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posted by martyb on Friday June 05 2020, @04:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-elephant-in-the-room dept.

A serious divide exists among Trump advisers over how to address nights of protests and riots in US after Floyd's death

Trump is being urged by some advisers to formally address the nation and call for calm, while others have said he should condemn the rioting and looting more forcefully or risk losing middle-of-the-road voters in November, according to several sources familiar with the deliberations.

[...] During a staff call Friday, Trump's top domestic policy aide Brooke Rollins argued for a measured response to riots the night before, advice that was echoed by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Several advisers feared, and hoped to avoid, another Charlottesville moment, when Trump was criticized after declaring in 2017 that "very fine people" were among the Nazi mobs that descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia.

[...] While aides like Kushner have pushed for a more restrained response, Trump is also hearing from several advisers who warned that by not condemning the protests after the death of Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, that turned into rioting and looting, he is risking losing some demographics that will be key to his election victory in November, like suburban women voters.

As Protests and Violence Spill Over, Trump Shrinks Back

The president spent Sunday out of sight, berating opponents on Twitter, even as some of his campaign advisers were recommending that he deliver a televised address to an anxious nation.

how the George Floyd protests left Donald Trump exposed

“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims. I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon – and I mean very soon – come to an end.”
These were the words of Donald Trump, not in May 2020 but July 2016, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the national convention in Cleveland.

[...] Not even Trump’s harshest critics can blame him for a virus believed to have come from a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, nor for an attendant economic collapse, nor for four centuries of slavery, segregation, police brutality and racial injustice.

But they can, and do, point to how he made a bad situation so much worse. The story of Trump’s presidency was arguably always leading to this moment, with its toxic mix of weak moral leadership, racial divisiveness, crass and vulgar rhetoric and an erosion of norms, institutions and trust in traditional information sources. Taken together, these ingredients created a tinderbox poised to explode when crises came.

Antifa: Trump says group will be designated 'terrorist organisation'

"It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!" Mr Trump tweeted on Saturday.


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday June 05 2020, @12:48PM (5 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 05 2020, @12:48PM (#1003692) Journal

    Sorry, but while that proved authoritarian, it doesn't prove fascist. Actually it's closer to Nazi (which is not Fascist, Fascist is Mussolini).

    There are lots of shades of authoritarian, and fascist is only one of them. It's definitely a statement "I've got the power and I'll do what I want and you can't stop me.", but that's not fascism. Fascism is basically the government and the corporations working hand in hand, with the government calling most of the shots. So, yes, the US is a Fascist country, and I don't like it, but Fascism isn't inherently violent, unlike Nazism which seems to be. Racism is part of Nazism, but it's not a necessary part of Fascism. Fascism is quite willing to coexist with racism, but doesn't depend on it, what it depends on is nationalism. Both are authoritarian, and both dislike science (though they're quite willing to ape approval, as long as they get to pick which results are acceptable). So there are strong similarities, and there are few bars to being both Nazi and Fascist.

    AFAICT, Trump is more Nazi than Fascist. He seems strongly motivated by racism, and his nationalism seems dubious, and only for public image. But he's so incoherent that it's hard to be certain. Perhaps he's just stupid enough not to notice that his actions are damaging to the nation.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @01:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @01:06PM (#1003700)

    Perhaps he's just stupid enough not to notice that his actions are damaging to the nation.

    He notices. He just doesn't care. Psychopaths only care about themselves.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @02:14PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @02:14PM (#1003743)

    "Fascism is basically the government and the corporations working hand in hand, with the government calling most of the shots".

    Current day China, ignoring their Maoist beginnings?

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 05 2020, @05:02PM (1 child)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday June 05 2020, @05:02PM (#1003830)

      Yeah, his definition of Fascism definitely seems to fit modern-day China to a tee:

      - government and industry working hand-in-hand, with government calling the shots: This is exactly how China is now: lots of state-owned (wholly or partially) corporations, government has a huge amount of control over industry, but industry is still largely privately owned (or publicly traded), unlike a traditional Stalinist society

      - nationalism: China is hugely nationalistic, and is using that to assert themselves militarily (like taking over the South China Sea)

      - authoritarian: obviously

      - dislikes science: Look at what China did to the first doctors who tried to sound the alarms about Covid-19: they were brutally suppressed, until they couldn't keep it under wraps any longer.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @05:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @05:18PM (#1003845)

        China's basic governing system hasn't changed in over 2000 years. The philosophies espoused by the court ministers, and the groups in power, but the structure itself has not changed.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @12:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @12:32AM (#1004016)

    "Sorry, but while that proved authoritarian, it doesn't prove fascist. Actually it's closer to Nazi (which is not Fascist, Fascist is Mussolini)."

    Oh, dear God! Not this again. Whatever label you want to affix to it, could we agree that Trump should not be doing it, especially not to fellow citizens? Could we at least agree on that?