“Donald Trump may have finally gone too far”: Pundits have been writing that sentence once a week since he declared his candidacy last June. But while the Donald has survived his defamations of war heroes, disabled people, and a variety of ethnic groups, it’s difficult to see how he can explain away his latest comments on America’s president: In an interview with Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, Trump suggested that Barack Hussein Obama feels genuine sadness when contemplating murdered children.
The remarks come one day after the president broke into “tears” while announcing new executive orders to deter gun violence. As he evoked the memory of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, Obama let a couple of drops of eye fluid drip down his cheeks. That strange substance was immediately identified by conservative news site Breitbart as “Phony Fascist Tears.” Subsequent reports by journalists at Fox News and National Review confirmed Breitbart’s scoop, although there was some disagreement over exactly how the president had achieved this facsimile of human grief. While Breitbart staff writer John Nolte believes Obama applied some tear-inducing substance to his upper cheek, others argued that the effect could have been achieved by the strategic placement of a raw onion tucked inside the East Room’s lectern.
But on Wednesday morning, the front-runner for the Republican nomination offered his own outlandish explanation for Weepghazi. “Well, I actually think he was sincere,” Trump told the Fox News morning crew. This time, even the billionaire himself recognized the severity of his comment, conceding, “I’ll probably go down 5 points in the polls by saying that.”
As the mogul tried to clarify the remark, he only compounded his error. “I mean, I think it’s a thing that he feels — you know I think that he’s incorrect about it,” the soon-to-be-former GOP front-runner said. “But you know, I think he probably means well.”
What’s so troubling about Trump’s gaffe is the bizarre vision of political conflict that it implies. In Trumpworld, Barack Obama can simultaneously hold incorrect views on gun policy and experience recognizable human emotions. It’s hard to imagine the American people making peace with such a radical proposal.
