Donald Trump finally responds to Charlottesville white supremacist crisis… by attacking a black guy
Nearly forty-eight hours after a Nazi and white supremacist rally in Charlottesville culminated in a deadly terrorist attack, Donald Trump still has yet to respond decisively, or to condemn the actions of these hate groups on American soil. But this morning Trump finally did hit back in response to the Charlottesville white supremacist crisis, by attacking a black guy who had taken a stand over the issue.
This morning Merck CEO Ken Frazier resigned from Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council in protest of Trump’s refusal to take a stand against these racist hate groups, saying “I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.” That alone was more presidential than anything Trump has said in response to Charlottesville. But once Frazier issued his statement, Trump wasted no time publicly attacking Frazier, who is African-American.
Trump tweeted “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” (link). And so, as Trump still refuses to condemn the murderous actions of the white supremacists, he’s going after the black guy instead. It’s not immediately clear if Trump doesn’t realize the irony involved, or if his tweet was purposely intended to send a signal to his racist base that he’s not abandoning them.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump now says that he’s heading into Washington DC today, even though his prolonged New Jersey golf vacation is scheduled to last for another week. But he’s been equally unprofessional and unproductive regardless of what city he’s been in at the time, so there’s no reason to expect anything to change about his approach. And it now very much appears that the American mainstream is going to refuse to let up on him as long as he keeps tacitly siding with the Nazis and white supremacists by refusing to condemn them.
