In the tradition of the Clintonometer and the Trump Apocalypse Watch, the Impeach-O-Meter is a wildly subjective and speculative daily estimate of the likelihood that Donald Trump leaves office before his term ends, whether by being impeached (and convicted) or by resigning under threat of same.
Well, that was quite something. Donald Trump has held many unhinged press conferences during his run to the White House, and many more during his stay there, but, on Tuesday, a 21st-century president of the United States stood in the lobby of a New York City high rise and tut-tutted reporters and the general eyesight-having public over what is, and what is not, a white supremacist. “Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” Trump said of the neo-Nazis marching with torches in Charlottesville over the weekend. “Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch.”
Two days ago, Donald Trump didn’t say enough (or much of anything); now he’s a technical expert in distinguishing between white hate groups. Finding a happy, well-adjusted medium has never been his strong suit. Trump then moved on to explain that some people who were totally not white supremacists were there just marching to protect a statue or two.
… But many of the people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. This week it’s Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. Is it George Washington next week, and Jefferson the week after?
And Trump the week after that? Donald Trump is clearly—and quite astutely—worried about his own potential statues’ longevity. He’s just getting a head start on solidifying his legacy—as the best presidential tweeter that’s ever lived.
But wait.
Trump’s Twitter prowess also appears to be waning in the wake of Charlottesville. He pumped out these words for the ages in the immediate aftermath:
Several hours later, the president showed his softer side with a “best regards” tweet to those who had been injured.
Meanwhile, Trump nemesis Barack Obama fired off this little ditty quoting Nelson Mandela:
The tweet was extremely popular.
The Charlottesville tweet was Obama’s first in a month and probably written by someone else, but it brings into stark relief how bad Donald Trump is at being president. And now he can’t even Twitter correctly. This feels like the real peril for the president.
Was Trump’s response to the events in Charlottesville over the weekend bad? Yes, historically so. Does that mean we’ll be able to start checking out books at Donald Trump’s presidential library in Atlantic City sooner rather than later? Unfortunately, you might want to keep you local library card active for now. If acting and being racist were a deal-breaker for the presidency, we would have only had, like, four presidents—and Donald Trump certainly would not be one of them. Once Trump’s online base of Twitter bots and trolls start decamping, however, then the end is near.
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images, Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images, and Peter Parks-Pool/Getty Images.
