Mr. President, Be Best!

 

President Trump’s poorly aimed Tweet early Monday morning diminished a weekend worth of public goodwill. He must, for the first time, apologize. He must apologize or lose all. This ain’t 12-dimensional chess, and this isn’t 2016, as he recognized in his speeches this past weekend. Now he needs to Be Best! He was right to tweet against NASCAR, but erred badly in naming the only black driver in the top racing circuit rather than the Suits in the NASCAR boardroom. He needs to make this right before the week is out, and could win bigly in so doing.

Here are some of President Trump’s great words from Saturday’s Salute to America:

The more you lie, the more you slander, the more you try to demean and divide, the more we will work hard to tell the truth. And we will win. (Applause.) The more you lie and demean and collude, the more credibility you lose. We want to bring the country together, and a free and open media will make this task a very easy one. Our country will be united. After all, what do we want? We want a strong military, great education, housing, low taxes, law and order. We want safety, we want equal justice, we want religious liberty, we want faith and family, and living in a great communities and happy communities and safe communities. And we want great jobs and we want to be respected by the rest of the world; not taken advantage of by the rest of the world, which has gone on for decade after decade. We should all want the same thing. How can it be any different than those things?

The more bitter you become, the more we will appeal to love and patriotism, and the more we will rise above your hate to build a better future for every child in our great country.

Here is a passage from President Trump’s remarks at Mount Rushmore:

THE PRESIDENT: One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America. (Applause.) This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. (Applause.)

In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us. (Applause.)

Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.

To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

These are genuinely Trumpian words and thoughts, just as the Berlin Wall speech was Reagan through and through. Peter Robinson was not a puppet master putting great words in the mouth of a B-list actor. Whoever wrote the Rushmore and Salute to America speeches fed off of the energy and ideas of the man, Donald J. Trump. Any honest observer who bothers to scan back over the decades will find the man consistently holding a fundamental love for America and an outrage against the shame of forgotten Americans of every hue being neglected and done wrong by politicians. It was Donald J. Trump, not Reagan or the Bushes, who formally asked for the votes of African Americans and proposed a specific set of policies, a New Deal for Black America, in 2016.

So, early Monday morning, it was entirely appropriate for the president to go on offense against a corporate target that had peddled the hoax of white supremacy in its fans and even in its employees. NASCAR had the internal knowledge to instantly confirm or deny the “hate crime” story they themselves created. Bubba Wallace should be understood at being used, misled, by the NASCAR suits who were looking to deflect heat from their unpopular ban of the rebel flag, a flag long associated with the regional outlaw origins of the sport, moonshine runners who souped up “stock” cars to both carry a large liquid load and evade the law with speed and handling. Instead, President Trump misaimed:

This let Bubba Wallace throw the president’s words back in his face. I take the ratings claim as true. A tweet may be both true and politically self-defeating. Grant that Bubba Wallace is complicit and happy to ride the political corporate wave. Grant that the Hodge Twins are entirely on target. Bubba Wallace’s pinned tweet from 2017 points out his singular status within the first ranks of NASCAR:

So, President Trump named the only black driver and said he was the one who needed to apologize. This is a complete loser tweet. Kayleigh McEnany turned this lemon into lemonade with the unwitting help of the White House press jackals, but President Trump cannot afford to be burning bridges to the very black and independent voters he seeks in his tough reelection fight. Bubba Wallace and the NASCAR Suits happily assumed the moral high ground, turning the president’s fine words from Saturday back on him:

Bubbawallace

Bubba Wallace is no Colin Kaepernick. First, Kaepernick was no pioneer, no standout. The hard work of breaking down NFL racism was done by other men who proved that black men had the brains and leadership to be winning quarterbacks. Second, Wallace is not wearing gear depicting police as pigs or posturing while cut from the racing circuit. No, he has not won yet, like Danica Patrick, but he is a serious competitor. The culture war issue rests in the corporate head shed, not in a young athlete losing his way in his sport. So, President Trump misjudged if he thought success lay in targeting a player, however his press secretary tried to explain the written words.

