It’s long past time to stop excusing Donald Trump’s racist trolling as the accidental bumblings of an idiot who doesn’t know better. That’s not to claim Trump is a political genius — or even a person of average intelligence. But he has managed to direct the limited IQ points at his disposal towards the practice of racist trolling, and he knows what he’s doing. Like anyone who focuses single-mindedly on a specific skill for decades, he has gotten good at this one thing.
This reality is critical to keep in mind when interpreting Trump’s response to the rising tide of national protests against racism and police brutality in the past couple of weeks. The temptation is strong to resort to “he’s too dumb to know what he’s doing” argument, which might fluff one’s own ego but has the unfortunate side effect of downplaying how sinister Trump’s fascistic impulses actually are.
Trump announced this week that his regular rallies, which were on hiatus due to the coronavirus, would return next week, despite the very real possibility threat these will become virus super-spreader events. But that concern was overshadowed by the obnoxious racist provocation of the date and location: June 19, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.