Day 929: Obama criticized gun violence. Trump projected as if he was called a racist.

Barack Obama posted a touching message paying tribute to the victims and their families after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. He was also critical of the uniquely American problem that is mass shootings and how racist ideologies are infecting society and making people feel compelled to act.

Obama specifically singled out “white nationalist websites” and racism espoused from “any of our leaders.” However, Donald Trump — and Fox News — read the statement and assumed that Obama must have been talking about Trump.

Maybe he was, and maybe it was a statement about the larger forces of evil that have taken root in towns and cities across the country, where white nationalists suddenly feel empowered in a way they haven’t for decades.

Trump felt the need to defend himself and denounce Obama when he wasn’t personally attacked. Fox rushed to defend Trump from a statement that denounced gun violence and racism. That’s textbook projection: ‘he must be talking about me.’

For the nth time, Trump has proclaimed himself “the least racist person” despite a laundry list of evidence to the contrary.

Trump’s absurdly weak argument that he isn’t racist boils down to unemployment numbers for minorities. Over the past decade, those numbers have tracked the same trend lines, largely from the improvements and gains made during the Obama era. To equate long-term unemployment trends to individual inclinations of one man almost defies belief. It’s somehow even more shallow of an argument than “I can’t be racist because I have [Black/Hispanic/Asian] friends!” If unemployment figures are your best argument for why you’re not racist, you’ve already lost.

And if you’re tilting at windmills because you think people are talking about you when they’re really talking about life and death issues of national importance — and haven’t even said your name — you might be Don Quixote Trump.

929 days in, 533 to go

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