Yes, the White House press corps was unhinged. Yes, they fell into the trap laid over the past three weeks by Kayleigh McEnany. After Kayleigh McEnany ripped them a new one, CBS News reported on the other black lives, the inconvenient deaths on our Democrat-ruled city streets. Well, they give it two minutes:

Over the Fourth of July weekend, cities across the country saw widespread outbursts of violence. Dozens of people were shot, and at least five children died. Mark Strassmann reports.

ABC News gave it 3:49 on their Monday evening broadcast:

Retired NYPD official Robert Boyce said police morale is already low and defunding the police is “counterintuitive.”
https://youtu.be/dloYpEUi9gM

So, now we have the beginning of an acknowledgment of the carnage on our streets, thanks to the president and to his press secretary. What President Trump must do to clean up and go on to win is make a move towards a daring young man and pivot against the corporate Suits. He should tweet a simple apology along the lines of:

I said it wrong: @BubbaWallace has nothing to apologize for. NASCAR corporate bosses do. It should not have taken days and FBI resources.

NASCAR bosses had the security video and control of all employees. Should have solved the mystery and reassured their great young driver @BubbaWallace on Day One.

My apologies to @BubbaWallace and nothing but wishes of success in his racing career. I invite him and other athletes to join in a “Cease Fire” campaign for our great cities.

The president should then start turning corporate posturing and support for a Marxist front group into support for communities burned down and riddled with bullets. He should launch a “Cease Fire” public campaign for our cities. Ask Jim Brown to lead it.

To prevent future misfires, President Trump should take words from his speech, and his wife’s words, and make them his smartphone wallpaper:

Appeal to love and patriotism

Rise above their hate

Build a better future

Be Best!

Published in Politics
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  1. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Not only did he unfairly take on Bubba Wallace, in the same tweet and after a great patriotic speech he’s back to defending the Confederate flag.  Is that the hill he wants to die on and have the rest of us die with him?  If you notice, Pelosi and Biden have now outflanked him taking the position they oppose taking down statues of Jefferson, Washington and Columbus.  Meanwhile Trump is defending Jefferson Davis.  Do they mean it?  No, but it doesn’t matter.  They’ve staked out the middle ground.

    Trump continues to lack discipline and the media and Democrats have figured out how to bait him. He will respond to anything they toss up.  What is he doing taking on a race car driver anyway?  Stick to grousing on twitter about how Fox News isn’t supporting him enough.  If he wins, it will be despite himself.

    • #1
  2. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    I wish to God that in some ideal universe the President could see this and respond in the manner CAB respectfully suggests. Clifford A. Brown has the president’s interests at heart, he’s right.  

    • #2
  3. DonG (skeptic) Coolidge
    DonG (skeptic)
    @DonG

    There is no point in apologizing to the Twitter mob.  The news cycle moves on, Trump should move on quickly.  Its the economy that matters.

    • #3
  4. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    There is no point in apologizing to the Twitter mob. The news cycle moves on, Trump should move on quickly. Its the economy that matters.

    Not necessarily at the margins. It is not the Twitter mob. It is voters President Trump knows he needs but most of us on Ricochet don’t identify with.

    • #4
  5. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Right. Who cares about the NT vote? Not Trump. He doesn’t need a single NT vote. But–

    He needs the independents. They, not we, elected him–there aren’t enough of us. Sometimes they’re conservatives in everything but name, sometimes they are a fragmented set of interest groups with varying amounts of compatibility. Even if every last Bulwark reader started subscribing to American Greatness, it would take the 2016 people, ones who liked the GOP on national pride, but not on any war, any time naive attitudes about democracy. Ones who don’t see globalization as necessarily a win-win-win. Ones who are less fond than most Republicans of the economics of creative destruction. Ones who never belonged to the country club. 

