“I am your President of law and order”, Trump proclaims, in a show of politics, we think. Or else sheer lunacy.
Trump says he’ll deploy the U.S. military all across the country to quell violent protests if governors don’t ask for it on their own. And emphasized only one right of American citizens: 2nd Amendment rights. We don’t think that’s really a signal he’s calling on armed supporters of his to hit the streets as they did to protest mask-wearing and such. We think even now his singular focus is on getting himself reelected, so any appearance can be leveraged as a rally, and it’s his usual campaign shtick: reminding his one-issue gun lovers to vote for him.
No attempt at understanding. No attempt to promote peace and unity. He can’t. He can’t speak to the pain. He just can’t.
Instead blames the Left for everything destructive and dangerous. While pledging to “solve the problem” lickety-split, through destruction and danger.
So much of the thrust and focus of this unbelievable, unusual day seemed to be for Trump, politics as usual. And that means putting on a show and rerunning paeans his supporters will recognize. And what? Be reassured by it? While it’s having exactly the opposite effect on everyone else?
Trump walked across from the White House to the front of a boarded up church with coterie of cabinet and family members. (Though his wife, and Vice President Mike Pence didn’t join for whatever reason). White people.
Police shot tear gas into a crowd of peaceful protestors to give the President room. Security positioned outside the White House included Military Police. When he got to the church he posed his courtiers in a group photo. He held up a bible for some reason. Another prop for his supporters.
Trump is scheduled to visit the Saint John Paul II National Shrine this morning, which is interesting because he’s not Catholic. More politics? Amassing more of the Catholic vote has been a key goal of his reelection campaign. On a phone call recently with U.S. Bishops and Cardinals, he told them he’s the “best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church” and that his commitment to anti-abortion causes is “at a level that no president has seen before, according to everybody”.
But in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which sits across the street from the White House, the President didn’t offer a prayer. Didn’t lead his entourage in “Amazing Grace”. Might’ve been appropriate, even and maybe especially if it was just a photo op aimed at his base. Or to find a verse in the Bible to recite. “Blessed are the peacemakers”, perhaps. He didn’t. So full of himself he has no room for God. (Paraphrasing Psalm 10). Nor for a lot of people either.