“Even as president, Mr. Trump has often appeared most comfortable in the role of back-seat driver, jeering his own government like a common bystander, insisting that someone really ought to do something about all this. (‘When he has an opinion,’ Mr. Pence said, ‘he is liable to share it.’)” reports the New York Times.
“The effect during a week like this one — as a public health crisis proceeds apace and unrest consumes Kenosha, Wis., after another police shooting of a Black man — is particularly jarring, all the more because Mr. Trump has also strained throughout the convention to display himself in various scenes of presidential busyness: issuing a pardon, meeting with freed hostages, presiding over a naturalization ceremony. In the process, Mr. Trump and his team have effectively ignored distinctions between campaign activity and official business — less line-blurring than ostensible law-violating — co-opting public resources for political gain. Through it all, the intended takeaway has seemed clear: Mr. Trump is in control of the good but not responsible for the bad, worthy of praise for America’s successes and exoneration for its struggles.”