, Columnist
Michigan’s Protests Inspire Trump, and Vice Versa
The president’s supporters were angry long before any state-imposed lockdowns.
The scene last month in Lansing.
Photographer: Matthew Hatcher/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Another armed mob is expected on Thursday at the Michigan State Capitol, the site of previous protests against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s restrictions on social and commercial activity. Event planning took place on Facebook, where organizing groups featured posts calling for Whitmer to be hanged, shot or worse.
The political pathologies on display each day at the White House are no more contained than the coronavirus. They were latent in Michigan and elsewhere before Donald Trump became president. As with his uncanny approach to coronavirus, Trump has simply fanned the contagion.