Why Trump Is Blaming the Media Down the Homestretch
The president’s decision to go on the offensive at a moment of fear and division could be cold political calculus—or it could reflect his press-obsessed worldview.
Traumas and tragedies change people, at least briefly. They change lives for those closest; they emotionally affect those farther away; sometimes they change society as a whole.
One remarkable thing about President Donald Trump’s reaction to the massacre Saturday at a synagogue in Pittsburgh is how little it seems to have influenced him. As I reported over the weekend, his initial remarks were fairly detached; he later offered a more full-throated condemnation. But he seems incapable of compassion and consolation.
Moreover, he opted to move forward with a campaign rally Saturday evening in which he reprised a new line of attack this week: blaming the press for division in the country. On Thursday, before the FBI announced the arrest of
