Yes, Donald Trump is now trying to get himself ousted
There were a few instances during the course of the campaign, and more frequent instances since he’s taken office, when Donald Trump said or did something so self defeating that it forced us all to stop and ask if perhaps he was – consciously or subconsciously – trying to get himself ousted. But after what we all had to watch unfold today, this time around it’s not a even a question.
Sure, Donald Trump is falling apart from a psychological and cognitive standpoint by the day. What we heard today were the words of a truly demented man who is obviously not mentally competent. But this was also something else. As we’ve watched Trump go back and forth about how he wanted to handle the Charlottesville situation over the past several days, we’ve seen that there was a (disturbing, chilling, evil) political logic behind Trump’s decision making process.
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At first, Trump tried to timidly split the difference in order to get the American mainstream off his back while also hoping not to offend his white supremacist base. Then he realized it wasn’t working from a political standpoint, and he reluctantly took the advice of his staff by delivering his semi-human speech on Monday. But then something happened. Somewhere between last night and this morning, he said to himself “Screw it, I’m done with all of this” and he began retweeting one piece of racist and violent garbage after another. Then came this afternoon.
Donald Trump was supposed to be giving a speech today about infrastructure. But instead he decided to take questions from reporters, knowing that every question would be about Charlottesville and white supremacists. And he did it with the intention of giving a pro-white supremacist answer to every question. After the political calculations he’s clearly been tuned into over the past four days, he knew that he was spitefully setting what’s left of his presidency on fire today with those questions and answers.
So who knows what happens now. There has never been a moment in U.S. history in which a sitting president stood up and purposely all but said “Please remove me now!” The cowards leading his own Republican Party have up to now shown no willingness to go there. But Trump wants out, and he doesn’t want to have to resign, he can whine on his way out the door. He’s trying to screw up so badly that his own party has to remove him. So now we watch history unfold in real time.
