Trump’s spiteful and hostile moves suggest his own lack of faith in his predictions that our economy will take off like 'a rocket ship': op-ed

Writing in the Washington Post today, columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. says that when it comes to President Trump's reelection strategy, all he can offer white middle-class voters "whose support he desperately needs to win back is — a culture war."

"Trump’s vile speeches at Mount Rushmore on Friday and at the White House on the Fourth of July signal that he sees one and only one possible path to victory: He will tear an already riven nation to pieces," Dionne writes.

Dionne mentions the hypocrisy of Trump's fear-mongering about far-left "fascism" while he at the same time spreads his brand of far-right nationalism, then scrambling for cover "behind Abraham Lincoln and quotations from Martin Luther King Jr."

Trump’s "spiteful and hostile moves" this July 4 weekend when we celebrate the equal rights of all to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are alarming, Dionne writes. "But they are also a sign of weakness. They suggest his own lack of faith in his predictions that our economy will take off like 'a rocket ship.'"

"It’s true that Trump’s Independence weekend escapades mean we face months of being led by someone so desperate to avoid defeat that he will warp our history, shatter what little unity we have left, and leave it to others to clear the wreckage," Dionne writes. "But there is hope here, too: Trump is acting like a frightened man who realizes that if his opponents keep their heads and avoid rising to his bait, his days are numbered."

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