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A few weeks ago, I noted President Trumps shaky command of the presidential levers of power, including the bully pulpit: among other things, Trump cannot give a speech without his hosts distancing themselves fromhis rhetoric. Things have actually worsened over the past week, something I didnt think possible.

Consider Trumps three biggest rhetorical own-goals over the past week. His fire and fury statement on North Korea forced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to try to talk the United States off a ledge. This in turn led to Sebastian Gorka denigrating Tillersonand Trump saying he had perhaps been too soft in his rhetoric. Which, in turn, caused Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to try to talk the nation off a ledgeagain. The point is, professional diplomats are pretty freaked outabout the presidents hyperbolic rhetoric.

Trumps belated response to Russian President Vladimir Putins ejection of U.S. diplomats was even worse:

The public calumny from that reaction was so bad that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to claim that Trump was being sarcastic.

Finally, to cap off a week of rhetorical miscues, Trump attempted to address the violence triggered by white nationalists in Charlottesville with a namby-pamby statement that blamed many sides for the violence. It is odd that a president who claimed to despise political correctness with respect to Islamic terrorists suddenly chose to be circumspect in describing homegrown neo-Nazi terrorists.

It is safe to say that Trumps response did not go down well at all with the commentariat. As my Post colleague Michael Gerson noted, Trumps reaction toevents in Charlottesvillewas alternately trite (come together as one), infantile (very, very sad) and meaningless (we want to study it).

SoundingPresidential 101 is not complicated:

Trump has failed and failed spectacularly at rudimentary rhetoric. Why?

To understand Trumps own-goals, you have to remember that there really is an art to being a politician. Say what you will about politicians as a group, but it is striking how all of them, from Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz, knew the right thing to say in response to Charlottesville. Running for office repeatedly tends to hone ones rhetorical instincts. At a minimum, most professional politicians learn the dos and donts of political rhetoric.

Trumps political education hasdifferent roots. He has learned the art of political rhetoric from three sources: reality television, Twitter and the shows. His miscues this past week can be traced to the pathologies inherent in each of these arenas.

I have not watched muchreality television, but I have seen just enough of the Real Housewives franchise to know that this genre thrives on next-level drama. No one wants to watch conflicts being resolved; they want to watch conflicts spiral out of control. So it is with Trump and North Korea. He never sees the value in de-escalating anything, and North Korea is no exception. Calm resolution is not in the grammar of reality television. No wonder Trump never speaks that way; it is a register he cannot comprehend.

I am pretty familiar with Twitter,and the thing about that medium is that it is drenched insarcasm. It is a necessary rhetorical ticto thrive in that place. The problem is that while sarcasm might work on political Twitter, it rarely works in politics off Twitter. Sarcasm requires that observers be able to discern the hidden meaning behind a persons words. When it comes to politics, most people miss the text; expecting them to catch the subtext is insane. So it is not surprising that some of Trumps worstrhetorical misstepscome during lame attempts at sarcasm.

Finally, there are the political talk shows.If there is one thing Trump has learned from that genre, it is the both sides hot take. Pundits are so adept at blaming a political conflict on both sides that the #bothsides hashtag is omnipresent on political Twitter.

Of course, the #bothsides trope is commonly used when discussing Democrats and Republicans, or Congress and the presidency. As a general rule, any conflict in which one side is dominated by neo-Nazis is not a #bothsides moment. Even CNNs Chris Cillizza, the king of the Savvy Washington Take, knows this:

Both sides dont scream racist and anti-Semitic things at people with whom they disagree. They dont base a belief system on the superiority of one race over others. They dont get into fistfights with people who dont see things their way. They dont create chaos and leave a trail of injured behind them.

Arguing that both sides do it deeply misunderstands the hate and intolerance at the core of this Unite the Right rally. These people are bigots. They are hate-filled. This is not just a protest where things, unfortunately, got violent. Violence sits at the heart of their warped belief system.

Trying to fit these hatemongers into the political/ideological spectrum which appears to be what Trump is doing speaks to his failure to grasp whats at play here. This is not a conservatives say this, liberals say that sort of situation. We all should stand against this sort of violent intolerance and work to eradicate it from our society whether Democrat, Republican, Independent or not political in the least.

Deep down, there are substantive problems with Trumps reaction to each of these three crises. He seems overly eager to escalate tensions with North Korea and steadfastly does not want to call out Vladimir Putin or white nationalists by name.

What makes Trumps presidency worse, however, is his limited grasp of the bully pulpit. He ad-libbed all these rhetorical miscues. In doing so, he relied on tropes he had learned from reality television, social media and political talk shows.

Those tropes might work for a reality-show hack desperate to engage in self-promotion. They do not work for the president of the United States.

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Why is Donald Trump so bad at the bully pulpit? - Washington Post

In the coming days and weeks, Trump will undoubtedly take pains to clean up the mess he left on Saturday. He will get on script and echo the sentiment belatedly tweeted by his daughter, Ivanka, on Sunday: There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis. He may even symbolically purge his administration of some of its leading white supremacists: Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Sebastian Gorka, Kris Kobach. And a lot of people will be fooled. Some will continue to maintain, as Samantha Bloom did on Saturday, that Trumps not a supremacist.

