During a speech at a 2018 charity dinner, Donald Trump joked about the revolving door of staffers in his administration. "I like turnover," he said. "I like chaos. It really is good."

He might have been poking fun at the fact that few people seem to linger on the executive office payroll, but something rang very true in his professed affection for chaos. Why else start a completely unnecessary trade war? Why else would he proudly engineer a government shutdown? The tumult gives him opportunities to be a hero, to laud the aid package for farmers financially crippled by tariffs, to claim victory when the government finally reopens.

But Trump’s desire to wreak havoc and play savior takes its most damaging form with his virulent racism—he gins up the bigots, and then acts as sheriff-in-chief on Twitter when they go on terrorist rampages.

Shortly after a gunman murdered 20 people an El Paso Walmart Saturday, Trump took to Twitter. "Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement," wrote the president. "Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government.” And on Sunday, after another mass shooting in Dayton left 9 people dead, Trump was back on the cop routine. "Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be [sic] learned in El Paso,” he wrote.

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The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances. Updates will be given throughout the day! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2019

As MSNBC’s Katy Tur pointed out, it’s not the job of the president to provide "updates throughout the day" like a national version of a local police department’s social media feed. And yet, in tragedy after tragedy, Trump does just that, trading his usually bloated prose for staccato sentences that sound like something you’d hear coming in over an officer’s walkie talkie on an episode of Law & Order.

"Watching the events unfolding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania," he wrote shortly after an anti-Semitic murderer massacred 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue. "Law enforcement on the scene. People in Squirrel Hill area should remain sheltered. Looks like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter."

But while the president has promised to keep the nation abreast on developments in El Paso, he has yet to directly address one of the major sources of violence—his own rhetoric. The number of hate crimes increased nationally for three consecutive years following his 2015 campaign, and yet Trump has continued to stoke hatred of migrants, and recently directed racist and xenophobic comments at four congresswomen of color, directing them to “go back” to other countries.

Mourners embraced at a vigil for the victims of a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio Sunday. Matthew Hatcher Getty Images

It seems this toxic climate wasn’t missed on the El Paso shooter. He is reportedly a Trump supporter, and in the manifesto authorities recently confirmed he penned, he declared his crimes "a response to the Hispanic invasion." The shooter also wrote an astonishingly direct echo of Trumpian racism—the manifesto directs the phrase "send them back" at Latino Americans, words reminiscent of the "send her back" chant heard at the president’s North Carolina rally last month.

This isn’t to suggest that Trump is emboldening violent bigots for the express purpose of live-tweeting the aftermath of their crimes—many of the missives, like those surrounding the Dayton shooting, are dispatched before the killer’s motivation is known. But Trump always recognizes an opportunity. His racism plays well with his beloved base, so he’s not about to back down from it. And quick, heroic-sounding responses to violence make him seem not the slothful, constantly golfing, hours of “executive time”-taking president he is, but like a plugged in, on-the-ground leader, working with law enforcement and pursuing the case in real time. He is creating chaos, and trying to use the resulting bloodshed to make himself look good.

In May, the president rhetorically asked the crowd at a Panama City Beach, Florida rally how to stop migrants from crossing the border. "Shoot them," shouted an attendee. "Only in the panhandle can you get away with that statement," Trump responded, eliciting cheers and laughter from he crowd. He joked about violent racism—he got his applause. Now, a Trump supporter seems to have killed 20 people in a border community in order to terrorize Latino migrants, and the president is talking tough on Twitter. The base will applaud that, too.

Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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