According to a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, Donald Trump's professed belief that there is not a rising tide of white nationalism could be the end result of not paying attention to his national security advisers or being unable to comprehend what is being told to him - or both.
Writing for the Post, Jennifer Rubin was unsparing in her criticism of the president following his comments about white nationalism after the mosque massacre in New Zealand when he questioned whether it was a growing threat worldwide.
Calling him a "derelict commander in chief," Rubin wrote: "Let’s consider the possibilities as to why he should appear so glaringly uninformed on the key aspect of his job, performing the duties of the commander in chief."
"News reports suggest he’s not getting his presidential daily briefing every day. If so, and if he has missed the widely reported trend of white-nationalist terrorism (likely because Fox News doesn’t cover it very much), it would be a function of his irresponsibility and laziness," she charged.
According to Rubin -- who has made no secret of her disdain for Trump by calling on Republicans to vote for a Democrat in the 2020 presidential election -- the intelligence reports may challenge his intellect to understand them.
"Another possibility is that Trump gets the briefings, has been told about white-nationalist terrorism but cannot fully process or retain the information," she wrote before sarcastically adding, "One can imagine that someone who has dispensed his lawyer to threaten schools not to release his grades may have an academic record that is consistent with his current inability to grasp important material."
Rubin also suggested Trump may have another private reason for turning a blind eye to the rising threat.
"White-nationalism-inspired terrorist attacks don’t do anything for Trump," she explained. "It’s all about him, so if the information doesn’t help solidify his base — or, worse, alienates them because they are defensive about harboring ideologies that can inspire violence (and already have) — the information must be ignored. It must be discounted and dubbed 'fake'."
She concluded, "We do have to contemplate the very real possibility that Trump’s policy is always Trump First — and he’ll sell our allies, innocents and his own country down the river if that’s what it takes to maintain power and insulate his mammoth ego. How much he believes his own lies is unknown and unimportant. What matters is that he makes us all less safe."
You can read the whole thing here.