But Trumps foot soldiers will know better. When he veered from his prepared remarks on Saturday, he spoke his real truth. It is no coincidence, as NBCs Benjy Sarlin observed, that Trump tends to interpret any request to condemn hate as a personal attack. Of course he does: It is personal for Trump, just as surely as it is for Spencer or Duke or Bannon. The president is the most powerful hate-monger in America. He is the imperial wizard of the new white supremacy. He is GEOTUS to his followers on 4chan and Daily Stormer: God Emperor of the United States. Its hard to conceive of an acronym that would please this president more.

Before this weekend, the chief form of terror practiced by Trumps white nationalists was online. As Angela Nagle writes in her indispensable book about the alt-right, Kill All Normies:

Multiple journalists and citizens have described in horrifying detail the attacks and threats against those who criticize Trump or figures of the online Trumpian right, especially if the critic is female, black or Jewish, but also if theyre a cuckservative. They now have the ability to send thousands of the most obsessed, unhinged and angry people on the Internet after someone if they dare to speak against the president or his prominent alt-light and alt-right fans.

Trump has long endorsed that form of terror, too, with equally unmistakable signalingnamely, retweeting some of the worst. Hes also sent clear wavelengths not only through his anti-Hispanic hate speech, but with (among other things) his failure to denounce David Duke after his campaign endorsement; his drumbeat of degradation of women like bleeding Megyn Kelly; and, more tangibly, his reorienting the federal governments counter-domestic-terrorism efforts to focus only on Islamic extremism, not white supremacists.

Trump does not merely play footsie with the new white-supremacist movement in America, as Jennifer Rubin wrote in an otherwise blistering condemnation of his moral idiocy at The Washington Post on Sunday. He embodies the movementin his rhetoric, in his actions, and in his person. Just as white people created America and made it great, in the view of the white nationalists, Trump built his business empire all on his own, with no help from his real-estate mogul father. And just like the neo-Naziswho spent Sunday spreading Alex Joness message that Charlottesville was a George Soros conspiracyTrump is always blameless. And if you challenge his paranoid version of truth, he will not engage with you, he will not try to persuade youany more than Spencer or Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin will. He will mock you, and intimidate you. Rhetorical violence is his stock-in-trade.

Perhaps most important, Trumps vision of the world is identical to the apocalyptic fantasies of white genocide peddled by his followers. What, after all, is white supremacy in America in 2017? It is, first and foremost, an expression of delusional self-regard and white male entitlement run riot. It is the insistence that some peoplewhite American malesare inherently better than others, and deserve preferential treatment. To his supporters, and to himself, Donald Trump is the living embodiment of Hitlers concept of Aryan Herrenvolk (Aryan Master Race). He is our first neo-Nazi president. And until we acknowledge that unthinkable truth, and treat Trumps presidency as the anti-democratic crisis that it is, he will not be the last.

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Donald Trump, Neo-Nazi Recruiter-in-Chief - New Republic

Has there ever been a president as humorless as Donald Trump? Doubtful. Trump traffics in bombast, braggadocio and bluntness. He is a master of insults, self-praise, and mangled syntax. But he is no John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan both presidents who were masters of the well-aimed witticism. The current occupant of the Oval Office is only funny unintentionally. He is a joke, but he doesnt make jokes.

Recall his remarks at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York on Oct. 20, 2016. These events are supposed to be a time for political leaders to be light-hearted and to poke fun at themselves. Trump barely managed to get off a couple of ghostwritten one-liners before veering into a cringe-inducing denunciation of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, who was sitting right behind him. He went on to accuse Clinton (inaccurately) of being so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission, of being hypocritical (Hillary believes that its vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private) and, finally, of pretending not to hate Catholics. The audience reacted with boos rather than the more typical laughs.

Yet if you listen to Trump defenders, you would think that he is the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari, all wrapped up into one rolling-on-the-floor package of hilarity.

Last week, Trump thanked Vladimir Putin for expelling 755 personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow Im very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll, the president said. Most observers interpreted this as further evidence of Trumps toadying to the Russian dictator, who helped him win the presidency. But Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) claimed to detect wit of a high order. Trump, he said, was speaking tongue-in-cheek.

This brand of lame excuse has actually become the go-to explanation for Trumps outrageous remarks. As noted by CNN and the Huffington Post, among others, the presidents apologists often detect unsuspected humor in his offensive and inane comments.

In July, for example, Trump endorsed police brutality, telling a convention of cops please dont be too nice when throwing suspects into the back of a paddy wagon. There was not a trace of a smile on his face as he spoke, nor did anyone laugh (although, disturbingly, a lot of the audience applauded). The next day, as police departments across the country condemned the presidents remarks, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered this defense: I believe he was making a joke.

A year earlier, in July 2016, Trump told the press he hoped Russia would hack and release private emails from Hillary Clintons private server: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer later claimed, He was joking at the time. We all know that. We do?

Trumps humor apparently extended to telling then-FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Comey testified to Congress under oath that the president told him: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. Hes a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, tried to excuse what looks very much like obstruction of justice by claiming that Trump was just kidding it looks different on paper. The punchline, of course, was that Trump fired Comey for ignoring his instructions.

