The Department of Justice had opened a civil rights investigation, he told the national television audience. “To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence,” Trump said, “you will be held fully accountable.”
Looking stiff and uncomfortable, like someone coerced to speak in a hostage video, the president went on. “No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag. We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.
“Racism is evil,” he said, singling out the “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.
“We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans” so every citizen “is free to follow their dreams in their hearts and to express the love and joy in their souls.”
It was a five-minute speech that could have been given by President Reagan or Obama.
“Make sure you tell him how great it was,” General Kelly told the senior staff. He had been chief of staff less than three weeks.
Steve Mnuchin and Gary Cohn were there to greet Trump at the elevator back to the residence. They showered praise on him. “That was a great speech,” Cohn said. “This was one of your finest moments as president.” It was in the grand tradition of unifying and taking the high road of racial healing. Later they told Porter they didn’t know how he had managed to convince Trump.
Porter felt it was a moment of victory, of actually doing some good for the country. He had served the president well. This made the endless hours of nonstop work worth it.
Trump left to watch some Fox. Rob O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL Team Six leader and author, generally praised Trump for being specific but added, “That’s almost an admission of okay, I was wrong. And I’m sort of negotiating on this.”
Fox correspondent Kevin Corke said, “Some 48 hours into the biggest domestic challenge of his young presidency, Mr. Trump has made a course correction.”
The suggestion that he had admitted doing wrong and was unsteady infuriated the president. “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made,” the president told Porter. “You never make those concessions. You never apologize. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?”
Though Porter had not written the original draft, he had spent almost four hours editing it with Trump, providing the accommodating language. But strangely Trump did not direct his rage at Porter. “I can’t believe I got forced to do that,” Trump said, apparently still not blaming Porter but venting directly to him. “That’s the worst speech I’ve ever given. I’m never going to do anything like that again.” He continued to stew about what he had said and how it was a huge mistake.
CHAPTER
30
The next day, Tuesday, Trump had meetings in New York to discuss his infrastructure proposal for spending on roads, bridges and schools. In the afternoon he was scheduled to give a press briefing in the lobby of Trump Tower. A blue curtain had been draped over the Ivanka Trump brand display in the lobby. Before going down he asked for printouts of “the really good lines” from the two Charlottesville statements he had made. He said he wanted the precise language he had used in case he was asked.
Don’t take any questions, all the staff told him with urgency. Trump said he did not plan on taking any.
At the press briefing, he took questions, and the questions were about Charlottesville. He took out his Saturday statement. “As I said on—remember Saturday—we condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.” He left out the part about “both sides,” but this time he added, “the alt-left came charging” at the rally. “You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now.
“Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. . . . I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” Both had been slave owners, he noted. “You really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”
He reverted to his earlier argument: “There is blame on both sides . . . you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had a lot of bad people in the other group too . . . there are two sides to a story.”
* * *
David Duke, the well-known former Ku Klux Klan leader, tweeted, “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville.”
The leaders of each branch of the U.S. military went on a social media offensive against their commander in chief in a stunning rebuke. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson tweeted, “Events in Charlottesville unacceptable & musnt be tolerated @USNavy forever stands against intolerance & hatred.” Marine Corps Commandant General Robert B. Neller wrote that there is “No place for racial hatred or extremism in @USMC. Our core values of Honor, courage and Commitment frame the way Marines live and act.” And Chief of Staff of the Army Mark Milley tweeted, “The Army doesn’t tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks. It’s against our Values and everything we’ve stood for since 1775.” The Air Force and National Guard chiefs followed with similar statements.
On CBS, Stephen Colbert joked darkly, “It’s just like D-Day. Remember D-Day, two sides, Allies and the Nazis? There was a lot of violence on both sides. Ruined a beautiful beach. And it could have been a golf course.”
Former General John Kelly had stood in the Trump Tower lobby as Trump took questions with a grim look on his face. Colbert said, “This guy is a four-star general. Iraq, no problem. Afghanistan, we can do it. Twenty-minute Trump press conference? A quagmire.”
Porter had watched from the sidelines in the Trump Tower lobby. He was in a state of shock, shattered and in disbelief. Later, when Trump brought up the second speech to him, the staff secretary said, “I thought the second speech was the only good one of the three.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” Trump responded. “Get away from me.”
Kelly later told the president that because he had made three statements, “now everybody has one to choose, and it might work in the president’s favor. Maybe it’s the best of all possible worlds.” He said his wife liked Tuesday’s statement and press conference, the third one, because it showed the president being strong and defiant.
* * *
Kenneth Frazier, the head of Merck, the giant pharmaceutical company, and one of the few African American CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, announced he was resigning from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, a group of outside business advisers to the president.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy. . . . As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” Frazier said in a statement.
Within an hour, Trump attacked Frazier on Twitter. Now that Frazier had resigned, Trump wrote, “he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The CEOs of Under Armour and Intel followed Frazier, resigning from the council as well.
Still stewing, in a second Twitter swipe at Frazier, Trump wrote that Merck should “Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!”
On Tuesday, August 15, Trump tweeted, “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place.” He called those who had resigned “grandstanders.”