Stunned, despondent and numb

The Times reported on the bleak mood among Trump’s people yesterday. (Sometimes urls are oddly…striking. “trump-charlottesville-military-jews-ceos.html” hmmmm yeah.) There’s a good deal of interesting information.

President Trump found himself increasingly isolated in a racial crisis of his own making on Wednesday, abandoned by the nation’s top business executives, contradicted by military leaders and shunned by Republicans outraged by his defense of white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, Va.

The breach with the business community was the most striking. Titans of American industry and finance revolted against a man they had seen as one of their own, concluding Wednesday morning they could no longer serve on two of Mr. Trump’s advisory panels.

They’re good with the wholly “business can do no wrong” approach, hence the willingness to work with the malevolent incompetent blowhard, but when it becomes outright pro-KKK racism it’s a little too much.

Five armed services chiefs — of the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines and the National Guard Bureau — posted statements on social media condemning neo-Nazis and racism in uncompromising terms. They did not mention Mr. Trump by name, but their messages were a highly unusual counter to the commander in chief.

So maybe a pro-Trump military coup is a little less likely.

In a tweet on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump urged supporters to “join me” at a campaign rally scheduled for Aug. 22 in Phoenix. But the Phoenix mayor, Greg Stanton, said in his own tweet that he was “disappointed” that the president would hold a political event “as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville.” He urged Mr. Trump to delay the visit.

And that’s not all he said.

“If President Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a pardon for former sheriff Joe Arpaio…” Oh dear god.

Even more disgustingly, Trump is feeling great. He really told those New York elitist jews a thing or two.

The president’s top advisers described themselves as stunned, despondent and numb. Several said they were unable to see how Mr. Trump’s presidency would recover, and others expressed doubts about his capacity to do the job.

In contrast, the president told close aides that he felt liberated by his news conference. Aides said he seemed to bask afterward in his remarks, and viewed them as the latest retort to the political establishment that he sees as trying to tame his impulses.

Mr. Trump’s venting on Tuesday came despite pleas from his staff, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Instead of taking their advice to stop talking about the protest, the president eagerly unburdened himself of what he viewed as political correctness in favor of a take-no-prisoners attack on the “alt-left.”

Yeah, that pesky “political correctness” that thinks having armed racists marching through cities is not the best thing ever.

But hey, Steve Bannon is happy.

One aide who felt energized by the president’s actions was the embattled White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who shares Mr. Trump’s anger at the efforts of local governments to remove monuments honoring prominent Confederate figures like Robert E. Lee. The proposed removal of a Lee statue from a public park in Charlottesville spurred the demonstrations last weekend.

Mr. Bannon, whose future in the White House remains uncertain, has been encouraging Mr. Trump to remain defiant.

Defend the Confederacy! Put the white sheet on again!

7 Responses to “Stunned, despondent and numb”