How low can Trump go? There’s no bottom
Donald Trump began his campaign for the presidency in 2015 appealing to the base instincts of many of his supporters, making his famous comment about Mexicans being rapists, drug dealers and some, he supposed, “good people.” That occurred the day he declared he would run for president, launching a campaign that would focus on restricting immigration, building a border fence and appealing to a white working class that fears it is being left behind in an increasingly diverse America.
Once in office, Trump has governed for his base, ignoring the rest of the country. Strikingly, after a 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., Trump did not unequivocally condemn actions that led to the death of one woman. Instead, he said: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.”
A day later, Trump issued a stronger condemnation, but quickly backtracked with unscripted remarks that more closely expressed his true emotions. Those are the remarks that continue to haunt him: “… not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.
Now, with a series of tweets over the weekend against four members of Congress, the president has made it clear who he believes can be a real American.
Targeting Democratic U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, Trump told these four women of color on Sunday that they should go back to where they came from. Ironically, only one of the four is an immigrant — and Rep. Omar has been a U.S. citizen longer than Trump’s wife, Melania.
First Trump tweeted, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt
and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly …
“… and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how …
“… it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
It is in that last tweet that Trump’s motivation became clear. He was piling on a feud between House Speaker Pelosi and the four freshman members of Congress — progressive Democrats who want change now. Pelosi remains cautious and centrist in her leadership, while also becoming clearly annoyed with members she views as upstarts.
Ironically, by attacking the four, Trump — for the moment, anyway — has united Democrats.
He also, as is his habit, has not backed down, keeping on the attack despite a backlash of criticism — with not nearly enough coming from elected GOP officials, to their shame. Continuing on his Twitter rants, Trump accused the women of “spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party.”
On Tuesday, he encouraged them to leave if they didn’t love America, again ignoring that this is their country. They are home, in a place where criticism of the government, the president and the actions of our leaders are central to our heritage. The nation, after all, was founded in the most brutal sort of government criticism — armed revolution.
Diversity, along with the strength that comes from joining together, also is part of that common heritage. The 2020 election will help make clear what allegiance the U.S. citizens of today have to that legacy, to the idea that the United States is fused by common ideals rather than ethnicity or religion.
We are one nation, yes. Whether we remain indivisible, with the ideals of liberty and justice for all, remains to be seen.