Donald Trump is neither stupid nor mad, and his Jerusalem move proves it again
Robert Delaney says Donald Trump has consistently delivered policy gifts to his electoral base, fired up by anti-Muslim bigotry and white supremacy. And the closer the Russia investigation gets, the more generous Trump is going to be
This group, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the US electorate, is interested only in bringing the country back to what it was in the 1950s: socially conservative, Christian and white.
Trump says Jerusalem is Israeli capital
Nothing would help the Trump team’s cause more right now than an attack on US soil by Islamic State or any other Muslim extremist disgruntled with Washington’s approval of Israel’s complete annexation of Jerusalem. Or, at the very least, an anti-American outcry from the Muslim community.
As for immigration, statistics show recent arrivals to be more law-abiding than the general US population. If evidence to the contrary were to emerge, it would become a bold-faced preface to every White House announcement. Without such data, Trump and his allies must keep citing anecdotes that prove nothing about the nature of immigrants to the US.
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These realities are very problematic for an administration that aligns itself with voters who trade in anti-Muslim bigotry and either promote or tolerate white supremacy.
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Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is just another gift that shows Trump is smart enough to know how to fire up supporters.
When and if Trump’s position as president faces a final reckoning in the form of evidence of sexual harassment, tax evasion, or direct collusion with Russia, he’ll need his base to come to the rescue.
Robert Delaney is a US correspondent for the Post based in New York