Storm Clouds

Yesterday Donald Trump want to Dallas, partially to raise money but also to discuss "race relations" with a "roundtable" of law enforcement officials. Trump took the time to preview his great speech on race relations. Of the effort to overcome bigotry and prejudice, Trump said, "It'll go quickly and it'll go very easily."

We might recall that Trump said it would be easy to fix health care and that the coronavirus was under control. Very easy. 

I see storm clouds. Trump will continue to use racism to amp up his base, and things will get worse before they get better.

What are we to make of the fact that Trump is planning a rally in Tulsa, the site of America's greatest massacre of black citizens, on June 19--or Juneteenth, the commemoration of emancipation? I don't know, but I do see conservative never Trump political strategist S.E. Cupp pointing out the obvious: 

1. Trump likely has no clue what the significance of Juneteenth and Tulsa are.

2. But Stephen Miller does.

And trying to claw his way back into civilization, Anthony Scaramucci calls the rally "a wink at his racist supporters." I buy that too.

 

It's never been a question whether Trump is racist. Trump is planning to deliver a major speech on race in the near future, but Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank points out that we already have enough words from Trump on the subject. Moreover, Milbank points out, Stephen Miller will be writing the speech, and we have strong public evidence of Miller's white nationalist views.

We've crossed a line. Trump will continue to use racist, sometimes overt, and sometimes subtle, to arouse his base. He'll continue to defend Confederate monuments and military base names. He'll keep using black spokespeople to counter others who actually represent popular opinion: in the White House today somebody named Raynard Jackson accused Joy Reid, Don Lemon, and Roland Martin of, well, here's what he said:

So you got radical liberal journalists like Joy Reid from MSNBC, Don Lemon from CNN, Roland Martin, who are putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer — who are killing more black folks than any white person with a sheet over their face.

And Trump will continue to sound like he's grieved over the death of George Floyd while (a) expressing zero concern about police racism and (b) using Floyd as a propaganda prop.

It's gonna get worse and worse. With public opinion continuing to take the coronavirus threat seriously and to show increasing support for Black Lives Matter, Trump will surely escalate.