I almost never read the Wall Street Journal’s political coverage. WSJ is still the choice media outlet for “big business” Republicans and corporate shills, and it’s gotten worse since the Murdoch family bought it. So I went into this WSJ-exclusive interview with Donald Trump not expecting much. But dear lord, the shade. I can actually feel the journalists giving up on Trump within the fourth paragraph. At first they’re using all of those disgusting little euphemisms for how deranged Trump is and how he can barely hold onto one thought for ten consecutive seconds. But then they fully gave up and just Let Trump Be Trump and it’s completely ridiculous. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

On racism: “I’d like to think there is not” systemic racism, Mr. Trump said, “but unfortunately, there probably is some. I would also say it’s very substantially less than it used to be.”

On the coronavirus: He said that the country was nearing the end of the coronavirus pandemic and that he believed China might have encouraged the international spread of coronavirus as a way to destabilize competing economies. “There’s a chance it was intentional,” Mr. Trump said. The president and some international critics have said China should have moved more quickly to contain the coronavirus in December and January.

On Americans wearing masks: Mr. Trump said testing for Covid-19 was overrated and allowed for the possibility that some Americans wore facial coverings not as a preventive measure but as a way to signal disapproval of him…The president said his bigger problem with masks was that many people fidget with the coverings, which he said made them more likely to be infected. “They put their finger on the mask, and they take them off, and then they start touching their eyes and touching their nose and their mouth. And then they don’t know how they caught it?”

On testing for the virus: “I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history,” Mr. Trump said, adding that more testing in the U.S. led to an increase in confirmed cases that “in many ways, it makes us look bad.”

On Juneteenth: On race issues, Mr. Trump said a black Secret Service agent told him the meaning of Juneteenth as the president was facing criticism for initially planning to hold his first campaign rally in three months on the day. Holding a rally on that day, particularly as racial protests continued throughout the country, was insensitive, African-American leaders told Mr. Trump. He eventually pushed the rally back a day to June 20. “I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Mr. Trump said, referring to news coverage of the rally date. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”

He’s corrected in real time: Mr. Trump said he polled many people around him, none of whom had heard of Juneteenth. Mr. Trump paused the interview to ask an aide if she had heard of Juneteenth, and she pointed out that the White House had issued a statement last year commemorating the day. Mr. Trump’s White House has put out statements on Juneteenth during each of his first three years. “Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?” Mr. Trump said. “OK, OK. Good.”

[From WSJ]

Donald Trump thinks he invented Juneteenth. He thinks no one had ever heard of it before him, and he only learned of it a week ago. I can’t. As for face coverings… he thinks people are, like, mocking him personally by wearing masks?? That’s a hilarious way to look at it, honestly. Wearing face masks to own the MAGAs, and MAGAs are not wearing masks to own the libs. If that’s how it has to be…

And again, he seems to think testing causes the virus? Moron.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.