Perhaps Trump should finally make a speech, to the nation on prime time television, bypassing the biased media. He should address the protests/demonstrations that continue, directly talking to the American people.
First he should condemn the violence in no uncertain terms. That would appeal to, I think (or at least hope), the vast majority of Americans. He should point out the destruction being done to people's businesses, homes, and cars. He should strongly condemn the beatings and killings of what some of the media have called "peaceful demonstrations."
Second, he should question the actions of the protesters, specifically the destruction of memorials and monuments. Not all of the attempts to topple them are in the least bit warranted. Do these ignorant demonstrators know anything about US Grant and the Civil War, the winning of which led to the practical emancipation of the slaves? (I am not downplaying the Emancipation Proclamation or the 13th Amendment, nor Lincoln's and others' roles in ending slavery.) If their goals are what they claim them to be, Trump should ask (and not rhetorically) why memorials to Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and other abolitionists are being defaced, ruined, and destroyed? Should ignorance be the driving force behind these demonstrations and violence?
Third, and this one would be difficult to finesse, but it's needed, he should ask the demonstrators why they have never protested the black-on-black murders in places like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, etc. Doesn't/Didn't the life of Mekhi James, the three-year old who was shot in a drive-by last weekend in Chicago, "matter?" (I know, I know. There is a difference between police brutality and shootings by thugs. But the end result, to the families, is the same--a wasted life.) "Why haven't the 60+ shootings in Chicago just last weekend alone, the 100+ shootings in NYC just last week alone, etc. attracted your anger? They haven't even attracted your concern!"
Specifically, he could then call out the hypocritical and cowardly corporations, which have become too numerous to name individually, who have sided with and financed BLM. Also, "Hey NFL and its players! Why haven't you taken knees for the likes of Mehki James or any of the three teen-age girls shot and killed last week in Chicago, too?"
Then he could address the college kids and their professors, you know, the ones who know everything and aren't afraid to tell us. "Why aren't you upset enough to demonstrate against murders like Mekhi's?" (Yeah, I'm fixated on Mekhi James, but the murder of a three-year old breaks my heart.)
Before going on national television, though, Trump should invite Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others to sit with him as a show of unity for the black community and its lives. I have no doubts they would decline, making up all sorts of excuses. But then Trump could throw that back on them, asking the black community, "Why have your self-anointed black leaders," he could name them, "refused to sit in support of my anger at so many black lives lost in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Los Angeles.....?"
This is a speech that will never happen. I think such a speech, while ticking off the left, Democrats, and the Lamestream media (as does everything "Trump") would show leadership from the President. I'm talking real leadership, not bullying. Too many of Trump's followers still equate his bullying and juvenile tweets/twits with leadership.
I think a problem is that Trump has been so adolescent that few people other than his die hard supporters would listen. That is, in part, their fault. But it's also, in part, Trump's. Only the Trumpsters would listen--and they listen no matter what he says. But it's not them he needs to convince.
I also don't think Trump is capable of a serious speech. He lacks the ability to deliver one. And he doesn't recognize the messages that need to be sent.
Just a thought or two on this: the demonstrations and violence, the troubles in the black community, real Presidential leadership.
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