Counting his enemies

Well, so much for that ever so brief foray by Donald Trump as the commander in chief and back to Trump the perpetual campaigner, Trump the ranter. And now Trump the guy who has saved whatever bile he has left over from his anti-media tirades to focus on tearing down members of his own party.

Yes, it was quite a night Tuesday in Phoenix. Trump took more than 16 minutes of what turned out to be a 72-minute tirade just to re-litigate his post-Charlottesville debacle. So much for Monday night’s effort to reach across the great national divide by saying, “We cannot remain a force for peace in the world if we are not at peace with each other.”

Less than 24 hours later he was once again calling protesters at his rallies “thugs” and condemning the news media as “truly dishonest people” who “don’t report the facts” and “sick people” who were the ones really to blame for “fomenting divisions” in the country.

It is getting to be a tired — and bankrupt — mantra.

But Trump’s enemies list is now growing well beyond the media and Tuesday he focused on Arizona’s two Republican senators — not by name, he noted, patting himself on the back for being “very presidential” in that regard.

One, of course, was John McCain, now fighting brain cancer, referenced repeatedly as the “one vote” that killed Obamacare repeal. Of Jeff Flake, who now faces a GOP primary opponent thanks to Trump, he said “nobody knows who the hell he is.”

He followed up on Twitter yesterday morning, lest there be any mistake, writing “I love the Great State of Arizona. Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!”

So there you have it. This presidency that lurches from day to day, that invites divisions not simply within the country but within his own party, that sows an unwarranted distrust of the media and of nearly every institution on which the country relies.

Presidencies are not built on isolation, and that’s where this one is going.