How Trump retreats: Grudging apologies, plus a wink and a nod to the original insult
By Marc Fisher
July 17 at 6:33 PM
As a young man on the make in Manhattan, as a political candidate and as president, Donald Trump has relied for half a century on a basic rule of behavior: To win, one must never apologize.
But sometimes life offers no choice but to back down, and when that happens to Trump, he has crafted a method of apology that is equal parts retreat and doubling down.
On Tuesday, President Trump felt compelled to pull back on his statement in Helsinki on Monday that embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s version of the 2016 presidential campaign interference story over the facts presented by U.S. intelligence services.
Trump saw that he had to respond to a torrent of criticism from his political base as well as from the opposition. But the way he delivered his statement of retreat was classic Trump, a dual message — a ritual statement of confidence in U.S. intelligence officials for those who insist that the president respect the nation’s systems and mores, but also winks and nods to those who like Trump expressly because he’s eager to smash china and topple tradition.
As he began to read his statement reversing what he’d said in Helsinki, Trump, who started his appearance with less formal comments about his European trip, made a show of demonstrating to the TV audience that he was now reading from a script.
Although he’d been speaking for several minutes, he abruptly changed to a more formal tone of voice, and said, “So I’ll begin by stating that I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies.”
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-trump-retreats-grudging-apologies-plus-a-wink-and-a-nod-to-the-original-insult/2018/07/17/ea7ac346-89f9-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html