Trump's Big CON: It's All About the Show, NFL Edition

UPDATE III:  "Trump’s intervention — through last week’s tweet and its implied threat that the government would change tax laws to hurt the NFL — could provide the players with a stronger legal basis for a free-speech challenge against the United States, some legal scholars said."

Read the Washington Post, Did Trump’s tweet make it safer for NFL players to kneel for the anthem?

UPDATE II:  "Yesterday, Vice President Pence mounted a national anthem protest of his own to express his displeasure at football players protesting racism and police brutality. If this kind of thing disgusts you, I have bad news: There’s going to be three more years of culture-war posturing from the Trump administration.

In case you missed it, Pence traveled to Indianapolis for a game between the hometown Colts and San Francisco 49ers, then dramatically stormed out of the game upon seeing members of the visiting team kneel during the national anthem, so deeply offended was he. While it was intended to look like a principled reaction to the players’ shocking protest, it was immediately apparent that the event was carefully planned. Everyone knew there would be kneeling players, and reporters traveling with Pence were kept outside and told beforehand that he might be leaving early. Then President Trump, apparently aghast at the idea of somebody besides him getting praise from Fox News, tweeted that it was all his idea:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.
1:16 PM - Oct 8, 2017

Who knows if that last part is true, but the White House surely knew how the episode would play out: Pence would perform his little stunt, Democrats would point out how contrived it was and act outraged at the expense the taxpayers incurred, cable news would eat it up, and the whole thing would exacerbate racial and political divisions within the country. Mission accomplished!

This is politics in the Trump era, and it’s going to be this way as long as he’s president.

It was obvious almost from the day he took office that Trump has no interest in reaching out to voters who didn’t support him in 2016 or don’t support him now; he is emphatically the president of his base, not the entire country. . .

There are already signs that Trump’s failure to deliver concrete results, and the unlikelihood that he will ever do so, is beginning to dawn on some of his supporters . .

[With few if any substantive policy changes, the more important it is to find] symbolic culture war battles to fight. You lash out at African American athletes, or politically correct college kids, or liberal Hollywood actors, or some pointy-headed professor somewhere who said something offensive. The less of your policy agenda you accomplish — and let’s not forget that Republicans will probably end their first year of total control of Washington without passing a single important piece of legislation — the more you’ll seek out those attention-grabbing conflicts, to show people who’s on whose side.

It’s always possible that this administration transform itself into a model of efficiency and accomplishment, giving not only Trump supporters but all Americans a future built on durable prosperity and social progress. But if that doesn’t happen, you can expect a lot more culture-war posturing coming from the White House."

Read the Washington Post, Pence’s empty stunt signals three more years of culture-war posturing ahead.

UPDATE:  "The photo that Pence's Twitter account posted before the game was actually used previously, during a 2014 Colts game, adding to the impression the VP went to the stadium solely to stage the walkout."

Read The Indianapolis Star, Mike Pence tweets same picture from Colts game that he tweeted in 2014.

"With the exception of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, there is no GOP politician who has debased himself more for the sake of accommodation with President Trump than Vice President Pence, who once enjoyed respect as a decent, consistent conservative. His ploy on Sunday shows he has permitted himself to be reduced to the status of the Washington Generals, the hapless stiffs the Harlem Globetrotters humiliate again and again.

The Post reports:

    The plan had been for Vice President Mike Pence to attend the Indianapolis Colts game at which Peyton Manning’s number was to be retired, a gala celebration of the former Colts quarterback’s contributions to Pence’s home state.

    The former governor of Indiana and his wife, wearing a Manning No. 18 jersey, left Lucas Oil Stadium after the national anthem, following instructions from President Trump after a number of San Francisco 49ers players, as they usually do, took a knee during the anthem. . .


The first rule of blatant political stunts is not to let on that they are blatant political stunts. Pence was acting not out of spontaneous patriotism but out of blind loyalty to a president who reduces everyone around him to a sleazy character on a reality TV show.

The obnoxious play-acting had the intended effect in stirring more racial animosity. . .

Well, at least Trump supporters can no longer accuse protesting players of 'politicizing' football. Trump has done more than anyone to turn the protest against police violence into yet another battlefront in his populist war designed to stoke white grievance. This shameful, unprovoked attempt to fan racial tensions is beneath the dignity of the office of vice president and should make clear that Pence is as morally unfit as Trump to hold high office. . .

To recap: Pence wasted taxpayer money, participated in a Trumpian divisive gambit to stoke racial animosity and made himself look like a spineless errand boy. Those who cheer him — including his legion of evangelical conservative supporters — should reflect upon the extent to which Trump has corrupted (morally, politically, intellectually) Pence — and them."

Read the Washington Post, Pence’s pathetic stunt tells us a lot about him.