What Is Trump Thinking?

Playbook: “It’s difficult to divine the thinking of any politician, and especially difficult to figure out what Trump is thinking. But best we can tell — from his public tweets and the aides around him — he believes a majority of Americans should be more focused on the chaos they’re seeing on their screens than they are on racism and the systematic mistreatment of black and brown people.”

“It is not fair to say he has not addressed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — he has — but he has dwelled far more on the looting and rioting that some have engaged in amid these protests. Here’s a maxim in politics that a source raised to us this weekend: Suburban moms — a catch-all for a kind of voter who has all but abandoned Trump — care about safety. Perhaps if they believe the unrest will come to their doorstep or into their communities, they will vote for the man who is cracking down on it.”

“The other possibility is that this might be a moment so big that it scrambles the traditional divide.”