At first glance, it looked like maybe a blunder, some political overplaying of the hand, the Sunday move by President Trump that could finally make the internally warring Democrats circle their fractious wagons and unite. It certainly was politically risky.

....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, “RACIST.” Their disgusting language..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2019

....and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged. If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2019

Trump was horning in on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's public catfight with four far-left fellow Democratic representatives after one of them, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was last seen calling Pelosi racist. Pelosi had merely told the "squad" to keep their internal party disagreements with others on the inside. They ignored that and whipped out the race card, signaling that Pelosi is powerless, and they were trying to take her down.

Trump not only defended Pelosi as a non-racist, which must have given Pelosi heartburn — the work of a master troll, as Thomas Lifson put it earlier...but dug the knife in further. This one was savage.

He made a series of outrageous tweets called on Pelosi's own "squad" to go back to the countries they came from.

There was the kind of stuff Democrats live to react to — starting with its careless elements, which he probably wanted to be careless, in order to get them to spend their time hollering about a nothingburger. Only one of the "squad" members Trump cited actually comes from another country, Somalia, so it wasn't really an accurate statement except in Rep. Ilhan Omar's case.

But it didn't matter: he managed to get them and their press allies spending their yelling on that.

Second, he took on the politically correct idea that in polite society, one is never supposed to tell a foreigner to go back where he came from. He tramped on that, too. The Democrats reacted wildly to that one: "THIS is what racism looks like," tweeted Ayanna Pressley, who then went on to deploy a string of boring slogans dating from the Obama era. "WE are what democracy looks like. And we're not going anywhere. Except back to DC to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday [sic]." Been there, heard that.

Trump's tweets did have an electoral politics nexus — plenty of working-class people sought by Democrats for votes speak and think this way, and these tweets and the Democrats' outraged responses put them all on record for the voters.

But more important, his measure was aimed at Pelosi herself, forcing her to defend the very people who up until now have been trying to politically kill her. Pelosi prissily called Trump's tweets "xenophobic," and the press dutifully reported that narrative, clutching pearls.

But what we are seeing now is Democrats ganging up in Pelosi and blaming her for the whole Trump tweet string. They're emboldened. They aren't blaming Trump for this; they know Trump. They are using Trump's tweets to intensify their fire on Pelosi. And Trump knows this. It's likely he planned it this way. Just look what's going on among the leftists on Twitter:

Make no mistake: Nancy Pelosi’s dogwhistling snipes at @AOC, Ilhan Omar, @RashidaTlaib and @RepPressley helped pave the way for this vicious, racist attack from the president. https://t.co/zdvpo23gtr — Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) July 14, 2019

Dear @SpeakerPelosi:



The pressure is mounting and you have a choice: You can listen to the people and start whipping up the votes for an impeachment inquiry or you can abdicate your constitutional duty and be remembered as the Speaker who let Trump off the hook. Choose wisely. — Ryan Knight #LightsForLiberty🕯 (@ProudResister) July 15, 2019

Pelosi needs to go. The party moved left, and she’s in the way. — giddy out my way-HEE (@jayyyyred) July 15, 2019

Effectively, he's gotten them to turn on Pelosi, a brutally hardball "cut your head off" politician who has thwarted his agenda again and again. He's gutting her, forcing her to defend people who are trying to knock her out and, in the process, watching as they increase their power and come up with every more outrageous demands.

That's hardball. Trump knows what he is doing, very well, creating chaos on a prissily creepy power structure built on political correctness. He's thrown a spanner in their works, and Pelosi doesn't even know it. Now her Democratic enemies are becoming more powerful, circling her, preparing for the kill. As for Trump, there really wasn't that much political risk for him in it, given the number of voters who despise Rep. Ilhan Omar, now known as "Miss Nine Percent." Risk of annoying voters, yes, but Trump is not afraid of risk. He's calculating what he can get from knocking out Pelosi and what he could lose by turning off some voters, and calculating that the better deal is to debilitate Pelosi. That's real power. Trump is demonstrating in an ingenious way how to use it.