Trump's menacing message follows 1960s script (opinion) - CNN - 0 views
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Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" and co-author with Peter Eisner of "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence." The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. View more opinion articles on CNN.
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The President's message early Friday morning was menacingly clear: Are you outraged that a black man died after a video showed a white cop kneeling on his neck as he yelled, "I can't breathe"? Steal something as you protest and you, too, will die.
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Trump has seen this play out before. Headley was just one of several strongmen who were seen as heroes among frightened white people during the Civil Rights Movement. Frank Rizzo was another. When he was the Philadelphia police commissioner, he responded to a peaceful student protest in 1967 calling for more courses on African-American history (among other demands), by infamously urging cops to go after the students. Violence broke out, and 57 people were arrested.
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Trump faced his own charges of racism in the 1970s when Richard Nixon's Justice Department sued the Trump family's real estate firm for discriminatory rental practices against black people. Instead of working to make things right, Trump employed what became his signature move: he went on the attack. He hired the notorious Roy Cohn -- a defense attorney who had been Sen. Joseph McCarthy's top aide during his red-baiting campaign -- to file a $100 million countersuit for making false statements (those allegations were dismissed by the court). The original lawsuit was eventually settled and the Trumps signed a consent decree.
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From the White House, Trump has made his attitudes on race clear with his comments about "s**thole countries." He also targeted Democratic congresswomen of color and said that they should "go back and help fix the crime infested places from which they came" (three of the four women were born in the US).
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Now, in 2020, Donald Trump is a President whose re-election prospects are burdened by the weight of his failed response to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 100,000 Americans were killed by the virus while Trump denied the severity of the public health threat, boosted an unproven treatment that studies suggest could be dangerous, and mused about quack cures involving household cleaners and light. Though his rival Joe Biden has, for the most part, remained at home in Delaware, the former VP has managed to build a lead in many polls, causing Trump's advisers to warn he is in trouble with the voters.