Trump Is a Secessionist From the Top

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/trump-secessionist-top/615847/

President Trump read a boring speech badly last night. The long recitation was punctuated by odd comprehension errors. At one point, “walled-off cities and communities” came out sounding like “Waldorf cities and communities.”

Through most of the long recitation, the members of the partisan crowd seemed quiet, even listless. But there were rare sparks of enthusiasm, moments when Trump excited them. Near the end of the hour-long address, Trump intoned: “This November, we must turn the page forever on this failed political class. The fact is, I’m here”—and suddenly, he paused, turned theatrically to his left, and extended his hand toward the South Front of the White House. “What’s the name of that building?” he extemporized, and the crowd cheered, laughed, and whistled. He then extemporized some more. "But I’ll say it differently. The fact is, we’re here—and they’re not." Louder cheers, standing ovation.

To his admirers, one of the most attractive qualities of Donald Trump is his utter shamelessness. When he does something wrong, he boasts about it. He tells Lester Holt on television that he fired James Comey to shut down the Russia investigation. He tells George Stephanopoulos that he would again welcome foreign help for his reelection campaign. When he diverts taxpayer money to his businesses, he does so in full view of the watching world. When he takes payments from foreign governments, he does so in a garish hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. There is nothing apologetic about him. And this was once again on full display.

The Trump campaign probably broke the law—and certainly trashed norms of republican constitutionalism dating to the very origins of the United States—when it made a campaign prop of the White House. But was Trump troubled? Absolutely not. He basked in the moment. He invited his supporters to bask with him. Bask they did.

*snip*