The ceaseless turmoil among President Donald Trump's staff might make a zany soap opera. But Trump is the leader of the free world, and chaos in the West Wing does not serve the interests of the American people, nor the interests of the president.
Trump chose not to bring in seasoned Washington veterans. He prefers to govern from his deeply uninformed gut. If the boss won't listen, the best staff in the world can't help.
The past few days are a prime example. Trump botched the response to the outbreak of violence surrounding Saturday's white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. He revised his remarks 48 hours later, calling out white supremacist groups by name. But on Tuesday, he doubled down on his original remarks, insisting that there was "blame on both sides" and suggesting that protests over statues of George Washington, a slave-owner, could be next.
On Monday, after being hammered by critics, Trump grudgingly called out racist groups by name. Then Fox News reported that in an interview on Sunday, Trump had said he was "seriously considering" a pardon for former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Arpaio spent six terms in office trampling the rights of Hispanic citizens in his quest to round up undocumented immigrants. He faces six months in prison for violating a federal order against racial profiling. Fingers pointed at chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, who once ran the anti-immigrant alt-right website Breitbart.com.
Bannon should never have been hired and deserves to be booted. Trump can't pretend to believe what he said Monday while allowing Bannon to remain just a few steps down the hall.
It's all vastly entertaining until you realize that this crowd is running the White House. Then it becomes embarrassing to say the least, and dangerous at worst.
Editorial on 08/17/2017