Trump himself has embraced the I was joshing defense. In August 2016 he claimed that President Obama was the founder of ISIS, and refused to back down when questioned about that ludicrous claim by radio host Hugh Hewitt. But later Trump explained that he had been kidding. So, too, in January 2016 he claimed was just kidding when he said that global warming was a Chinese hoax a claim he had first made in 2012 and repeated many times without a hint of levity.

Trump also hides behind the cloak of humor when demeaning those around him. At a lunch with the Security Council, Trump solicited views of his U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley: Does everybody like Nikki? Otherwise she can easily be replaced. Ha ha, from a man notorious for actually firing aides right and left.

This kidding/not kidding routine is a way for Trump to preserve a shred of plausible deniability and for his spokesmen to walk away from his crazier comments. But if you think Trump isnt being serious, the jokes on you. Trump would actually be a little easier to take if he had a modicum of wit. But he doesnt. Hes about as funny as that notorious cutup Calvin Coolidge.

Max Boot is a contributing writer to Opinion and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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Did you hear the one about Donald Trump? - Los Angeles Times

President Donald Trump spoke on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, about violent protests between white nationalists and those opposing them in Charlottesville, Va. Subsequently, Trump was criticized for not speaking more forcefully against the white nationalists. Trump made his comments at the start of a bill signing at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Trump signed the Veterans Affairs Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017, which provides additional funding for veterans seeking health care at private medical facilities.

Below are his complete Saturday remarks, in context, about the events in Charlottesville.

"Thank you very much. As you know, this was a small press conference, but a very important one. And it was scheduled to talk about the great things that we're doing with the secretary on the Veterans Administration. And we will talk about that very much so in a little while. But I thought I should put out a comment as to what's going on in Charlottesville. So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here -- in particular I want to thank our incredible veterans. And thank you, fellows. Let me shake your hands. Great people. Theyre great people.

"But we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Va.. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents and have a good time.

"I just got off the phone with the governor of Virginia, Terry Mcauliffe, and we agree that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true -- really, I say this so strongly, true affection for each other. Our country is doing very well in so many ways. We have record, just absolute record, employment. We have unemployment the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxconn and car companies and so many others. They're coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American worker. We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad.

"I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia. Incredible people, law enforcement, incredible people. And also the National Guard. They've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. Federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor; he thanked me for that. And we are here to provide whatever other assistance is need. We are ready, willing and able.

"Above all else, we must remember this truth, no matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our God. We love our flag. We're proud of our country. We're proud of who we are. So, we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen. My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other. Ideally we have to love each other.

"And now to the Veteran's Administration where I'm so proud of (Veterans Affairs Secretary) David Shulkin and the job you've done. What you've done in such a short period of time, I think you folks would attest to it. "

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In Context: President Donald Trump's statement on 'many sides' in Charlottesville, Va. - PolitiFact

Take North Korea. There is no person in this countrynot the generals, not the civil servants, certainly not the Republicans in Congresswho can influence what Trump does vis--vis the Hermit Kingdom. In fact there is evidence that his bellicosity is paying political dividends, which means we can expect more of the same. As The New York Times reported, there are plenty of Trump voters who believe that he should go to the hilt when it comes to aggravating Kim. As one Trump supporter from Colorado told the paper, war with North Korea, which would entail an untold number of deaths on the Korean Peninsula, didnt concern him because he would not personally be in danger. We live in the safest part of the country, he said.

There is so much selfishness and ignorance and hatred in this county, and they have found their concentrated embodiment in Trump, who bludgeons us with the worst aspects of humanity every single day. This is self-evidently traumatic for the body politic, harming our capacity for empathy and reason and decency. And yet it is difficult to express just how awful it is: how it makes us worry for our children in existential terms, how it makes our lives a little more sordid every day, how it slowly bleeds our world of joy and purpose.

The traditional response to bad presidents is to resist, to organize, to prepare for the next electionto have faith, even if everything else fails, in democracy. But democracy already failed us once, handing the presidency to a man who lost the popular vote by a resounding margin. It has been subverted by gerrymandering, and is being weakened by those working to keep minorities and the poor from the polls. It was compromised by the intervention of a foreign government, and the president is reluctant to even acknowledge that fact, let alone make sure it doesnt happen again.

And even if Trump were to be swept from office in 2020, this country will not magically return to the pre-Trump status quo. The damage he has already inflicted, and that he will undoubtedly continue to inflict over, God help us, three more years, will take a long time to undo, if it can ever be undone. A malevolent force has been loosed on the world, moving great invisible gears in unpredictable ways, and no one can say with an iota of certainty where we will be five, ten years from now.

This is the point in the essay where I should say that we mustnt lose hope, that we must impede Donald Trump at every step, and I do believe that. Still, to quote Howard Beale, everyone knows things are bad. I wake up each morning prepared for something terrible to happen. But something terrible is happening, every day, all around us. The most frightening part is that were not sure if Trumps America is rock bottom or if we have further to fall.

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Donald Trump Is Killing Us - New Republic