Good point. It’s hard to separate how much of what Trump does is genuine and how much is merely an act for his rabid fan base. But sometimes you can.
Trump sticking by and mostly following Dr. Fauci is one example. Trumpists here on ImgFlip hate Dr. Fauci and social distancing, but whenever I point out he is a Trump-appointed official, they pretty much go silent.
HRC is another example.
Recall that “Lock her up” was something Trump’s crowds shouted at him. Trump sure didn’t do much to discourage it (unlike McCain who famously chastised a supporter for calling Obama a Muslim), but nor did he actually move on HRC once getting into office, either.
Which is good, because politically persecuting defeated election opponents is something that only happens in dictatorships.
However, Trump’s proven perfectly willing to politically persecute folks like McCabe, Comey, and the Bidens using his Twitter feed and dubious backchannels rather than going through his own FBI and/or Justice Department. All of that has been troubling from a rule-of-law perspective and, yes, impeachment-worthy.
I‘m not aware Trump’s supporters actually encouraged him to sack Sondland and Vindman in retaliation 2 days after impeachment: That was Trump’s own doing. But Trump’s supporters sure did carry water for him on that decision after that. “Firing impeachment witnesses is not technically illegal!” Well, okay: but is it something to celebrate? What does permitted retaliation mean in terms of holding Trump accountable for any future misconduct?
So, yeah. Trump isn’t off the hook by any means, but on certain issues, we should be aware of the daylight between him and his generally even more insane supporters.
Shutting down the press is another issue where Trump supporters go off the rails. I just saw a meme on the front page of “politics” calling for just that. I ain’t gonna link it but you can only imagine. Above is my reaction meme.
Trump himself constantly bashes journalists and has even threatened to sue for libel (it’s totally baseless for a President to assert a libel claim by the way — he’s a public political figure, the very most public political figure in fact, and criticizing him is therefore a core First Amendment right).
But Trump’s so far stopped short of actually calling for shutting down news outlets, as far as I’m aware.
Which is good, because again: that would equal dictatorship.
But Trump still bears blame for using the bully pulpit to bully journalists and doing basically nothing to discourage supporters from feeling this way.
