In Days of Discord, a President Fans the Flames
WASHINGTON With a nation on edge, ravaged by disease, hammered by economic collapse, divided over lockdowns and even face masks and now convulsed once again by race, President Donald Trumps first instinct has been to look for someone to fight.
Over the last week, America reeled from 100,000 pandemic deaths, 40 million people out of work and cities in flames over a brutal police killing of a subdued black man. But Trump was on the attack against China, the World Health Organization, Big Tech, former President Barack Obama, a cable television host and the mayor of a riot-torn city.
While other presidents seek to cool the situation in tinderbox moments like this, Trump plays with matches. He roars into any melee he finds, encouraging street uprisings against public health measures advanced by his own government, hurling made-up murder charges against a critic, accusing his predecessor of unspecified crimes, vowing to crack down on a social media company that angered him and then seemingly threatening to meet violence with violence in Minneapolis.
As several cities erupted in street protests after the killing of George Floyd, some of them resulting in clashes with police, Trump made no appeal for calm. Instead, in a series of tweets and comments to reporters Saturday, he blamed the unrest on Democrats, called on Liberal Governors and Mayors to get MUCH tougher on the crowds, threatened to intervene with the unlimited power of our Military and even suggested his own supporters mount a counterdemonstration.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/days-discord-president-fans-flames-164653553.html