What Trump’s ‘Hamilton’ tweets tell us about his coming presidency
Hint: They tells us a lot, but nothing his voters didn’t know before.
Over the course of the first post-election weekend, two events happened that crystallized the social and political divide in the United States that has been exacerbated by Trump’s Electoral College win.
On Friday, with VP-elect Mike Pence in the audience, one of show’s performers read a message about inclusiveness after the curtain call, as Pence departed. While Pence quickly commented that he was not offended by the incident and instead complimented the show, Trump angrily fired off three tweets attacking the political statement (he ended up deleting one of the tweets).
The first tweet…
…and the second:
A few days later, a white nationalist group called the National Policy Institute (NPI) gathered in Washington, DC at a venue named after Ronald Reagan, just blocks from the Capitol. Toward the end of the event, group’s president went on a tirade against Jews, women, and people of color, underscored with the statement “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory” — to which the audience returned straight-armed Nazi salutes and engaging.
Trump’s angry Twitter response to this group’s behavior?
Wait … we’re still looking. All we can find within the time frame he would have responded to this Nazi conference was a complaint about Saturday Night Live.
This sequence of diametrically opposed cultural and political events, and Trump’s responses-and-non-responses, tells us a lot about the kind of president he will be — but nothing that we all and especially his supporters and voters didn’t know before:
- Trump will never act ‘presidential,’ especially as long as he continues to operate his Twitter account. There is no indication that his approach on @realDonaldTrump will change after the inauguration. What “approach” is that? His unique “Shock-Jock-CEO” routine that started with the Obama Birther movement and will continue, as proven by the Hamilton and SNL tweets. (“Overrated!” “Nothing funny at all!” This is a U.S. president-elect talking?)
- Trump is dangerously thin-skinned. This one doesn’t require much more comment or explanation. I imagine Pence could have handled himself in this situation on his own, on Twitter afterward or otherwise. In fact, the VP’s comments afterward were pretty astute and defused the whole situation. But Trump just couldn’t help himself.
- Trump and Pence are not on the same page. As noted by their ‘Hamilton’ reactions above, Trump and Pence have this twisted good cop-bad cop routine. It’s as if we’ve elected two Republican presidents — an establishment President Jekyll and his crazy unhinged President Hyde. Given that Pence seems to be doing all the intelligence briefings, Trump seems to instead fancy himself the Chairman of the Board of the U.S.A., with Pence the CEO of his U.S. Government Executive Branch subsidiary, and his children the CEO’s of his company.
- Trump has an authoritarian bent. The usage of the words “This should not happen!” and “Apologize!” in those tweets is disturbing. He’s establishing that when he is president, he will not tolerate dissent of this kind. He will not allow himself or his surrogates to endure even the least amount of discomfort from the opposition and will not be embarrassed. Our tradition of criticizing and poking fun at our presidents is what sets the United States apart as a beacon of democracy. Trump doesn’t seem to care for that.
- Where the alt-right and white supremacists are concerned, Trump is still wearing blinders and kid gloves. Trump’s lack of any similarly stern or angry tweet-storm response to the rise in hate crimes and the emboldened white nationalist movement is disappointing but not surprising. His weak statements (“I disavow;” “Stop it”) are always reactive to a question from the press and in no way proactive. Alec Baldwin’s parody of him draws fire, but the NPI’s Nazi salutes in his name do not.
- Trump is just on some other planet. “The theater should be a safe an special place” — where freedom of expression shouldn’t happen? He also ‘hears’ Hamilton is “overrated.” From who?? Certainly not Pence, certainly not … anyone. Maybe Breitbart’s Broadway reviews page.
Over half of those citizens who voted did not support Trump. Many of us are wanting to give the victorious Trump the benefit of the doubt, following President Obama’s lead for the good of the country. Trump’s reaction to the ‘Hamilton’ speech, in tandem with his continued alt-right acquiescence, is a slap in the face to those of us who were willing to give him a chance — on grounds that he at minimum start by setting aside his darkest tendencies. Draining his own campaign’s swamp of bigotry would have been a positive gesture to those of us willing to at least start listening. Instead, it appears that those dark elements — Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn—are leading his charge.
