Despite being President of the United States, and therefore theoretically representing the interests of ALL Americans, Donald J. Trump has never stood up for populations of Americans who have been attacked:
Defying years of tradition, Trump did not recognize June 2017 as LGBT Pride Month.
Trump didn’t recognize Jews — the targets of the Nazi campaign of extermination — in his official recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Most recently, Trump did not call out neo-Nazis, white supremacists or white nationalists in his tweeted comment that was widely interpreted to be about the August 11-12, 2017 events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Remember, he didn’t mention Charlottesville in his tweet, but because of its timing, many have assumed that his tweet about “violence” referred to the events in Charlottesville. His tweet was very vague, and intentionally so.
Trump’s wife, Melania, tweeted before he did: “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville” The timestamp on this tweet appears to have been reset to Pacific Daylight Time.
This is what Trump’s tweet said, issued very late, after 1 pm EDT on August 1, although the timestamp on the tweet now reads “10:19 AM on August 12”: “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” Apparently both Melania and Donald reset their timezones to represent Pacific Daylight Time.
I will never “come together’ with white supremacists. White supremacists hate people like me, and they will never be interested in “coming together” with people like me.
Why did Trump not call out neo-Nazis and white supremacists? Because neo-Nazis and white supremacists are a large portion of his base of support. Trump had to work hard to come up with a tweet that would not be seen as a condemnation of white supremacists or neo-Nazis. And he succeeded — according to the neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
On the Daily Stormer website, a leading neo-Nazi website, the commentary was clear. And it was clear that the Daily Stormer crowd loved what Trump tweeted and said later at a pre-arranged 3 pm news conference and bill-signing ceremony.
The Daily Stormer’s live commentary said, at 3:46 pm Saturday, August 12, 2017:
“3:46 PM:
Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us.
He said that we need to study why people are so angry, and implied that there was hate… on both sides!
So he implied the antifa are haters.
There was virtually no counter-signaling of us at all.
He said he loves us all.
Also refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him.
No condemnation at all.
When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room.
Really, really good.
God bless him.”
On the other hand, President Bill Clinton was clear. He did not have to spend time coming up with a message that would not been viewed as a criticism of white supremacists. At 10:12 AM, August 12, 2017, Bill Clinton tweeted, “Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy. #Charlottesville.”
Bill Clinton called out white supremacy, something Trump was unwilling to do — because he could not risk offending the white supremacists who are such an important part of Trump’s base of support.