A tale of two Donalds
America heard from the real Donald Trump Monday, two long, wrenching days after a white supremacist among hundreds who marched in Virginia stole the life of one counter-demonstrator with his speeding car and injured a score of others. Speaking with force and passion was Donald Trump, victim, believing himself persecuted by those who oppose him — never mind the blood still drying in Charlottesville’s streets or the appalling inadequacy of his response to the mayhem and the New World Nazis who prompted it.
His first target was Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals, one of a handful of African Americans to lead a Fortune 500 company.
After Trump muttered Saturday that “many sides” were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Frazier resigned from a White House advisory board — as outraged as any decent American over Trump’s refusal to decry its odious cause. Cue Twitter, at not even 9 a.m.: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The true Trump could not let a rebuke from this powerful, accomplished man stand without a punch back. (Funny enough, he said nothing when white CEOs Elon Musk and Bob Iger quit a presidential advisory panel over U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.)
Another Donald Trump gritted his teeth and strode before the TV cameras at the White House midday Monday, attempting a second go at a response to Saturday’s violence. This time, with help of a teleprompter, the President grasped his way to the right platitudes.
Two days too late, Trump read the words “racism is evil” and identified among its practitioners “neo-Nazis, the KKK and white supremacists” such as those whose torch-filled march in support of Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue had precipitated the violence.
His script continued: “Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.” The man speaking those very welcome words was not the real Donald Trump.
The real Donald Trump resurged Monday evening — whining, tweeting victim of still more forces in the conspiracy against him.
Aaaand right back to “.@Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!”
And then the truth about his practiced, soothing words, clearly not heartfelt: “Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied . . . truly bad people!”
So the noontime Donald Trump was a character performing for the cameras after all — not to be confused with the real Donald Trump.
The real Donald Trump immediately launches his Twitter app in a lather of fury against individuals he perceives to diminish his rule, be it North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, MSNBC’s Joe and Mika or one of the top black executives in America.
The real Donald Trump doesn’t wait for 48 hours to find the correct words; he knows innately what to do and say.
The other one plays President on TV.