Donald Trump usually loves to talk about CNN, but today? Today, he does not want to talk about CNN. He does, however, feel fine talking about “globalists.”
Before a planned speech at the Young Black Leadership Summit at the White House, Trump gave his first public remarks following the arrest of Cesar Sayoc in connection with a string of bombing attempts aimed at prominent Democrats and media figures at CNN. Trump acknowledged the bombing attempts and praised the FBI and the Department of Justice, but could not in any way bring himself to mention CNN or any of the other targets of mailbombs by name.
“I’d like to begin today’s remarks by providing an update on the packages and devices that have been mailed to high-profile figures throughout our country and a media organization,” Trump said, before further confirming that the suspect had been apprehended. He did not mention that the devices were almost exclusively sent to prominent critics of his administration.
This isn’t exactly surprising, seeing as Trump couldn’t wait 24 hours after his first call for unity before attacking the media again.
The second strange moment came a moment later, when Trump switched from explicitly referring to the suspect as a “he” to a more ambiguous description.
“I’ve instructed authorities to spare no resource or expense in finding those responsible and bringing them to swift and certain justice, and we will prosecute them, him, her, whoever it may be to the fullest extent of the law,” Trump said, at which point the audience started cheering loudly after the “whoever it may be” line. (Prior to Sayoc’s arrest, a common conspiracy theory—popular with Don Jr., apparently—is that the attacks were a false flag.)
Trump finished his initial comments about the bomber with a call for unity:
But the bottom line is that Americans must unify, and we must show the world that we are united together in peace and love and harmony as fellow American citizens there is no country like our country and every day we are showing the world how truly great we are. So you are really special people, and I wanted to say that before our little talk.
But that didn’t last particularly long. Within a few minutes, he was musing that “no one gets attacked more than me,” which uh, seems a bit tone deaf considering several of his political opponents were mailed bombs.
Then the topic of Soros came up. Soros was the first recipient of a device potentially linked to the same bomber, which made him an immediate suspect for the lunatic conspiracy theorists who claim it was all a false flag.
Here’s Trump referencing the “globalists,” and seemingly joining in on a call to “lock him up!” in relation to Soros.
Everything is back to normal.
Update, 2:19 p.m. ET: Remember: we must unify.