle in a self-defeating way. His “go back” tweets unified Democrats who had been in the midst of a veritable civil war. The president’s attack on Cummings comes only hours after the Supreme Court handed him a victory on funding for the border wall. On a day when Republicans should have been gloating over their judicial triumph, they suddenly find themselves once again explaining why Donald Trump is not a racist.

If President Trump wanted to drive minority voters en masse from the GOP, he wouldn’t have to act very different from how he already behaves. After three years of Trump, the Republican Party has precious few minority voters to lose, but there are many white voters who will flee a party that they perceive to be headed by a racist. Trump’s long list of quasi-racist statements is akin to making Hillary Clinton’s “deplorable” comment a dozen times over.

If Republicans don’t want to be thought of as racists, the obvious solution would be to not say things that sound racist and to condemn and retract statements that break the first rule. However, Republicans are once again caught between a rock and a hard place by the president’s unforced error. They must explain away Trump’s statements by focusing on Baltimore’s crime and poverty and not the fact that the president singled out a black congressman representing a predominantly black district in a predominantly black city. If they break ranks from the president, Republican officials risk alienating the Trump base in their primary election. Republicans have the choice of tarring themselves with the racist brush in the eyes of moderates and minorities or looking like a squish to the Republican base.

Maybe Donald Trump’s defenders are right. Maybe he isn’t a bigot and only has a bad habit of making clumsy statements (although being a straight talker was supposed to be one of his big advantages over other politicians). On the other hand, when Trump keeps stepping into the same steaming pile of excrement over and over, it lends credence to the theory that he is saying exactly what he means.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, maybe it’s a duck.

  
Originally published on The Resurgent

Advice to Trump: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

President Trump was once again engaging in Twitter warfare this morning with a pair of tweets attacking MSNBC hosts “Morning Joe” Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. The tweets were apparently a response to the pair’s insults and criticism of Trump on their show.

“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” reads the first tweet followed by the second.

For Trump and the Republicans who are backing the president on this Twitter tirade, I offer the advice that my parents gave me as a child: Two wrongs don’t make a right.

There are many of us on the right who would like to get behind the president. The appointment of Neil Gorsuch and the fine members of his cabinet show that he has potential. The problem is that whenever the president starts to seem like someone I could support, he reverts to his unofficial role as a Twitter troll and his supporters start justifying his behavior by pointing to the poor behavior of people on the left from Barack Obama to Hillary to Maxine Waters or whoever.

I do not want another president in the divisive mold of Obama. I want a president who upholds my values and principles. Among those values are the idea that the president should be more civil and dignified than liberal talk show hosts. I want a president who can rise above the fray and champion civil discourse rather than responding in kind. The best-case scenario would be a president in the mold of Ronald Reagan, a stalwart conservative who could disarm opponents with his quick wit.

If the advice of my mom and dad isn’t sufficient for the president and his backers, there is also the Biblical admonition to “not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing” (1 Peter 3:9).

This is also practical political advice for the president. It’s the job of pundits like “Morning Joe” and Mika to talk politics and criticize politicians. The president’s job is to lead the country and the federal government, not to engage in tit-for-tat with his many critics.

When pundits do it, it can be entertaining for their audience. When the president does it on Twitter with the whole world as an audience, he seems unhinged. It’s hard for many people outside of his base to get behind a president whose internet musings seem somewhat, well, creepy.

While Trump’s base may find his antics and insults amusing, many conservatives view it as sinking to the level of our ideological opponents. Those who defend his behavior are forced to engage in a double standard that minimizes the poor behavior of those on the left. Conservatives, many of whom claim to be Christian, forgo objective standards of right and wrong and excuse the president because Obama or Hillary did it too. In fact, many of our elected leaders, who, as public servants, should be held to a higher standard, behave regularly in ways that would earn my kids a swift spanking.

What is certain is that the Republican Party, filled with Christian conservatives or not, has lost the moral high ground. Poor behavior on the part of the left does not excuse poor behavior on the part of the president. When the president behaves poorly, he should be called out by the members of his own party.

If President Trump insists on engaging in a race to the bottom with the liberal left, it will be country as a whole that loses.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Trump Train derailment is argument against outsider candidates

Donald Trump had a bad week last week. When we look back after the election, it may be that the last week of September will be the week that decided the campaign. What can be said for certain is that last week was a case study in why candidates without political experience are not a good bet for an important race.

