It’s been almost a week since the violence in Charlottesville, and we are still parsing the meta-story about what our president said in its aftermath and then expanded upon a few days later and then doubled back around to re-re-explain on Tuesday, just so people wouldn’t get the wrong idea about his true thoughts on the matter.
It’s been a revealing moment in a bunch of ways. Revealing of parts of the media, for instance, who criticized Trump for not condemning white supremacists by name on Saturday, but then criticized Republicans who did explicitly condemn the bad guys as just “posturing.”
It was revealing of the media in another way: The story about a giant white supremacist march—the likes of which we haven’t seen in America in a while—which turned deadly quickly became a story about Donald Trump. Which is a very meta view. It’s as though the media can’t allow anything to take place anywhere without turning it into a story about our president. Mind you, this is partly Trump’s fault. But not entirely. And it’s a stultifying view of the world.
Maybe the most revealing thing over the weekend was the reaction of President Trump’s defenders to his initial condemnation of “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”
That was not good enough. It’s the American version of deploring the “cycle of violence” or the “root causes” of “fundamentalist extremism.” When conservatives hear people talk about the Middle East, or Islamist terrorism in that sort of “inclusive” language, it drives them nuts. With good reason. Not only was this not good enough, it wasn’t a close call, either.
And yet the president’s defenders ran off the porch to his side just the same. “What about Black Lives Matter?” “What about the media?” “What about antifa?” “What about left-wing violence?” It was Whataboutnacht all weekend long.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has had a lot to say about “antifa” and the “black bloc.” And left-wing violence. And, as it happens, Black Lives Matter, which is pretty terrible. How terrible are they? So bad that Bill Clinton told them, “you are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter. Tell the truth.” If Clinton said that right in the face of a bunch of BLM protestors, you might expect at least that much from Trump and the white supremacists. But no.
What surprised me most was what I didn’t see from Trump supporters: I didn’t see people who like Trump saying, “Yeah. That’s not good enough. The president has got to do better.” You see, you can admit that and still admire and support Trump. No one comes and pulls your Trump card if you think the president did something poorly.
But so far as I can tell, many Trump supporters think he’s never made a mistake, or done something they disapprove of. Claiming George W. Bush committed treason? Just smart strategic thinking. The Access Hollywood tape? Every guy talks like that. Claiming his inaugural crowd was bigger than Obama’s? It probably was; check the time stamps on the pictures. Dictating Trump Jr.’s response to the Russians? Any parent would do that. Firing Jim Comey? The guy’s a hack. Hiring Scaramucci? The country needs a straight-talking non-political guy. Firing Scaramucci? Kelly will bring order and discipline to the White House.
There’s essentially nothing some Trump supporters are willing to criticize the man for. This is a new phenomenon for Republicans. Off the top of my head, I can think of three big fights George. W. Bush had with his base (not including the Iraq war): Harriet Miers, immigration reform, and claiming that Islam is a “religion of peace.” These were moments when people who counted themselves as supporters of the president, who had voted for him twice, stopped short and said, “Whoa. This is way wrong.”
You saw the same sort of friendly, internal dissent with other Republican presidents, too. But not Trump. You take the Trump Train all the way to the end of the line. Or else.
I wonder why that is. Three possibilities:
1) Trump is never wrong: No need to disagree when your guy is infallible.
2) The sunk cost fallacy: Having voted for a man they are sort of embarrassed by, Trump supporters are in the political equivalent of believing that they have to throw good money after bad in order to justify their investment.
3) Tribalism on steroids: The political environment is so much more polarized today than it was even in 2001 that people instinctively double-down on their own side just because the “other side” is criticizing them.
I don’t know which it is. It’s probably a different mix of the three for every Trump supporter. But I do know this: Despite what you’ve seen since Saturday, it is possible to be 100 percent, super-duper pro-Trump and still think he did badly on Charlottesville. And I know this because of Anthony Scaramucci.
You cannot be more pro-Trump than the Mooch. You know this. He loves the Trump, admires the Trump, supports the Trump agenda. And after Trump’s statement on Saturday about the “many sides” at fault in Charlottesville, this is what the Mooch said:
“I think he would have needed to be much harsher,” Scaramucci told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “Whether it’s domestic or international terrorism, with the moral authority of the presidency, you have to call that stuff out.” That’s all you have to say! Period, the end. Then you can pivot to talking about how it’s nice that the media is finally talking about political violence and how bad left-wing political violence is just as bad (or worse). You can go back to arguing in favor of Trump’s agenda on immigration and deregulation and everything else. You don’t have to crucify Trump the way his enemies do. All you have to do is be willing to admit the plain truth, for just a second.
That’s what a healthy base of support—not a personality cult—would do.
To be honest, I’d feel a lot better about the prospects for Trump’s presidency if the rest of his supporters were as clear-eyed as Scaramucci.
