Us politics

Kneeling, fundamentally an act of humility or deference, doesn’t seem the obvious protest against injustice when the National Anthem plays before a major American sporting event. The quarterback Colin Kaepernick made the gesture famous—and personal, since only he (and sometimes a couple of teammates) did it before his San Francisco 49ers took to the field for games in 2016. But two weeks ago, inflamed by President Trump, dozens of players (mainly black players, who make up around 75 per cent of the National Football League) did it, across the NFL. Their kneeling took different forms, and some contortions seemed to suggest ambivalence, with players kneeling then rising once the music started; others lopsidedly clasped their kneeling neighbour as they remained standing.

Donald Trump’s statement to the nation about Las Vegas was platitudinous. Speeches by leaders in the wake of such horrors tend to be. But it wasn’t bad. He did the necessary: he called the slaughter ‘pure evil’, he thanked the Las Vegas police and protection services for their professionalism, he offered comfort and condolences to the families of the victims, and he called for America to unite in grief. ‘In moments of tragedy and horror America comes together as one, and it always has,’ he said. ‘It is our love that defines us today, and always will, forever.’ Schmaltzy stuff, but exactly what America wanted to hear. His speech was explicitly Christian, too, in a way that President Obama’s responses to mass shootings tended to avoid.

Beware the Moore. This is the doctrine that establishment Republicans such as the Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who poured in millions of dollars to try and defeat Judge Roy Moore’s bid for the Republican Senate primary nomination in Alabama, were preaching in recent months. For good measure, President Trump also backed the current Senator Luther Strange, who was crushed yesterday by Moore. Trump has hastily deleted his tweets supporting Strange, including one declaring that 'Big Luther,’ as Trump likes to call him, was 'shooting up' in the polls after he endorsed him. Now, Trump is tweeting that Moore 'sounds like a really great guy who ran a fantastic race. He will help to #MAGA!’ For Trump, this primary is a mere flesh wound.

Donald Trump’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly was both an echo of George W. Bush and something original. At times, one expected the president to lapse into a Texas drawl and warn about 'nuclear weapons'; at others he was distinctly The Donald. Despite the seeming contradiction, it was a fairly cogent and consistent address; it also overflowed with the customary bombast. Trump began firmly in carrot-top mode, gloating about how well the American economy had done since he was inaugurated. Then came an abrupt escalation: 'Rogue regimes represented in this body not only support terrorists,' Trump warned, 'but threaten other nations and their own people with the most destructive weapons known to humanity.

While Donald Trump seeks to cut a deal with the Democrats on immigration, his detractors on the right are starting to resemble the sinister clown Pennywise in the popular new horror movie It, who terrorizes a small town in Maine by living in a sewer and snacking on children. ‘Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair,’ writes Rep Steve King from Iowa, a longtime foe of illegal immigration. Trump’s specific sin? He’s wavering on booting out the so-called Dreamers, about 800,000 undocumented children under the age of 16 who crossed the border with alone or with their parents, in many cases as toddlers.