As he prepares for his second inauguration, Donald Trump faces a great many challenges, but responding to the deadly attack in New Orleans shouldn’t have been one of them. On the contrary, this could have been, and should have been, incredibly easy.
In the world of presidential politics, there’s an obvious script to follow in the aftermath of such a tragedy: Leaders extend their sympathies, honor the victims and their loved ones, thank first responders, and vow to stand with the community as it takes steps to recover.
The president-elect apparently prefers a very different kind of script.
As the public first started learning the details of what happened in New Orleans, the Republican’s first instinct was to tell Americans how right he was, falsely suggest that the suspected terrorist — a U.S. Army veteran born in Texas — was an immigrant, followed by some demonstrably untrue claims about the national crime rates. By flunking tests of accuracy, decency and credibility, Trump reminded Americans that we just can’t count on him for reliable and trustworthy information in the wake of a tragedy.
Some of the Republican’s defenders have suggested that the misinformation he touted wasn’t entirely his fault: Fox News reported that the suspect had crossed over the border from Mexico earlier this week. The network soon after walked back its reporting, but Trump — relying on conservative media instead of intelligence briefings — left his original statement intact.
And then he decided to stick with the misinformation, apparently preferring it to reality. NBC News reported:
Despite Fox’s clarifications, Trump doubled down on his message Thursday in posts on Truth Social, saying that the Biden administration’s handling of the nation’s borders has led to “a violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy.”
In the runup to Election Day 2024, the Republican pushed a closing message that was rooted, to a surprising degree, in a fundamentally dystopian vision: The United States, Trump insisted, was a “garbage can.” Americans live in a “failing nation” and a “nation in decline,” he declared. Told in October that America is a great country, the then-GOP candidate said — out loud and on the record — that he disagreed.
The day after the attack in New Orleans, Trump picked up on the same sentiment, telling the public by way of his social media platform that the United States is “a disaster” and an international “laughing stock.” He added that federal law enforcement agencies, as well as many state and local prosecutors, are “incompetent and corrupt.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, in the same online missive, the incoming president added that “violent SCUM” has “infiltrated all aspects of our government,” and “only strength and powerful leadership will stop it” — the kind of rhetoric one generally expects from those with inherently authoritarian intentions. Hours later, the president-elect published yet another message, condemning “the Biden ‘Open Border’s Policy,’” despite the fact that (a) the New Orleans suspect was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas; (b) the border clearly isn’t open; and (c) there is no apostrophe in the word “borders.” Trump went on to describe President Joe Biden — who’s been nothing but gracious toward his successor since the election — as “the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA” and a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER.” The Republican concluded, “What he and his group of Election Interfering ‘thugs’ have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten!” Something MSNBC’s Chris Hayes told viewers last night continues to resonate: “It absolutely sends a chill up my spine to imagine what [Trump’s] response will be if we have the misfortune of having another major crisis — like another pandemic or financial panic or massive terrorist attack.” This should’ve been such an easy task for the incoming president, but he just can’t seem to pass simple tests.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
