Trump’s latest endorsement isn’t just ‘Trump being crazy’ – it’s far worse than that: columnist

Writing in the Washington Post this Wednesday, Greg Sargent highlighted President Trump's endorsement of Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who regularly espouses anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant bigotry. Sargent contends that the endorsement isn't just another example of Trump being terrible -- it "illuminates the stakes of the 2020 presidential race in a fresh way — one that should help forestall the sort of terrible errors in media coverage of Trump’s hate-mongering that we saw in 2016."

Trump congratulated Loomer for her primary win for her congressional run in Florida. "These things are often described with euphemistic phrases such as 'stoking our divisions' or 'betting on the culture war,'" Sargent writes. "But Trump’s championing of Loomer should compel a much clearer reckoning, one that faithfully conveys what we’re really seeing here: Reactionary illiberalism and nativist incitement of anti-immigrant hate."

According to Sargent, Trump's enthusiastic endorsement of Loomer is not just another example of his usual "culture war politics" or "crazy Trump being crazy Trump."

"It’s extreme radicalization. And we need to get the language right this time," he writes.

Read the full op-ed over at The Washington Post.