Trump's Holocaust "Remembrance": It's the Stupidity, Stupid (editorial)

Is Donald Trump an anti-Semite?  Is Steve Bannon?  Who knows?  Their hearts, such as they are, are not available to us. Only their words and actions are on display.

What is objectively the case is that Trump and those around him have been accused of trading in anti-Semitic rhetoric.  From retweeting alt-right memes with anti-Semitic overtones to the airing of a campaign ad widely perceived as invoking anti-Semitic dog whistles to the use of Nazi salutes by supporters, there's been plenty of instances of Trump publicly associated with anti-Semitism.

One might say these are proof positive of his own personal feelings.  One might say these are abhorrent political slanders directed at him and his followers by "haters."  What one cannot say is that these aren't part of the public discourse around Trump.

Which is why, I think, debates about if/how/why Trump's tone-deaf announcement on Holocaust Remembrance Day is or isn't proof of anti-Semitism miss the point.  It is, by definition, an unresolvable argument.  What is not arguable is how egregiously stupid it was.

If Trump himself lacks self awareness to such an extent that he is not mindful of this perception, surely his handlers are.  Now, thinking purely in terms of practical realpolitik terms, what is the smart play in this situation? Is it not, when presented with an opportunity to undercut such attacks, to do so by following suit with previous presidents who have pointed out the obvious significance of Jewish persecution in the Holocaust (even if one expands "Holocaust" to include all those killed by Nazi extermination programs, not merely Jewish people)?

I'd suggest it is, and moreover, this is true regardless of where on the anti-Semitic spectrum Trump et al. lie.  It would the easiest thing in the world to do as a hedge against that line of attack, whether or not those attacks were valid.

Yet, Trump managed to bungle things, coming up with a statement that erased Jewishness entirely from the remembrance.

Whether this erasure was utterly accidental, a result of insensitivity, a strategic dog whistle to the alt-right/white supremacists who make up a significant minority of Trump's most avid fans, or an effect of Trump's own personal hatefulness is almost beside the point, at least for our purposes.

What is inarguable is the rhetorical stupidity of this, whatever the motivation (or lack thereof).