Trump in Arizona: Threats, paranoia and a dark lesson in white history

[DonViejo]

WEDNESDAY, AUG 23, 2017 08:15 AM EDT

Trump promises a government shutdown, hints he'll pardon Joe Arpaio — and vows to make history white again

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

On Monday night Washington Post reporter Phillip Rucker tweeted this:

Link to tweet

This is a tiresome cliché at this point (“Tonight he became president,” “he’s pivoting,” etc.) and Rucker was, for good reason, immediately barraged with criticism. But when asked how long he thought this new Trump would last, he answered this way:

Link to tweet

The assumption on the part of well, everyone, even those who complimented him for his presidential mien, was that teleprompter Trump was not permanent and he would immediately revert to his natural state: racist, immature and crude.

This is progress. It took most of the media and the political establishment more than two years to absorb the fact that the Donald Trump we saw on the campaign trail was the real thing. There was no hidden statesman, and his antics weren’t an act. Just because he is capable of woodenly delivering an unconvincing speech written by someone else, it doesn’t mean that he will stop tweeting every outrageous thought that passes through his mind while watching “Fox & Friends” during his obviously elaborate morning hair and man-tan ritual.

Trump went to Arizona solely to bathe himself in the febrile adoration of his followers after a tough couple of weeks defending Nazis from the hostile elites in Washington. Many people were aghast that he was going to hold one of his raucous campaign rallies in the wake of those odious comments about Charlottesville, a rally where he was sure to employ his usual divisive rhetoric and protesters from all sides would undoubtedly gather outside and possibly mix it up with one another.

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http://www.salon.com/2017/08/23/trump-in-arizona-threats-paranoia-and-a-dark-lesson-in-white-history/