The disastrous week began on Monday with the first presidential debate. Trump started strong and then veered off course. During the debate, he invited China to invade North Korea and suggested that Iran could help rein in the Kim Jong Un, said that not paying taxes made him “smart,” and was rattled by Hillary Clinton’s ambush with the story of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, now famous for being called “Miss Piggy” and Miss Housekeeping” by Donald Trump. At one point, the NRA-endorsed Trump even agreed with Hillary Clinton on gun control.

On Tuesday, the blowback from the debate began. Trump and his surrogates began attacking moderator Lester Holt even though Trump had complimented Holt immediately after the debate. The Alicia Machado story, previously unseen, gained ground in the wake of Trump’s extremely defensive reaction. Trump did not deny the accusations.

On Wednesday, the Daily Dot reported that the snap polls after the debate that Trump had touted as showing him the winner were manipulated by Trump supporters. Pro-Trump groups on Reddit and 4Chan spammed about 70 online polls. Trump supporters were given instructions on how to cast multiple votes in order to skew polls. A more experienced candidate would have known that online polling is not scientific or reliable.

On Thursday, Newsweek broke the story that Donald Trump’s company had violated the US embargo on Cuba. In 1998, Trump Hotels illegally spent $68,000 on a business trip to Cuba. At the time, doing business with Cuba was illegal for Americans with very few exceptions. Building hotels was not one of them.

A few months later, as Trump was considering a run for president on the Reform Party ticket, he told voters, “As you know—and the people in this room know better than anyone—putting money and investing money in Cuba right now doesn’t go to the people of Cuba. It goes to Fidel Castro. He’s a murderer. He’s a killer. He’s a bad guy in every respect, and, frankly, the embargo must stand if for no other reason than, if it does stand, he will come down.”

The same day, the Washington Post broke the story that the Trump Foundation had never obtained the proper legal certification in New York to solicit money as a charity. Trump has reportedly contributed very little money to his own charity, instead relying on outside donations. The Trump Foundation may have to return third party funds since it was not legally able to request donations.

Early Friday morning, while most Americans were sleeping, Donald Trump was awake and tweeting about Alicia Machado. The series of tweets posted between 2:20 and 4:30 a.m. included one alleging that Machado appeared in a sex tape, apparently a reference to a scene from a reality TV show.

Several hours after Trump’s tweets, the news that Donald Trump himself had appeared in a Playboy softcore porno set the internet on fire. “Before you go ‘eewwwww’ at the notion of Trump and porn in the same sentence,” said the New York Daily News, “he poured [champagne] over a Playboy logo during a benign segment of a 2000 video of a national Playboy Playmate tour that featured a stop in New York.” Trump remained fully clothed.

On Saturday, the New York Times published Trump’s 1995 tax returns which showed a $916 million loss from the mismanagement of his Atlantic City casinos and his purchases of the Eastern shuttle airline and the Plaza Hotel in New York. Tax experts said that the loss could have been used to avoid paying taxes for 18 years. Trump had previously refused to release his tax returns.

On Sunday, apparently deciding that his campaign had suffered enough for one week, Trump rested.

The lesson for Republicans in Trump’s rough week is that it all could have been avoided. Donald Trump was the only candidate who had never mounted a campaign. For the most part, the other candidates had all mounted and won successful campaigns for office. They knew how to debate. They knew how to answer policy questions and not be baited. Their backgrounds were thoroughly vetted by both Republicans and opposition researchers.

Trump was the only candidate whose past had never been vetted for skeletons in the closet. In spite of his obviously checkered past and shaky conservative credentials, the extent of his corruption and incompetence were not known throughout the primary. Since he accepted the Republican nomination, one scandal after another has broken, all damaging his campaign further.

Trump is undoubtedly the only candidate whose ego and temperament would not let him follow the directions of his advisors. No other candidate would have refused to practice for the debate and ignored the tips offered by his strategists. Trump is the only candidate who would be posting angry tweets in the wee hours of the morning.

Trump is probably the only Republican who could lose to Hillary Clinton.

In 2016, Republican voters considered political experience to be a negative. This outlook begat Donald Trump. After this years’ experience with Trump, it seems likely that a dependable, experienced nominee would be a better choice.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Why isn't Trump attacking Hillary?