    The independents aren’t “them”–the Republicans of yore–but they aren’t 100% “us” either. Trade unions are, to many of us, a once useful force (we disagree with classic FiCons there) that over the years became unnecessary and burdensome. We don’t hate ’em, but we don’t love ’em. Quite a lot of the 2016 crowd are more positive about unions than our more typical Wall Street Journal pals. 

    • #5
  6. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    Isn’t this the guy who thought his own peers put a noose in his garage? Called the police to investigate it and everything?

    And how is he defending Jefferson Davis? And what did he say about the Confederate flag?

    I don’t get how we’re all supposed to be so very tolerant of a perverted rainbow flag, but heaven help us if someone wants to fly the confederate flag.

    • #6
  7. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    And when we say confederate flag, exactly what are we talking about?

    • #7
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Stina (View Comment):
    Isn’t this the guy who thought his own peers put a noose in his garage? Called the police to investigate it and everything?

    He didn’t find the noose, someone else did, and NASCAR reported it to the police. Meanwhile, Bubba had not seen it. When he found out it was just a rope, not  a noose, he apologized for the mess.

    • #8
  9. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    Clifford A. Brown:

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    He didn’t find the noose, someone else did, and NASCAR reported it to the police. Meanwhile, Bubba had not seen it. When he found out it was just a rope, not a noose, he apologized for the mess.

    So Bubba has apologized and Trump should acknowledge that and maybe invite Bubba for a beer.

    • #9
  10. repmodad Inactive
    repmodad
    @Repmodad

    We are three-plus years into Trump’s presidency, and there’s a 1,400-word post on Ricochet urging him to apologize for something he did. That is the purest definition of optimism.

    • #10
  11. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown:

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    He didn’t find the noose, someone else did, and NASCAR reported it to the police. Meanwhile, Bubba had not seen it. When he found out it was just a rope, not a noose, he apologized for the mess.

    So Bubba has apologized and Trump should acknowledge that and maybe invite Bubba for a beer.

    It seemed more of a non-apology, especially coming after his appearance on the Don Lemon show in the wake of 15(!) FBI agents telling NASCAR that they wasted their time.  The real thing he should be apologizing for is insulting the NASCAR fanbase and promoting an Orwellian Marxist hate group (there are a lot more racists flying that logo than appropriating the Confederate flag).

    It might not have been politically advantageous, but it did send a message that he wasn’t going to sacrifice millions of Southerners to a woke mob because its the easy thing to do, or because he shared the Progressive disdain for them.

    Edit: I do agree that it would have been wiser to direct his attack at NASCAR officials, if only for the optics of the situation, but apologizing would do more harm than good.

    • #11
  12. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    I do not agree with the OP.

    There was a garage door rope pull tied in the shape of a noose.  The investigation determined that it had been there since October 2019, and could have had nothing to do with Bubba Watson, who was not assigned that particular garage until months later (some time in June 2020, apparently).

    The evidence is that the loop was tied in the shape of a “noose.”  You can see a picture here.

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Stina (View Comment):
    Isn’t this the guy who thought his own peers put a noose in his garage? Called the police to investigate it and everything?

    He didn’t find the noose, someone else did, and NASCAR reported it to the police. Meanwhile, Bubba had not seen it. When he found out it was just a rope, not a noose, he apologized for the mess.

    I have not seen an apology from Watson.

    According to this article, Watson called the so-called noose a “despicable act of racism and hatred,” on Instagram, before it was determined that it had nothing to do with him.

    According to this article, once it was determined that the so-called noose had nothing to do with Watson, he said: “Whether it was tied in 2019 or whenever, it was a noose. It wasn’t directed at me but somebody tied a noose.”

    He does not appear to have said that it was an overreaction.  (If he did, please provide a source, and I will stand corrected.)  He does not appear to have recanted his assertion that tying a rope in a certain way is a “despicable act of racism and hatred.”

    This is outright hysteria.  There are many ways to tie a loop in a piece of rope, and apparently, a knot that looks like a “noose” is completely impermissible now.  This is so strange.  There remains no evidence of who tied the rope in that fashion, or why. 

