Donald Trump, meet Avery Brundage, the former president of the International Olympic Committee.

Back in the day, the day being September 1972, Brundage declared that the Munich Olympics “must go on” after Palestinian terrorists had massacred 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team – the same number of American Jews slaughtered this past Shabbat in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Sometimes history rhymes.

Like Brundage, Trump couldn’t be bothered to change his plans. Not with Republican control of the House on the line.

Instead of taking a moment off the campaign trail, Trump announced that the show must go on, and it did. Adding insult to injury, Trump falsely claimed that even Wall Street only shuttered for a day after 9/11.

For those in touch with reality, the stock market was actually closed for six days. But then again, who’s counting? Definitely not the president.

Indeed, Trump mused that the only reason to have canceled his Saturday rally was that he was having a bad hair day.

Pittsburgh shooting: thousands march to remember victims and denounce Trump's visit Read more

With the latest Gallup poll showing that Trump’s numbers are now in retrograde – minus-14 overall and down eight points in just a week – don’t expect Trump to embrace civility for more than a news cycle. Sure, he visited Pittsburgh on Tuesday, but there are still days to go before election day, plenty of time for Trump to “really tone it up”.

Shredding the social fabric is what Trump unapologetically does. As he bragged to the Washington Post during the Republican primaries: “I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have.” Don’t expect him to stop now.

As for Vice-President Mike Pence, he denounced violence and branded the shooting as “evil”, but was not about to muzzle his boss. Rather, the vice-president denied that Trump’s rhetoric had any connection to violence in the run-up to the midterms. According to Pence: “We want free and open political debate in America where everyone expresses themselves passionately and openly.” If only.

Rather, from the looks of things, violence has no place – unless it does. Apparently, Pence forgot that Trump called Montana’s Greg Gianforte “my guy” for body-slamming the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs. As Trump put it: “Greg is smart. And by the way, never wrestle him. You understand. Never.”

Not surprisingly but disappointingly, Steve Scalise, the Republican party’s whip in the House who survived an assassination attempt, was equally forgiving of Trump’s rhetorical flourishes, saying: “President Trump was clearly ribbing Congressman Gianforte for last year’s incident … It’s obvious he was not encouraging his supporters to engage in attacks.”

Obvious? Not so much. Make no mistake, Trump has recast the Republican party in his own image.

He labels the press as the “enemies of the people”, and others readily echo his tropes. Think Newt Gingrich, the disgraced former speaker of the House, and Mike Huckabee, the father of Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders. Both have bought into what the president is selling.

Likewise, there is also now a place in the Republican party for bullyboy politics and Jew-baiting too, even with Ivanka and Jared around. The memes of the 2016 campaign’s closing days have simply been updated.

At the time, it was Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Janet Yellen and Lloyd Blankfein on the receiving end. The latest roster for incoming barbs includes Soros (again), Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg.

No less than Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House majority leader, tweeted that line of attack – even after Soros and Steyer had been targeted by the accused bomber Cesar Sayoc. As for Trump, he too took aim at Steyer on Sunday. Meanwhile in Florida, Ron DeSantis, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful is expressing his fear that Soros could infiltrate the Sunshine state’s government.

The Republican party won’t buck the president anytime soon. Trump’s “both sides” take on Charlottesville is now the Republicans’ new normal.

Florida’s Senator Marco Rubio condemned the Squirrel Hill massacre, but refused to link the president’s rhetoric to violent outcomes. Apparently, legal culpability is now the operative standard for judging this administration’s conduct among the party faithful – and even then …

As America’s cold civil war continues to heat up, civility is in short supply. Having ridden the whirlwind to electoral college victory, Trump lacks all incentive to lower the temperature. Ronald Reagan’s pronouncement that “many people, many people are welcome in our house, but not the bigots” is now an artifact.

As for the rest of Republican elected officials, they understand that the base loves Trump a lot more than it loves them, and that Trump’s voters will exact vengeance at the ballot box for anything less than obeisance. Like Brundage at Munich, the Republican party is prepared to let Trump’s game go on.