On Monday, Donald Trump will slip away from his goat farm—and $300,000 a person golf club—for a brief visit to the place he supposedly works. Trump’s presence in Washington is so he can make his squiggle on a executive order concerning trade practices between the US and China. However, it’s likely he will be asked about another topic.
He will likely be unable to escape questions and criticism for his initial response to the Saturday’s violence, for which he blamed bigotry on “many sides.”
That does seem likely—though Trump walked out of the room, giving a deliberate snub to reporters who dared ask him to condemn racists the last time he was in front of a camera. Since then, the White House has issued a statement that expanded Trump’s “on many sides” statement to cover white nationalists, but ...
The White House did not attach a name to the statement. Usually, a statement would be signed by the press secretary or another staffer; not putting a name to one eliminates an individual’s responsibility for its truthfulness and often undercuts its significance.
Meanwhile, homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert doubled down on blaming the people who stood up to Nazis, Sessions defended Trump’s statement, and Mike Pence not only failed to break with Trump’s “many sides” statement but went after the media for daring to suggest that Trump needed to specifically go after white nationalists. At this point, even if Trump does go so far as to actually admit that Nazis are bad … violent white supremacists have already gotten the message. And their interpretation has been reinforced by Trump’s continued silence.
The President's vagueness on white supremacists stood in stark contrast to the bluntness, bombast and outspokenness Trump has built his career on. The President for decades has slammed his opponents -- by name -- on Twitter and in the media, never missing an opportunity to castigate a person or group that he thinks has slighted him. And he campaigned as a businessman-turned-politician who promised to be blunt when it came to terrorism.
Things that Trump will condemn: Gold Star families, prisoners of war, the free press, anyone who acts on their conscious. Things he won’t condemn: Vladimir Putin, violence, Nazis.