Trump continues his showdown with race, culture, and dissent

Developments on Day 249 of the Trump Administration:

See VideoCast: The GOP’s Losing Bet on Healthcare

Trump Maintains Twitter War over NFL and #TakeTheKnee

[UPDATE, 1100 GMT: Donald Trump has begun Tuesday morning with three tweets — repeating one of them twice — continuing his campaign against players and owners of the National Football League: “The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger.”]

Donald Trump spends a fourth day waging his personal war on football players who kneel during the National Anthem, even as the GOP healthcare bill is close to collapse in the Senate and as Puerto Rico faces unprecedented destruction from Hurricane Irma.

Trump ignited both a specific battle with the National Football League and its athletes and a general showdown over race, culture, and dissent on Friday night, when he used a rally in Huntsville, Alabama to encourage NFL owners to fire any “son-of-a-bitch” who kneeled during the National Anthem.

The reference to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who expressed his concern over race and social issues last season with “Take The Knee”, and a call for a boycott of NFL games was link to Trump’s Twitter outburst against basketball standout Stephen Curry, prompting fellow star LeBron James to call out Trump, “U bum”.

See TrumpWatch, Day 247: Trump’s Twitter Attacks on North Korea, McCain, Basketball Star Curry

On Sunday and Monday, NFL players and owners expressed their objections to Trump’s declaration, some through kneeling and/or linking during the anthem, others through statements. But Trump would not give up his mission:

Trump tried to contrast the scenes at football stadiums with another sport, stock car racing: “So proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won’t put up with disrespecting our Country or our Flag – they said it loud and clear!”

He continued through the day, politicizing the death of Pat Tillman — against the objections of Tillman’s widow — an NFL player who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004, and insisting, “Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our Country”.

Ignoring a Hurricane

Observers noted that by Sunday night, Trump had put out 18 tweets or retweets in 48 hours about the NFL and the anthem, while not saying a word about “apocalyptic” devastation in Puerto Rico.

The island is struggling to recover after it was struck by Hurricane Irma on September 6. Many areas are without power and still have not received assistance. Governor Ricardo Rosselló said Monday,
“We need something tangible, a bill that actually answers to our need right now. Otherwise, there will be…a massive exodus to the (mainland) United States.”

Trump finally responded late Monday, but appeared to shift the blame for inaction to the Puerto Ricans and others, contrasting it with the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the continental US:

He continued, “It’s [sic] old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities — and doing well.”

A Late-Night Return to Healthcare, but No North Korea

Trump also avoided the GOP’s healthcare difficulties, with its fourth attempt to repeal ObamaCare on the verge of defeat in the Senate, until a late-night swipe at John McCain.

Last week McCain came out against the Graham-Cassidy bill, putting the Republican majority on the brink of extinction. Trump put out a series of Twitter criticisms on Friday and, after his NFL excursions throughout Sunday, returned to his target:

However, another nemesis escaped any Trump notice on Sunday. Despite a renewed challenge to the US military, threatening to down its bombers over the Korean Peninsula, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un did not get a “Rocket Man” mention after days of Trumpian invective.