In exchange with reporter, Donald Trump digs himself an even deeper white supremacist hole

| 12:49 pm EDT August 14, 2017
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Forty-eight hours after a deadly Nazi and white supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Donald Trump is still trying to figure out how to distance himself from Nazis and white supremacists without losing their votes. His remarks have been belated, tepid, and false equivocating, leaving the American mainstream outraged. Today Trump returned to Washington DC and, in an exchange with a reporter, managed to dig an even deeper hole.

Reporter Brian J. Karem, who was last seen telling off Sarah Huckabee Sanders to her face during a press conference after she attacked the media, posted the following today: “POTUS lands on South Lawn and waves as I ask him if he will denounce White Supremacists” (link). Then an hour later he added “POTUS doesn’t mind calling the press the enemy [of] the people. Today I asked him directly and he would NOT call white supremacists the enemy” (link). So there we have it: despite the mounting backlash, Trump is still afraid to condemn white supremacists and Nazis.

Trump is reportedly about to give a prepared speech at the White House in which he will supposedly denounce Nazis and white supremacists by name. But even if he does take that belated step, it will come as too little too late for those who have watched him spend the past two days cowering in fear at the prospect of losing his racist base.

Over the weekend I suggested that the Charlottesville attack was shaping up to be Donald Trump’s Katrina due to his botched and delayed response at a time when leadership was immediately needed in a crisis. Trump has already seen his support go from around 45% to around 35% over the past six months, meaning he’s been steadily losing people who are outside his 15% core base. This debacle will cause him to lose more of them. And if he does finally denounce white supremacists today, he may finally lose some of his core base as well.