In some rather awkward wording, the Washington Post writes that the Pittsburgh slaughter of 11 Jewish worshipers "has been an unwelcome interruption" of Trump's midterm rabble-rousing. Less awkward but more inaccurate is the Post's lede — that "Trump and his top aides have struggled to balance their scorched-earth campaign strategy with calls for national unity following" the massacre.
Has Trump really "struggled" with calling for national unity? To say he has relished cleaving this country into irreconcilable warring camps would be more accurate. And that's precisely what presidential historian Michael Beschloss has said: "So deep in Donald Trump’s manner of leadership is dividing in order to conquer. Even at a time of national crisis like this, you see it very much on display…. He has shown himself completely incapable of healing our wounds."
That's because Trump is the prince of grievances — his own. Narcissistic sociopaths aren't known for their warm, caring, bedside manners, the absence of which Trump demonstrates almost daily by denouncing not hate in America, but Democrats and, even more so, the press. From late last night:
CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the “Media is the Enemy of the People.” Wrong! I said that the “Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,” a very big difference. When you give out false information - not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2018
Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People - but dishonest reporters use only the word “Media.” The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2018
The choicest comeback I've seen to Trump's anti-press drivel comes from one of his former own, David Lapan, who worked as the press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security under John Kelly (now WH chief of staff, for reasons unknown). Wrote Lapan on Twitter: "Over 30+ years as a U.S. Marine, I defended our country against its true enemies. In 20+ years as a USMC, Pentagon and DHS spokesman, I dealt w/ the news media nearly every day. I know quite a bit about the press and know this — they are NOT the enemy of the American people."
I mention Lapan largely because he's such an odd duck. That is to say, rabidly anti-Trump conservative Michael Gerson asks this, this morning, of his former fellow Republicans: "How can [you] accept political leadership that expands the acceptable range of hatred? How can [you] condemn the fire in our public life when they follow a political pyromaniac?"
Gerson asks these questions in specific reference to those Republicans who "regard themselves as opponents of prejudice and especially as philo-Semites," and yet stay at Trump's vastly bigoted side. But Gerson's questions apply to all Republicans at all times, in all political situations.