My phone blew up yesterday with texts from White House aides, current and former, who seemed at their wits' end over President Trump's tweet that the 75-year-old Buffalo protester who was rushed to the hospital after being shoved by police last week "could be an ANTIFA provocateur."
Why it matters: They rarely register the president's tweets anymore — let alone complain about them. This one felt different.
- Here was Trump — struggling in the polls, damaged with independents and women who hate his tone — trafficking in a bizarre conspiracy that he had seen on the right-wing OANN cable network to excuse a blatant example of police misconduct.
- All this on the morning of George Floyd's funeral.
The context: POTUS aides and the campaign had constructed this week around getting Trump into the conversation around rebuilding/recovering, listening to ideas about police reform, etc.
- One former aide remarked that it's tweets like this that make him wonder whether Trump actually wants to get re-elected.
