Donald Trump proved one thing in the Rose Garden Monday night. He doesn’t want to bring people together. He doesn’t want peace. He wants to divide and incite. He wants to roil and anger. And we can’t keep letting him put America through this turmoil.
Trump’s words and actions on Monday night will fan the flames of anger and incite more violence. This is not an accidental byproduct. It’s the goal.
We're inching toward civil war land. Trump is trying to divide us between liberal and conservative, between rural and urban, between white and black, and between those who want to end police abuse and those who want to end rioting and lawlessness.
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This is done to satisfy his authoritarian urges. And this is done because it’s sadly good politics for a candidate who is losing his re-election and wants to take a page out of the Richard Nixon playbook.
He doesn’t want to allow us to be both against police abuse and for law and order. Trump cannot survive in such a nuanced world. He can’t win if we get along. He only has a shot at re-election if we return to our tribal corners.
We cannot be casual observers here. He is putting people’s lives in jeopardy in order to manipulate us. This. Is. Wrong.
If you don’t believe he’s out to divide, consider the fact that Trump’s remarks made only passing reference to George Floyd (you know, the guy the police killed, sparking the protests?), and did nothing to assuage the protesters’ concerns about police abuse. Instead, he went out of his way to basically dare them to defy him, while giving his “law and order” base the equivalent of riot porn.
While cameras were on hand for his address, Trump had the police use flashbangs and tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from nearby Lafayette Park. This was abusive and immoral. What is more, it was done just so that he could stage a photo op in front of St. John’s Church (a move that outraged the bishop in charge of the church).
Trump did it to demonstrate strength in the wake of reports that he was cowering in the bunker of the White House on Friday night. He also did it to signal that he is a fighter for his white, evangelical base.
To accomplish this, Trump weaponized a historic church and the Holy Bible as a sort of prop. In what might be the most blatant attempts at pandering in memory, he never opened the book, never read from it, and never made any attempt to enter the church or to pray.
In short, he desecrated the very symbols of the faith in order to co-opt them for political purposes. And for what amounted to a publicity stunt, he also put the lives of protesters, police, and journalists at stake.
I suspect devout Christians will be morally repulsed by the imagery, while those who view Christianity as part of their cultural identity will applaud.
While real Christians worship a servant leader who turned the other cheek and sacrificed his life for the least among us, Trump prefers dominating them.
"You have to dominate or you'll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest and try people," Trump told governors during a call on Monday. "It's a movement, if you don't put it down it will get worse and worse," Trump said.
Trump’s church visit (and the damage that entailed) was about optics, but there was one potentially significant announcement in the Rose Garden.
During his remarks, Trump said he was recommending that governors deploy the National Guard, and that “if a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of the residents, I will deploy the United States military, and quickly solve the problem for them.”
One can only imagine the fireworks that could ensue if Trump actually attempts to enforce his threat and weaponize the U.S. military against U.S. citizens.
There are already reports of one white armed group roaming the streets of a big city—and putting one journalist who followed them in the hospital. Trump has just increased the odds of street clashes with police, military, and civilians, and the likelihood that there will be additional loss of life.
If you think this result would backfire on Trump, causing decent people to recoil from the American carnage, you haven’t been paying attention. Trump has never been about peace and comity. He has never been about persuading. He wants us afraid. He wants us angry. He wants us divided. This isn’t just a nicety if he’s going to turn out his base in November; it’s a necessary ingredient.
Fomenting violence is his campaign strategy.
