Perhaps President Trump holds no racial animus in his heart, but his Sunday morning tweetstorm did nothing to assuage concerns that his biggest enemy in 2020 will be his own ignorance and self-indulgent fulminating.
….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
It is one thing to point toward the repeated anti-Semitic, terrorist sympathizing, and generally illiberal remarks of the Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, as evidence that assimilation in our immigration still matters. It is entirely another to insinuate that Omar, an American citizen and sitting United States congresswoman, ought to be sent back to a country she hasn’t resided in for nearly an entire lifetime. And it goes without saying that if by “congresswomen” Trump was referring to the three other American-born congresswomen who had recently come under fire from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it’s a sign of malignant intent.
Trump’s tweets were a moral failure. But even more glaring was their strategic stupidity.
House Democrats, spearheaded by one of the cleverest political actors in a generation, Pelosi, had already begun a scorched earth campaign against socialist leader Ocasio-Cortez, and her “Squad” of Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Omar. Whereas Trump is a polarizing enough figure to turn issues within his own party into 50-50 matters, Pelosi has galvanized widespread support within the Democratic caucus, and by holding her fire until Ocasio-Cortez quite literally impugned Pelosi with racist motivations, the speaker’s offensive proved even more potent.
But for another, Trump needs to face the uncomfortable fact that outside of his base and broader cultural issues, his strengths lie in his policy, not his persona.
Trump’s personal approval ratings will almost certainly never be net-positive, but by every other metric, his presidency has benefited more Americans than its harmed. Not only has Trump’s foreign policy agenda surpassed — admittedly bleak — expectations, but he is presiding over record-low unemployment, the longest bull market in American history, and real wage growth. And most importantly, Americans are feeling it.
Meanwhile, he had the Democrats behaving like idiots and pointing their guns at one another. All he had to do was shut up and point at Omar mocking Jews and Americans scared of al Qaeda, or Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff saying the quiet part out loud and admitting the Green New Deal was nothing but a red herring for socialism, or AOC calling Pelosi a racist. The moment Trump inserted himself into the war with his racially charged tweet, he turned an easy win into a loss.
Mr. President, if you’re reading this, for the love of God, please stop tweeting. It’s bad for your party, and it’s worse for the American people.
