Like so many times since he embarked on the adventure of the presidential election, Donald Trump finds himself isolated in a gigantic storm that he himself triggered. Alone against the entire political class. On Wednesday, critics were shouting from all sides, after a memorable and hectic press conference held Tuesday in the Trump Tower lobby. Visibly exasperated by the accusations about how he implicitly supported Charlottesville's neo-Nazis by the lukewarm reaction of his initial reaction - which he strongly denies Donald Trump returned to the charge, saying, as he had Already done
After condemning the racism of white supremacists on Monday, the US president returned Tuesday to his original position, saying that "there was a very aggressive group on one side and a very violent group on the other". Will the Americans forgive Donald Trump for delaying clear denunciation of the hordes of white supremacists who transformed Charlottesville into a neo-Nazi party for a weekend of violence that turned into tragedy? Would they want to continue to support against all odds that responsibilities are shared as he did again on Tuesday? Is this glorious episode a profound fissure, further weakening a president who, since the beginning of his mandate, passes from one crisis to another without transition? Or is the political management of Charlottesville only the new adventure of a Trumpian presidency that definitely does not resemble anything familiar or classic?
It is with a mixture of disgust, astonishment and shame that the country has watched hundreds of extreme right-wing activists and other heavily armed militias on its television screens and smartphones, scrolling through the streets of The charming little university town of Virginia, shouting: "White lives count" and "Heil Trump" as well as anti-Semitic slogans. Then there was the violence of the confrontation between this extreme right-wing nebula protesting against the dismantling of the statue of the Southern General Robert E. Lee and anti-racist counter-demonstrators, sometimes aggressive, face-to- Is transformed into a confused melee, before it is dispersed by the police, then a young man fascinated by the "
"Racism is evil"
Faced with this spurt of "white rage", the president began by issuing a minimal condemnation, denouncing the violence and intolerance "of all parties", instead of condemning the extreme right. It was not until Monday that he appeared again in front of the cameras to condemn the supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis after a concert of critics from across the political spectrum. "It is absolutely urgent that Potus (the pseudonym of Trump, NDR) describes events for what they are, a terrorist attack by white supremacists," tweeted in particular Republican Senator Marco Rubio. "Racism is evil," Donald Trump said Monday from the White House.
Will these declarations, so long awaited, heal the wounds of Charlottesville?
His supporters hope so. The president's opponents claim that Trump, already suspected by the ambiguities of his position, the nationalist right during his campaign, has lost an essential opportunity to bring the nation together. For them, Trump remains fundamentally the objective ally of the Alt-right nebula, the new name given to the right-wing extremist movement whose racist demons reappear at regular intervals. "The task of his first statement can not be erased. It's the Trump Authentic ... a president who has identified anger in some of the American electorate and has validated it, "says Richard Cohen in the Washington Post.
The fact that the indomitable president again explained on Tuesday that there had been "wrongs on both sides", referring to the aggressive behavior of demonstrators of the antifa, a group of extreme left known for its muscular methods, will be Perceived by its detractors as evidence of its fundamental ambiguity with regard to the extreme right. But Donald Trump does not care: "I looked very closely. There was a very aggressive group on one side, and on the other, a very violent group, nobody wants to say it. "And to wonder whether the" Alt-left ", a name he created for The opportunity, in opposition to the Alt-right, feels the slightest "guilt" for what has happened. Pure Trump.
The reactions were multiple, as of Tuesday evening:
"We have to be clear. The white supremacy is repugnant, "tweled Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. "Hatred has always existed in America. We know, but Donald Trump has put it back in fashion!", Wrote on Twitter the star of basketball LeBron James. "President Trump is a sympathizer of the neo-Nazi white supremacists," said Steven Goldstein, head of the Anne Frank Center for Respect Mutual, a human rights organization in the United States.
The president has always refused to be a racist. He has always said that advocating immigration control, trade protectionism and the rejection of the excesses of "politically correct" did not in any way mean an affinity with racist theses. And he is not wrong. But he also flirted with the extreme right, notably with his unenthusiastic rallying to the "birthers" movement, which claimed that President Obama was not born in the United States. Has he done that for electoral reasons? Is it for the same reason that he was so stingy with clarifications for three days? "Trump has recovered the anxiety of many white voters who are concerned about the issue of Islam and a dilution of their identity. They are not necessarily racist. But the problem is that the white supremacists were galvanized by the election of Trump. They have the impression that it gives a voice to their ideas"; Notes the sociologist Peter Simi. The whole difficulty of Donald Trump is to stand out from racists, without alienating his base, he said. He does so by showing him that he is independent and that he is insensitive to the criticisms of the establishment.
Bannon on the spotlight
Persuaded that he is weakened, his opponents and his allies call him to pledge by sacrificing his strategist Steve Bannon, a populist nationalist, fervent defender of the politically correct, and accused of sulphurous connections with the Alt-Right. The newspapers are rumored of a thousand rumors about the battle that would rage between the military camp, led by H. R. McMaster, and that of Bannon, at the White House. On Tuesday, it was rumored that Bannon's head was just a thread after the arrival of Ruppert Murdoch, boss of the powerful Fox News channel, who would personally have asked Donald Trump for his head. But will the president take the risk of getting rid of the man who embodies his connection with his electoral base, as the midterm elections are looming? "Mr. Bannon is a good person, he said. He is a friend. "But Trump also left a doubt about his fate, recalling that he had arrived very late in his campaign. "We'll see what happens to Mr. Bannon," said the president, sibyllin.
While he is embarked in a major geopolitical poker game with North Korea, he moves in any case in shifting waters, eight months after the start of his presidency. The republican establishment has not abandoned it, but dreams of getting rid of it. The relationship with the media continues to deteriorate. Democrats are more than ever in ambush. Several prominent businessmen, who were part of his economic council, slammed the door after his prolonged silence on Charlottesville.
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