    I do think that it is important.  People are looking for racism, and like witch hunters, they find it everywhere.

    Watson could have done the right thing.  He could have said that there was an overreaction, including by him.  He did not.  I think that the President is correct in calling him out.

     

    • #12
  13. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Watson could have done the right thing. He could have said that there was an overreaction, including by him. He did not. I think that the President is correct in calling him out.

     

    Thanks for clarifying, Jerry. I believe your understanding is correct. I would disagree, however, with Trump going after Watson. In the scheme of things (with riots, shootings and the uncertainty about the virus), I’d like him to focus on bigger things. If the President went after everything the media blows up, he’d have no time for anything else. 

    • #13
  14. brad2971 Inactive
    brad2971
    @brad2971

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    I wish to God that in some ideal universe the President could see this and respond in the manner CAB respectfully suggests. Clifford A. Brown has the president’s interests at heart, he’s right.

    IDK. Whenever I see CAB give suggestion regarding Trump or any other Republican, I see Ralph Wiggum proclaim how “I’m Helping!”

    But let’s put that aside. Whenever anyone gets into a discussion about Trump’s undisciplined tweets (my goodness, how did Kellyanne Conway keep him off Twitter?!), I always ask this question: “What would things be like if Richard Nixon had Twitter?”

    Remember, this is a President who was recorded on White House tapes saying the military was greedy (are your ears burning yet, Clifford A Brown?). You don’t think half the stuff he said on the tapes would have been said via Twitter if Nixon had his hands on it? Including things that he said about Jews on tape? 

    And knowing that, is there any doubt in your mind that Nixon would have still won 49 states in 1972? Not to mention, probably would have escaped any attempt at impeachment.

    • #14
  15. DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care Member
    DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    Meanwhile, Bubba had not seen it. When he found out it was just a rope, not a noose, he apologized for the mess.

    He did? That’s news to me. He was still standing by “it was a noose” even after the FBI closed the case. The President of NASCAR (who I think is chiefly responsible for the mess) also spoke as if the case wasn’t really closed, and like OJ, is determined to get to the bottom of this crime.

    • #15
  16. DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care Member
    DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care
    @DrewInWisconsin

    I remain convinced that Steve(?) Phelps, the President of NASCAR, created this whole sideshow to draw attention to how “woke” NASCAR is. He was the one who went to Wallace personally to give him the terrible news of the “noose” — that had been there for at least seven months already. Was he not aware that all the garages had such “nooses”? Did he not know that it had been there since October? We know that Wallace had never been in the garage. I can’t imagine that Phelps goes out to tour through the garages. Which means that someone else with access to the garages had to see the “noose,” believe it was somehow unique to this particular garage (which, if you’ve seen video of the garages seems unlikely) and then go to Phelps to inform him.

    I think Phelps did all this for publicity. It’s the only way this makes sense at all.

    • #16
  17. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    brad2971 (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    I wish to God that in some ideal universe the President could see this and respond in the manner CAB respectfully suggests. Clifford A. Brown has the president’s interests at heart, he’s right.

    IDK. Whenever I see CAB give suggestion regarding Trump or any other Republican, I see Ralph Wiggum proclaim how “I’m Helping!”

    That seems uncalled for; I do not remember seeing any disrespect, explicit or implied, offered by Clifford toward those who disagree with his editorials, and he should receive the same courtesy.

    • #17
  18. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    This was what Bubba tweeted on June 28.  I’ll add the issue is not Bubba, it’s why does Trump keep stepping on his own message?

     

    Oops – wrong link – try this one

     

    • #18
  19. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):
    This was what Bubba tweeted on June 28. I’ll add the issue is not Bubba, it’s why does Trump keep stepping on his own message?

    https://twitter.com/BubbaWallace/status/1280208949749460999

    why does Trump keep stepping on his own message?

    Your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness at times. Humanity is flawed.

