New York Magazine: “If one imagines Trump to be a rational political actor, it is difficult to make sense of these actions. According to Axios, Trump soured on Kushner’s calls for triangulation on criminal justice out of concern that indulging such reforms might be ‘seen as undercutting police’ — as though anti-reform cops and Blue Lives Matter bumper-sticker owners were swing constituencies. George Floyd’s death has created plenty of political challenges for Trump. But one thing it absolutely hasn’t done is jeopardize the Republican Party’s grip on single-issue, ‘unshackle the police’ voters.”

“If subjecting the United States to the worst coronavirus outbreak in the developed world — and the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression — has not cost Trump the support of his culturally conservative base, then an executive order barring cops from using choke holds (unless they really feel like it) isn’t going to either. A president with a 40 percent approval rating doesn’t need to sweat the enthusiasm of his faithful; an enthused voter’s ballot doesn’t count for more than a reluctant one’s. Rather, Trump’s overriding preoccupation should be winning back the voters who’ve been drifting away from him. And there is no evidence that such Americans have been alienated by his failure to turn the racial demagoguery dial up to 11. As The Atlantic’s David Graham notes, the recent upsurge in white Americans’ support for Black Lives Matter has corresponded with a precipitous drop in Trump’s standing among the demographic.”