Prepare for worse to come from Donald Trump, panicker-in-chief

Editorial: Like a gambler in a casino on a losing streak, the US president has doubled his bet on the fears of white America. It is unpleasant politics, appealing to the worst of the nation’s character

Trump in front of Mount Rushmore on Friday (Reuters)

We get the impression that Donald Trump is becoming increasingly panicky as the opinion polls move against him. He is now 10 points behind Joe Biden, and his net approval rating of minus 15 points is worse than that of any president who won re-election since the war, at this stage in their first term.

Hence his attempt to stoke crude nationalism, with a racist subtext, in his Independence Day speech yesterday at Mount Rushmore. Apparently referring, in part, to the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept the nation since the killing of George Floyd, President Trump said: “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”

This is a rather obvious attempt to divert the election from the battlefield of public health and the economy, on which he is losing, to the culture war that he believes he can still win. After all, it worked for him last time. Up against the anodyne liberalism of Hillary Clinton, he fought a ruthless and simple campaign, promising to build a wall along the Mexico border and to defend America from immigration and immigrants.