    • #19
  20. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    President Trump should Tweet about this, since 2012 4,229 people have been shot and killed in Chicago, 19,475 have been shot and wounded.

    Nascar, and Confederate flags are a nothing burger. 

    • #20
  21. HeavyWater Inactive
    HeavyWater
    @HeavyWater

    Trump’s opponent in November is Joe Biden, not NASCAR and not Bubba Wallace.  Focus !

    • #21
  22. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):
    This was what Bubba tweeted on June 28. I’ll add the issue is not Bubba, it’s why does Trump keep stepping on his own message?

    Oops – wrong link – try this one

     

    Thank you for finding this.

    I think that it confirms my prior impression.  This was not an apology, and not an admission of overreaction, in my view.  To the contrary, he thanks people for treating a hyperbolic overreaction “as a real threat.”

    I do not think that NASCAR has made the sport more welcoming.  I think that it has beaten an anti-white racist drum, treating its fans specifically — and all white people generally — as deplorables.  That is the message that I received.

    It does not matter much in my case, as I am not a NASCAR fan.  I am just mildly annoyed that the Wokeists seem to have taken over what used to be one of the most patriotic sports.

    I also don’t like the attacks on the confederate flag.  I’m not a fan of the Confederacy, and am glad that they were crushed by the Union.  I can understand how some could find the flag offensive, but I don’t take it that way, because I associate it with the Dukes of Hazzard.

    • #22
  23. Albert Arthur Coolidge
    Albert Arthur
    @AlbertArthur

    Bubba Wallace perpetrated a hoax. I’d never heard of him before in my entire life until he pretended to be the victim of a hate crime. He gets no respect from me.

    • #23
  24. Albert Arthur Coolidge
    Albert Arthur
    @AlbertArthur

    Doug Watt (View Comment):
    President Trump should Tweet about this, since 2012 4,229 people have been shot and killed in Chicago, 19,475 have been shot and wounded.

    Nascar, and Confederate flags are a nothing burger.

    • #24
  25. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):
    Meanwhile Trump is defending Jefferson Davis.

    Really? Where?

    • #25
  26. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Albert Arthur (View Comment):

    Doug Watt (View Comment):
    President Trump should Tweet about this, since 2012 4,229 people have been shot and killed in Chicago, 19,475 have been shot and wounded.

    Nascar, and Confederate flags are a nothing burger.

    Exactly the message he should stay with. Bubba Wallace isn’t running for President. Independent, and middle class Dem voters that are seeing their cities being destroyed could care less about Bubba Wallace.

    • #26
  27. DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care Member
    DrewInWisconsin Doesn't Care
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Doug Watt (View Comment):
    Bubba Watson isn’t running for President.

    But perhaps he could play golf with the President.

    • #27
  28. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    I corrected that thank you.

    • #28
  29. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    I’m a bit suspicious of any sport that features a pack of cars that only makes left turns. :)

    • #29
  30. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):
    This was what Bubba tweeted on June 28. I’ll add the issue is not Bubba, it’s why does Trump keep stepping on his own message?

    Oops – wrong link – try this one

    Thank you for finding this.

    I think that it confirms my prior impression. This was not an apology, and not an admission of overreaction, in my view. To the contrary, he thanks people for treating a hyperbolic overreaction “as a real threat.”

    I do not think that NASCAR has made the sport more welcoming. I think that it has beaten an anti-white racist drum, treating its fans specifically — and all white people generally — as deplorables. That is the message that I received.

    It does not matter much in my case, as I am not a NASCAR fan. I am just mildly annoyed that the Wokeists seem to have taken over what used to be one of the most patriotic sports.

    I also don’t like the attacks on the confederate flag. I’m not a fan of the Confederacy, and am glad that they were crushed by the Union. I can understand how some could find the flag offensive, but I don’t take it that way, because I associate it with the Dukes of Hazzard.

    The second one is what he posted about the incident.  The first one I posted was n

    Image

    The first one was what he sent in response to the President’s tweet about him.

    ot.

    • #30
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