The whiplash-inducing President Trump

Zig . . . zag . . . then zig again.   Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.   The president's zig-zag sequence is enough to cause whiplash -- in the week after Charlottesville and again this week.

The zigs come when he reads from a teleprompter what's been written and forced upon him by his advisers -- and the zags erupt from the unleashed president, the Real Donald Trump.   Or, as the New York Times' Mark Landler put it:  "Mr. Trump has toggled between Teleprompter Trump and Unplugged Trump every day since the deadly clashes in Virginia, leaving Washington and the rest of the nation with a chronic case of rhetorical whiplash."

Monday, August 21:   A speech outlining the new strategy for Afghanistan.   It was read soberly from teleprompters, with hardly any Trumpian riffs of vitriol or nonsence.   Zig.

Tuesday, August 22:   A rally of the faithful in Phoenix.  The warm-up acts were:   Ben Carson, who promoted the virtue of unity;   Alveda King, MLK,Jr.'s niece who has gone over to the other side, led the crowd in a hymn, "How Great Thou Art."   (It's meant as praise to the Almighty God, but in this context, it's just too close to the One Who Thinks Only He Can Fix America and Make It Great Again.)

Then evangelist and prime homophobe Franklin Graham prayed for the divided nation and asked the Lord to shut the mouths of those "who want to divide, who want to preach hate."   Then our long-suffering homophobe VP Pence, who also will not dine alone with a woman other than his wife,  assured the crowd that "President Trump believes with all his heart . . . [that] love for America requires love for all its people."    Come on, Veep, did he really say that, or are you just making it up?

Then Donald Trump took the stage and for 72 minutes spread hate, divisiveness, vengeance -- ranging from hate-filled rant at the "fake media" to denunciation of the two Republican senators from Arizona -- in their own state.

He spent 16 minutes defensively reading from the statements he had made in response to Charlottesville . . . ostensibly to prove that he had said all the right things, condemned all the ones he should have condemned:

"The KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold true as Americans. . . .  So they [media] are having a hard time with that one, because I said everything. . . [checking a list he had pulled from his pocket] . . . I got 'em with neo-Nazi.  I hit 'em with everything.  I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis.  I got them all in there.   Let's see:   KKK.  We have KKK.   I got 'em all. . . .  The words were perfect."

No.  No.  No.  The words were not perfect.   In quoting himself, he left out the key problematic phrase:  "from many sides."    Funny how that slipped his mind.   It's what made the Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday zig-zag on that week too.  Though two days late, his Monday, prepared speech was adequate.   Tuesday, he let loose at his press conference, blaming "both sides" for the violence and making no moral distinction between the neo-Nazis shouting Nazi slogans, as they brandished their swastika flags -- and those who came to protest them.  That's what set off the fire storm against Trump.  Then Wednesday, another retreat to a prepared script of nice words.

Back to the Tuesday rally of this week in Phoenix -- Trump then ranted on and on, airing one grievance after another.  Then he threw some more red meat to his supporters -- hinting once again that, although he wouldn't do it tonight, he might still pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- and the crowd roared approval.   He even got in a dig at Hillary Clinton, which brought out a few rounds of "lock her up."   And topped it off by saying he might shut down the government if Congress fails to fund his border wall in the must-pass budget.

It was pretty standard Trump campaign fodder -- the most notable thing being his dishonesty in supposed quoting himself about Charlottesville but omitting the crucial three words that did him in.

Standard rally behavior.   But definitely a big ZAG.away from Monday night.

Wednesday, August 23:   Trump spoke to a group of veterans at an American Legion convention in Reno, Nevada the day after the Tuesday rally-rant in Phoenix.   He zigged  back to a prepared, teleprompter speech that was full of appreciation for our heroes and promising to make things better for them, especially the VA health care program.   No ugly rants.   No denunciation of his party's elected officials, no encitment of hatred of the media.

Even some noble sounding sentiments:  "It's time to heal the wounds that divide us. . . .  There is no division too deep for us to heal."    Is he talking about what he did the night before?    Probably not.   I'm sure this was written by a speech writer before Tuesday night happened.    But the effect of this was another Zig.

Another week, another Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday zig-zag-zig whiplash.

I wonder what the Tuesday night warm-up pious quartet of Ben Carson, Alveda King, Franklin Graham, and Mike Pence thought about how the juvenile Trump stomped and splashed all through the holy water they had prepared for him.

Ralph