This week was perhaps the most damaging week of Hillary Clinton’s career. FBI Director James Comey’s decision to recommend that she not be charged for mishandling classified information was overshadowed by the facts that he laid out. Comey called her “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information and judged that her account, as well as email accounts that she was in contact with, were likely compromised by “hostile actors” that could threaten the security of the United States. How has Trump responded to the FBI assault on the basic competence of his opponent? He spent several days embroiled in a controversy over an allegedly anti-Semitic tweet and then came out of in favor of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi. Why isn’t Trump attacking Hillary?

To be sure, Donald Trump did accuse Clinton of offering a “bribe” to Attorney-General Loretta Lynch by floating the possibility that Lynch might keep her job in a Clinton Administration. The Washington Post noted that Clinton has never publicly stated that Lynch might be welcome in her White House, but that the New York Times had attributed the idea to Democrats close to Clinton.

NBC News also reported that Trump had criticized Director Comey’s decision at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 5, the day of the FBI announcement. Trump used his pet name for Clinton, “Crooked Hillary,” and told the audience, “You didn't have to be careless. You didn't even have to really know that what you were doing was wrong, and you're guilty. The laws are very explicit. Stupidity is not a reason that you're going to be innocent, OK? It's not a reason.”

At that point, Trump seemed to veer off message. He became distracted by a controversy about a Trump campaign tweet that featured a six-pointed star that some associated with a Star of David. The tweet featured Hillary Clinton in front of a pile of cash and carried the logo, “History made: Most corrupt candidate ever.” The phrase, “most corrupt candidate ever” was inside a six pointed star that has been variously described as a “Star of David” and a “sheriff’s star.” CNN notes that the meme originally appeared “on an anti-Semitic, white supremacist message board.”

Trump said in a tweet that his campaign should not have removed the controversial meme and defended the star on Wednesday, July 6. CNN commented, “Trump's comments on Wednesday revived a controversy that appeared to be quickly fading under the weight of the news that Hillary Clinton's private emails included classified information, and that she will not face charges. On a day when Clinton's controversies dominated the airwaves, Trump resurrected his own.”

By Wednesday night, Trump was totally off message. Rather than spending time attacking Clinton’s judgement, Trump told a North Carolina crowd that Saddam Hussein was a great anti-terrorist.

“He was a bad guy -- really bad guy. But you know what? He did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. Over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism,” Trump said.CNN points out that Trump supported the Iraq War in 2003.

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a state supporter of terrorism. The “9/11 Commission Report” stated that “Baghdad actively sponsored terrorist groups” and “Saddam used foreign terrorist groups as an instrument of foreign policy.”

Donald Trump not only is wrong about history, his comments further focused attention on himself and distracted attention from Hillary Clinton’s disastrous week. This is not the first time that Trump has gone easy on Clinton.

On June 2, Clinton sharply mocked Donald Trump on foreign policy. “Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they are dangerously incoherent,” she said in Reuters. “They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.” She went on to speculate that Trump might start a nuclear war if elected to the White House simply because “somebody got under his very thin skin.”

One might expect a broadside against the Secretary of State who presided over the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and the rise of ISIS, the bungling of the Arab Spring and the Iranian uprising, the implosion of Syria, the failed Russian reset, and, of course, the debacle at Benghazi. One would be wrong.

Rather than challenging Hillary on the substance of her speech or attacking her own record, Trump responded with tweets as Hillary predicted he would do during her speech. The first gave a general challenge to Clinton’s credibility while the second criticized her poise.

“Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!” Trump tweeted. “Reading poorly from the teleprompter [sic]! She doesn't even look presidential!”

In fact, Trump’s attacks on Hillary seem very restrained. Compare his criticism of Clinton to his concerted attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge assigned to his Trump University fraud case. Trump spent weeks and devoted large amounts of air time to attacking Judge Curiel’s Mexican heritage just after becoming the presumptive Republican nominee. The time might have been better spent unifying the Republican Party or launching attacks on Hillary Clinton, who had yet to secure her own nomination.

The Wall Street Journal reported that, after clinching the Democratic nomination, Clinton ran 20,000 ads to get her message out to potential voters. For the same period, Trump ran none. Zero. Not a single commercial. This total shutout in advertising is almost certainly what allows Hillary to maintain a lead over Trump in spite of her seriously damaged campaign.

While Trump may be attacking Hillary at his campaign rallies, his criticisms are overshadowed by his own outlandish and rambling comments. Time and time again, Trump’s antics have distracted the news cycle from Hillary’s troubles. Whatever his strategy or motive, his anti-Hillary message is not getting out to voters. Trump is destroying his own campaign.

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