Trump's Condemnations of Violence Aren’t Convincing His Supporters
The president has given the nation no reason to think his recent disavowals are sincere.
Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has weaponized his insincerity and the bad faith of his supporters in order to deny his own accountability for the things he does and believes.
If critics take Trump’s praise for or at face value, they are guilty of taking Trump too literally. If Trump praises violence against the media, or calls for a foreign government to aid his campaign, his detractors are informed that the president is only kidding—. Whenever Trump says or does something horrible, his defenders insist that he did not actually do
