Ezra Klein column: Trump has always been a wolf in wolf's clothing. [View all]

[elleng]

'For years, there has been a mantra that Republicans have recited to comfort themselves about President Donald Trump — both about the things he says and the support they offer him. Trump, they’d say, should be taken seriously, not literally. The coinage comes from a 2016 article in The Atlantic by Salena Zito, in which she complained that the press took Trump “literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

For Republican elites, this was a helpful two-step. If Trump’s words were understood as layered in folksy exaggeration and shtick — designed to trigger media pedants but perfectly legible to his salt-of-the-earth supporters — then much that would be too grotesque or false to embrace literally could be carefully endorsed at best and ignored as poor comedy at worst. And Republican elites could walk the line between eviscerating their reputations and enraging their party’s leader, all while blaming the media for caricaturing Trumpism by reporting Trump’s words accurately.

On Nov. 5, 2020, just days after the election, Vice President Mike Pence offered a classic of the genre. As Trump declared the election stolen, in terms as clear as a fist to the face, Pence tried to take him seriously, not literally; to signal solidarity with Trump’s fury while backing away from the actual claims. “I stand with President @RealDonaldTrump,” he tweeted. “We must count every LEGAL vote.”

But Trump did not want every legal vote counted. He wanted legally counted votes to be erased; he wanted new votes discovered in his favor. He wanted to win, not lose; whatever the cost, whatever the means.'>>>

https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/sns-nyt-op-trump-always-a-wolf-20210107-2z6gl2kpxvcirjr7yc7ijweica-story.html