From mocking President Donald Trump for rightly calling out both sides in Charlottesville to claiming Donald Trump’s “incendiary” style makes David Duke and the now-axed Steve Bannon happy, Axios yet again succeeds in making my job easier

Below is a list of the most egregious examples from the past week:

1. This is where Axios mocks Trump for being factually correct as reports on the ground in Charlottesville indicate … And so what if there was backlash from Republicans? That makes them incorrect too.

However you look at it, President Trump’s suggestion that “many sides” were responsible for the racist carnage in Charlottesville, Va., produced an instant backlash even from some top Republicans:

• At 3:33 p.m., Trump said in televised remarks from his golf club in New Jersey: “[W]e’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides.”
• Then he added defensively: “It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.”
• Former Vice President Biden had the most succinct reaction: “There is only one side. #charlottesville.”

2. POTUS: “We condemn in the STRONGEST possible terms this egregious display of bigotry, hatred and violence.” Axios quoting the NYT: “Not good enough!”

The N.Y. Times’ Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman note in a story on p. A14 headlined, “Critics Slam Trump’s Tepid Condemnation of Violence on ‘Many Sides’ in Virginia”: “Trump is rarely reluctant to express his opinion, but he is often seized by caution when addressing the violence and vitriol of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right activists, some of whom are his supporters.

3. There was nothing in Trump’s statement that even suggested he in any way creates the “impression” of racism, unless the reporters on the ground and VA state police spokeswoman are also giving that impression. Be smart, Axios. 

Be smart: Being a leader is taking your people where they don’t want to go, or don’t know they want to go. Being president is about rising to the occasion, not shrinking to your base. Large swaths of Trump’s base don’t think like this. The vast majority of conservative Americans aren’t racists. Trump does them a disservice by creating that impression [emphasis mine], and by coddling or fearing the few who resist loving one another.

4. Axios: “Trump can fix this, if he abandons the extremists that elected him and became a Democrat.” You’re killing me, Axios. 

Today’s his chance to do that in a big way, on a subject that matters vitally to a fractured, fractious country. Trump’s challenge is to lead the more extreme elements [emphasis mine] of his own coalition, and also resonate with America’s great middle.

5. Axios, we get it. You want Trump to be more like Democrats, particularly JFK and FDR because of their great “moral authority.”  JFK was a notorious womanizer and FDR interned Japanese-Americans because of their race. Really killer moral authority there, Axios.

David Gergen, White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton), tells CNN that “for starters,” Trump should call the families of the three who were killed:

• “Martin Luther King was thrown into jail [just before the 1960 election], and the Nixon people remained quiet … John Kennedy placed a phone call to … Coretta Scott King, to express his great concern and support for her. And it made a difference. It sent a clear signal.”
• “I think the president’s team ought to be devising a series of steps that would be healing and would show a recognition and an acceptance on his part that we’re dealing with terrorists.”
• “[H]e has to denounce this … to build up the moral authority [emphasis mine] of his presidency. … [A]s Franklin Roosevelt once famously said, the presidency ‘is preeminently a place of moral leadership.'”
• “[R]epeatedly in American history, questions have come up about right versus wrong, and it’s been up for the President, whoever is in that office, to identify what is morally right. … President Trump needs to provide moral clarity on what we’re facing.”

6. Actually, a majority of American’s felt that race relations worsened under former President Barack Obama. Moreover,  Antifa + white supremacists = both “sides.” Trump’s base lapped it up because it’s true, and Antifa attacked many of them during the campaign for supporting Trump.

But it wasn’t until the past five days — in a fight over a Southern statue narrowly, and the stain of slavery broadly — that Trump officially and indelibly divided the nation over race: setting us back decades, at least for now, in our common purpose of healing old, awful wounds:

• Yesterday’s unplanned press conference — with Trump’s declaration that “I think there’s blame on both sides” for the violence of Charlottesville, and his searing question: “What about the alt-left?” — was praised by David Duke and alt-right hotbed Breitbart.
• Let’s be honest with ourselves: A huge chunk of Trump’s base lapped it up, too. That’s what Steve Bannon thought would unfold, and what the president knows instinctively.
• It was a green light for more hatred, and probably more violence — because now the president has put white supremacy on the same level as angry people reacting harshly to it.
• Anthony Mason, anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” which devoted the full half hour to the aftermath of Charlottesville, said at the top: “There was no script this time. … President Trump said what he really believes happened in Charlottesville.”

7. At seven months in to Trump’s presidency, Axios is already declaring it a failure. Also, Trump is the least popular kid at school. Time to pack it in and appoint Hillary. 

 1 big thing: Trump’s 7 months of self-destruction

President Trump, with at least two years of full Republican control of government at the national and state levels, has systematically damaged or destroyed his relationship with — well, almost every group or individual essential to success.

• Why it matters: Trump’s undisciplined and incendiary style has left the most powerful man in the world with few friends — not one in the United States Senate, for instance.

8. Oh Axios, you had me at claiming Trump alienated the media, no need to add that he makes David Duke happy. Pro tip: most American’s actually pay attention and aren’t this easily fooled. And Steve Bannon’s not so happy after being fired Friday, is he?

Trump started with a pretty clean slate but has methodically alienated:

• The public: Gallup has his approval at 34%, down from 46% just after the inauguration.
• Republican congressional leaders — Senate Majority Mitch McConnell in particular.
• Every Democrat who could help him do a deal.
• The media.
• CEOs.
• World leaders.
• Europe.
• Muslims.
• Hispanics.
• African Americans.
• Military leaders.
• The intelligence community.
• His own staff.

And who’s happy?

• Steve Bannon.
• Saudi Arabia.
• Breitbart.
• David Duke.

Be smart: The presidency is a lonely job. But Trump is unusually isolated because he thinks he needs no one besides himself. As one of his most ardent defenders told me: “He’s just not as good as he thinks he is. And no one can tell him.”

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