It took our president 48 hours to offer verbal condemnation to the white nationalists who staged a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., that ended in one of its followers using his car to mow down counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.
Trump's Monday pronouncement came on the heels of national outrage over his Saturday address - an insipid condemnation of hate "on many sides." GOP leaders - including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions - mounted a clean-up mission for his failure to single out white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK.
Hate "on many sides" from the guy who decries "political correctness? This from the man with a quick insult about everything and everyone he dislikes?
Even to former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon David Duke, Trump's milquetoast "on many sides" remark was too vague. Duke, who endorsed Trump for the White House last year, didn't want any shade thrown at white nationalists, and "on many sides" didn't give the alt-right the full-fledged Trump wink-and-nod support to which it is accustomed. Duke offered Trump a chilling message on Twitter: "I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists."
Torch-bearing white nationalists rally near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, on Friday. Following violent confrontations on Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 19. (Edu Bayer/The New York Times)Trump - the man who loves an insult fight - didn't respond to that at all, by the way.
Yet it took our president just 54 minutes to respond when the black CEO of Merck announced Monday at 5 a.m. that he was resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council in protest of the president's failure to reject "expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal."
At 5:54 a.m., Trump tweeted: "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"
Donald Trump didn't organize the alt-right white nationalist rally in Charlottesville over the weekend to protest a city vote to remove the statue of Civil War Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park. Nor did Trump's alt-right advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, as far as we know.
But at least once a week since Trump became a serious presence in American politics, he has stoked the smoldering coals of racial, class and religious division in this country.
He and his bigoted crew, with its constant volley of venom, may just as well have lit the flaming torches for the alt-right's intimidating march around the University of Virginia the night before the incendiary rally Saturday.
Charlottesville is Trump's "American carnage," and he and the GOP, with its mute acquiescence of Trump's glaring flaws, have their name on it.
Finally on Monday afternoon, Trump, - no doubt shamed and dragged to it - read from a teleprompter a reasonably presidential comment. His message included:
"Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator, we are equal under the law and we are equal under our constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America."
Does it sound like Donald Trump? No. Never in eons could he write, think or speak anything so eloquent. Still, it came from his mouth and from his podium. And it was the right thing to say.
President Donald Trump delivers a statement Monday in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, in Washington. Trump bowed to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend — labeling their racists views "evil" after two days of equivocal statements. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times)Is it too little, too late? Yes and no.
It's too little, too late to restore any faith that Donald Trump cares about all of America. Even in his Monday news conference, he couldn't bring himself to call the attack an act of radical white-nationalist terrorism - or even just terrorism - though he's never missed a chance to lambaste other politicians for not indicting an entire group with something like "radical Islamic terrorism."
He can read polls, however. A Gallup tracking poll over three days ending Sunday found only 34 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, while 61 percent disapprove.
On the other hand, it's never too little, too late for anyone - especially our president - to call out evil and call for peace and unity in this country and in our communities.
That means it's never too late to hope Donald Trump eventually will surprise us and grow into his job.