White House struggles to pick up and move forward
Trump team fears its ambitious agenda just got harder
Some of President Trump’s most ardent supporters are worried that his impromptu comments on the racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Va., will imperil his economic and policy agenda.
Two prominent supporters who have worked with the Trump team — speaking on condition of anonymity so they would not antagonize the president — said they worry the self-inflicted Charlottesville controversy will make it more difficult for the White House to get a tax overhaul, a health care plan, infrastructure improvements or anything else crucial to the president’s agenda out of Congress.
Trump’s aides did not expect the president to take questions at an event at Trump Tower on Tuesday that was to tout infrastructure plans, but he wound up saying left-wing protesters were just as responsible for the violence in Virginia as white supremacists.
Lawmakers, including congressional Republicans who are essential to passing Trump’s economic agenda, pointed out that white supremacist groups came armed with guns, torches and Nazi flags, chanting racist and anti-Jewish slogans. One suspected nationalist is charged with murder after his car rammed into a crowd, killing resident Heather Heyer.
Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, expressed dismay over the president’s off-thecuff comments.
Wednesday, the White House tried to change the conversation to jobs and the economy, and it said Trump would spend Friday at Camp David with his national security team to discuss another crisis: the threat from North Korea. The Trump team announced that the president would host a political rally Tuesday in Phoenix.
The White House scrambled Tuesday night to provide talking points for talk show surrogates and other Republicans defending Trump’s remarks. “The president was entirely correct — both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility,” one of the points read.
Though they defended the substance of the president’s comments, the two Trump supporters said he shouldn’t have brought up such volatile issues, especially at an event devoted to infrastructure. They said it gave his enemies, including those in the news media, a fresh excuse to attack.
Trump’s relations with Republicans were already tense, especially after the GOP-run Congress failed to agree on a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.