Donald Trump promised on Friday that “we're going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday." Monday rolled around and Trump first issued a statement trying to look presidential by condemning white supremacist violence in tepid terms, then made a big production of signing a memorandum on China and intellectual property … but did not hold a press conference. As Trump posed for pictures after signing the document, a reporter shouted out a question, and that’s where things got really weird.
“Mr. President, can you explain why you did not condemn those hate groups by name over the weekend?”
“They’ve been condemned. They have been condemned.”
“And why are you not having a press conference today? You said on Friday that you’d have a press conference.”
“We had a press conference. We just had a press conference.”
“Can we ask you some more questions?”
“It doesn’t bother me at all but I like real news, not fake news. You’re fake news. Thank you everybody.”
Note the passive voice: “They’ve been condemned.” Trump got backed into a corner and finally condemned the groups himself Monday, but you can see there just how little he wanted to do that. Not to mention that the question was why he didn’t do it over the weekend.
And note also the barefaced lie: “We just had a press conference.” A non-answer to a single question that you didn’t invite reporters to ask is not actually a press conference.
Then, of course, the “fake news” attack to distract from the refusal to answer a question that might again force him to condemn his allies and from the lie. What all of it adds up to is that Trump really, really does not want to talk about white supremacist violence. This is what being caught between a rock and a hard place looks like for the current president of the United States: if he doesn’t say enough bad things about white supremacist violence, he’ll draw widespread criticism, including from his own party. But if he does say bad things about white supremacist violence, he’ll be alienating a substantial part of his remaining base.