So Donald Trump has been having a pretty good week. He's struck multiple deals with Democrats to keep the government open and to find a way to protect DACA recipients. Granted, saying this is a "good week" is grading on a massive curve. He's still at the center of an ever-expanding federal investigation and has idiotically tried to tie the recent hurricanes in Florida and Texas to his desire to cut taxes. (This makes no sense, because if anything we need more money for the recovery. Not less.) By any normal political standard, that's still a shitshow of a week. But we are obviously not in a normal political climate and, credit where it's due, Trump has gotten some important things done this week. So what did he do next? Take a little victory lap? Avoid controversy for a bit? Bask in the glow of slightly fewer negative headlines?

Nah, man! This is Donald Trump we're talking about. He's addicted to being a monster! And he didn't just stumble into controversy yesterday, he ground that controversy down to a powder, cut that shit up, and snorted it to get into his bloodstream as fast as possible.

So President Trump was on Air Force One on his way back from visiting the damage in Florida from Irma when he was asked about his meeting from earlier this week with black Republican senator Tim Scott. Scott, you'll recall, had harsh words for the president about his "many sides" response to Charlottesville. All President Trump had to say is, "We had a productive meeting. I have great respect for Senator Scott and I'm eager to work closely with him on these issues." That's the easiest thing to say in politics. I think they print it on the back of your ID card when you get a job in D.C. But no. Donald Trump instead decided to dive headfirst back into Charlottesville and doubled down on his claim that there was a moral equivalency between anti-fascist protesters and LITERAL NAZIS.

"We had a great meeting. Tim Scott's been a friend of mine for a long time. I've been a supporter of his — I was one of his earliest supporters. We had a great talk yesterday. I think especially in light of the advent of Antifa, if you look at what's going on there. You have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also, and essentially that's what I said. Now, because of what's happened since then with Antifa — you look at really what's happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying and people have actually written, 'Gee, Trump might have a point.' I said, 'You've got some very bad people on the other side also,' which is true. But we had a great conversation."

The question was basically just "Tim Scott had expressed frustration with your Charlottesville response. How was your meeting?" And Trump decides to focus less on the safe part of the question (i.e. how the meeting was) and instead focuses on the same garbage Charlottesville argument he's been making for weeks and weeks. Donald Trump is never going to stop saying this, because he believes it. He thinks it's absolutely true that there is a fair comparison to be made between Nazis and the people who fight Nazis. And that is how Donald Trump decided to take his administration's one semi-okay week and make it all about the worst moment of his presidency all over again. Seems like a great strategy. Interested to see how it plays out.

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