RACE IS THE CASE:

This masterpiece of anti-persuasion rewards careful study. I have reprinted every word of it below, interspersed with my comments.

President Trump's record of accomplishments is easy to compile.

Most significantly, he has brought the existential threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party into the sunlight. No more nice words. No more treating the Tiananmen Square massacre as a bug, not a feature. The light is on. Trump has pulled the cord.

It is astonishing that Hewitt begins his case by praising Trump for his moral clarity in denouncing the Chinese government. Trump of course has lavished dictators with praise, including, repeatedly, China. Of course every American president has had to deal with foreign dictators, but Trump has exceeded all of them in his habit of praising those dictators for (not despite) their authoritarianism. Trump congratulated Xi Jinping for extending his tenure ("He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great") and dismissing his overbearing control of protests in Hong Kong as a matter "between Hong Kong and China."

Trump is the only president, and the only prominent American I can think of, who actually praised China's crushing of the Tiananmen square protests. ("They put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength," he cooed in 1990.) The fact that, while unspooling his imaginary history of Trump as clear-eyed opponent of dictatorship, Hewitt goes out of his way to bring up Tiananmen almost suggests a guilty conscience he cannot fully repress.

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