Kevin Lamarque
President Trump’s temper was the driving force behind his recent remarks on violence in Charlottesville, according to several White House advisers interviewed by Politico. Officials and informal advisers cited in a report published late Wednesday say Trump was expected to explicitly condemn white supremacists in his Tuesday news conference but went off script and blamed the “alt-left” simply because he didn’t like being told what to do. “In some ways, Trump would rather have people calling him racist than say he backed down the minute he was wrong,” one adviser was cited as saying. Several officials and advisers said the president has certain triggers that often lead him to make decisions that later require damage control. The “triggers” include suspicion that someone is lying to him, criticism, and being told what to do, according to the report. Amid a growing backlash over his remarks that counter-protesters were partly to blame for the death of a demonstrator in Charlottesville on Saturday, Trump “still thinks he’s right,” one adviser said Wednesday.