Former President Donald Trump drew scorn on CNN Tuesday when a panel discussed his Memorial Day message in which he attacked what he called "human scum" that he said were destroying the United States of America.
After watching a clip of President Joe Biden's Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery and contrasting it with Trump's angry message, The Atlantic's David Frum argued that Trump was engaging in a deliberate strategy that he believed represented the current fragmented media environment.
"Joe Biden is... speaking to all Americans in ways that offend nobody," Frum said. "And Donald Trump, his tick has always been, 'I'm going after the people who don't like the rules, I'm going after those who don't like the ceremonies, don't care and don't think it speaks to them, and I'm looking for this channel for aggression.' And that's what he was doing. He woke up that morning feeling full of rage and bile and he expressed it. And there are rage-filled, bilious people in the country to whom that speaks."
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Former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, however, predicted that Trump's Memorial Day rant about "human scum" would not be beneficial to him politically.
"On a day when you're celebrating fallen soldiers, who most people in this country have a family tie to, or a friend, and he takes it and makes it about him, he's like the guy in your friend group who turns everything to him," she said. "It's obnoxious and it gets old. I think there's an element of tapping into anger that certainly resonates with people. But on a day when even people who are bought into the Trump dogma as possible would say it's about honoring people who sacrificed for this country that we all love. Taking it and making it about him and his personal grievances... I just don't believe that's what people want."
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