One year on, Trump still fuels racial divide

WASHINGTON » There has been no reset, no moment of national healing.

One year after blaming “both sides” for violent clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters, President Donald Trump still flirts with racially tinged rhetoric — and feels little blowback from Republican leaders or GOP voters when he does. Black leaders and Democrats argue Trump’s tone and actions on race have gotten even worse in the months since the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The result is a starkly segregated political landscape where there is scant punishment for racially loaded rhetoric and, at times, clear reward.

Democrats are pinning their hopes of flipping control of Congress on mobilizing liberals and minorities, particularly black voters. And Republicans’ best chance of holdingoffaDemocratic wave is strong turnout among the conservative white voters who helped sweep Trump into office and often cheer his willingness to dive into hot-button issues with racial overtones.

Trump has told associates that he believes at least one of those issues — his criticism of black NFL players who kneel during the national anthem — is a political winner because it ener- gizes his white base. He revived the matter on Friday, tweeting that the players are expressing outrage “at something that most of them are unable to define.” Players have said they are protesting police killings of black men, social injustice and racism.

Trump’s rise to power can be traced through a series of statements that invoke racial stereotypes. In 1989, he called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, five black andHispanic teenagers accused of raping and beating awhitewoman; they were later exonerated through DNA evidence, but Trump has suggested he still believes they’re guilty. For years, Trump promoted the lie that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Over the past year, from his perch in the White House, he’s repeatedly questioned the intelligence of prominent black figures, including Rep. Maxine Waters, DCalif., basketball star LeBron James and CNNanchorDon Lemon, whom he called “the dumbestman on television.”

“One of the oldest strategies is to call into question the intellect of African-Americans,” said Mitch Landrieu, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans. “It’s just sad and awful.”

NAACP PresidentDerrick Johnson said the black community has “never seen this level of tone deafness or this total disregard” fromamodern American president.

Even against that back- drop, Trump’s response to Charlottesville stood out.

In his initial remarks about the violent clashes that killed counterprotester Heather Heyer, the president said there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Two days later, reading carefully from a written statement, he condemned the KKK, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Yet in an unscripted moment the next day, he again said there was “blame on both sides.”

TrumprevisitedtheCharlottesville controversy on Saturday, tweeting that the clashes “resulted in senseless death and division” and he condemns “all types of racism and acts of violence.” He ended his tweet by wishing “Peace to ALL Americans!”

Charlottesville prompted some Republican leaders to condemn him. Some business leaders abandoned White House advisory committees, and some West Wing aides let it be known that they contemplated quitting.

But, ultimately, the outrage from those corners subsided. Washington moved on. GOP leaderswho harshly criticized the president at the time still largely backhis agenda, well aware thatpolling shows there was no sustained damage to Trump’s popularity among the party’s voters after Charlottesville.

“If it did anything, it reinforced opinions,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “The intensity of opinions changed, both supportive and against. It confirmed what people thought about Trump. It didn’t change their views.”