On Many Sides

On Many Sides:  Talk about timing.  Last Wednesday, Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to Trump for alt-right advocacy, said that when it comes to terrorism “white men” and “white supremacists” are not the “problem.”   Even before this weekend’s Charlottesville tragedy his assertion was wrong.  Right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11 causing a total of 254 fatalities and those numbers do not include the death of Heather Heyer, the young paralegal mowed down by an alt-right, neo-Nazi on Saturday or the two state troopers who died on the job.  In contrast,  Muslim extremists were responsible for 50 deaths in the first thirteen and a half years after 9/11.  With guys like Gorka and Steve Bannon advising him and the xenophobic Stephen Miller writing his speeches, it should come as no surprise that the prepared remarks that Trump made in response to Charlottesville failed to distinguish between the 6000 alt-right, white supremacist marchers who came to Virginia, armed and dressed in military style uniforms, purportedly to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, and the counter-protesters, who were there to protest racism, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazis. White supremacism, like Putin, is just one of those things that Trump can’t find it within himself to condemn.  Reactions to Trump’s inappropriate response to his first major domestic crisis drew criticism from  Republicans, Democrats and former KKK leader David Duke.  Republican and Democratic leaders spoke out against his failure to condemn the neo-Nazis and White supremacists.  David Duke was pissed that he wasn’t nicer to his crowd tweeting “it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.”  Sunday morning a number of White House surrogates were sent out to defend Trump’s comments, some performed better than others. National security advisor McMaster clearly condemned the alt right crowd but Homeland security advisor Tom Bossert, who appears to be a graduate of the Jay Sekulow spokesperson school, said both sides were looking for trouble.  It wasn’t until CNN’s Jake Tapper told him that neo-Nazi websites were praising Trump’s comments that he managed to say White supremacists are bad but not before first snapping at Tapper for giving him such a hard time. Vice President Pence rode the fence, he condemned the White Nationalists but then in a nod to Trump also criticized the other protestors.  As his surrogates struggled, Trump played golf and remained silent because Duke is right, White supremacists and neo-Nazis make up his core constituency and he kind of likes hanging out with them.  By the end of the day the White House finally issued a statement “clarifying” Trump’s remarks, the spokesman remained nameless.

The Other Crisis: In addition to trying to clean-up after Trump’s Charlottesville remarks national security advisor McMaster spoke about North Korea on Meet the Press.  He said that the US is no closer to war with North Korea than we were a week ago but are closer than we were a decade ago and defended Trump’s bombastic approach to diplomacy. He also voiced a vote of confidence for Secretary of State Tillerson, contradicting Sebastian Gorka’s suggestion that Tillerson should stay away from making comments on “defense” issues.  Prompted by NBC’s Chuck Todd, he talked about both Steve Bannon and Gorka’s roles in the White House.  He refused to say that either would be fired but he made it clear that neither of them had a seat on the National Security Council.   When pushed by Todd to say what he thought about Bannon, he said that only people who put America’s interests first belong on the White House team, but he wouldn’t come out and say what he really thinks of Bannon though it was clear that he’d like to buy him a one way ticket to parts unknown.  Bannon’s Breitbart News friends are still bashing McMaster and uber-Israel supporter Sheldon Adelson has joined the ultra-conservative billionaire Mercer family as a member of the anti-McMaster chorus. A group of former Israeli generals have come out in support of McMaster and, in what’s seen as a vote of confidence, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is sending his leading advisors to the US this week to discuss security matters with McMaster, deputy advisor Dina Powell and Special Envoy Greenblatt.  Going forward, it’s hard to imagine that Bannon and McMaster coexist in Trump’s sphere for much longer. On competency, McMaster should win this season of Survivor but given Bannon’s powerful and rich friends and Trump’s deeply ingrained views it’s hard to count Bannon out yet.        

Today:  Trump is off to Washington DC before returning to NYC to snarl local traffic.  It’s expected that he will announce a probe into China’s violations of US trade including forced intellectual property transfers and patent thefts at a press conference later in the day.  Trump has been pretty vocal about his criticism of China’s trade practices so the “probe” isn’t unexpected but is likely to add another complication to efforts to get China to more forcefully use its influence to get Kim Jong Un to put the brakes on his nuclear ambitions.  Trump may also announce some cabinet changes. With all of the press focused on Charlottesville and North Korea, the possibility of Democratic Senator Manchin moving from the Senate to the Energy Department got short shrift this weekend.  We should know more about the possibility of that potential catastrophe later today.