Combative Trump returns to form
In his attack on ‘alt-left,’ president does what he usually does — punches back
WASHINGTON Combative, loud and defensive, President Trump stood in the lobby of his 58-story office tower Tuesday and condemned counterprotesters who clashed with white nationalists toting torches and assault weapons at a rally in a Virginia college town over the weekend.
Trump did what he often does when challenged: He punched back — mostly against the news media but also the “alt-left” and other Charlottesville counterprotesters he called “troublemakers.” He complained that his supporters were being treated unfairly.
He drew comparisons between Confederate generals who took up arms against the United States in defense of the institution of slavery with founding fathers who owned slaves fourscore years before.
It was seven months and a rhetorical epoch away from his Inauguration Day calls to “rediscover our loyalty to each other” by replacing prejudice with patriotism.
After condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists Monday, Trump returned to the moral equivalency that brought so much condemnation of his remarks Saturday, when he said “many sides” had engaged in violence.
It was a display of full-frontal “what about-ism,” engaging in an argumentative style more common to Internet comment sections and Reddit sub-threads
“What about the alt-left? What about the fact they came charging? ... Do they have any problem? I think they do.”
than the American presidency.
“What about the alt-left?” Trump said. “What about the fact they came charging? That they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.”
Asked about Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — whose statue in Charlottesville the alt-right protesters had come to defend — Trump changed the subject to slave owners George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. “So, will George Washington now lose his status?” he asked. “Are we going to take down statues to George Washington?”
The president expressed confidence in Steve Bannon, the former executive of the alt-right website Breitbart News whose office is just a whisper away from the Oval Office: “I like Mr. Bannon. He’s a friend of mine. He is
not a racist, I can tell you that. He’s a good person.”
Trump condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but he said not everyone who came to protest in Charlottesville was a racist. “Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”
On Day 11 of his two-week “working vacation,” Trump came to the lobby of Trump Tower to talk about infrastructure. He had just signed a 3,400-word executive order to streamline federal permits and politely wrapped up prepared remarks. “So I want to thank everybody for being here. God bless you. God bless the United States,” he said. “If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.”
That’s when things got contentious.
Trump had anticipated questions on Charlottesville, pulling a copy of his remarks from Saturday out of his jacket pocket.
In doing so, he reverted to blaming both sides for the weekend clashes that left one woman dead and 19 injured. “Yes, I think there’s blame on both sides,” he said. “I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either.”
Walking away, Trump demonstrated another hallmark of his rhetoric, stopping to say he knew a lot about Charlottesville because he owns a business there.
“I own, actually, one of the largest wineries in the United States. It’s in Charlottesville,” he said. “I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that’s been very badly hurt.”