David Remnick:
Trump expressed the full knowledge that cyber-fuelled hatred and racism had helped him win the election. He honored the group with a White House invitation in the hopes that it will be there for him again in 2020. “The crap you think of is unbelievable!” he told them in bemused admiration. These were his people.
It’s all very disheartening, to see people fueling hatred as a game in such a flippant manner. Every single day I’m left bewildered that a manchild was elected President of the United States. And in every possible way, he is a child. From the name calling, to the tantrums, to not knowing what he wants and flipflopping on major decisions at the last minute, to not understanding how government works or knowing lickitysplit about history (of both the US and the World), to the fear of the unknown, to thinking he’s the smartest person in the room and has never been wrong, and finally, to not being able to take any criticism, whatsoever.
Holy fucking hell. It’s a never-ending, suffocating whirlwind of incompetence and rasicm and nine hundred other despicable things and still, the GOP and his supporters continue to stand with him through it all with no repercussions.