Four hundred years later to the day, President Donald Trump flew here on Tuesday to celebrate the inauguration of what would become American democracy in lofty terms at a time when the state of American democracy feels to many to be perilous and even poisonous.
From a stage in a cathedral tent next to a replica of the Jamestown Settlement, Trump remained on his best behavior, sticking to the elevated if dutiful words in the script his staff gave him and praising the contributions of African Americans. But both before and after the ceremony, with no text or teleprompter to guide him, he once again opted for fiery denunciations of political opponents of color.
He tore into what he called “Democratic-run corrupt cities” like Baltimore and again targeted its congressman Elijah E. Cummings and another critic, the Rev. Al Sharpton. “Those people are living in hell in Baltimore,” he said, because taxpayer money “has been stolen and wasted by people like Elijah Cummings.”
It was the fourth consecutive day that he assailed Cummings, who has criticized Trump’s handling of detained migrants at the border and whose committee has authorized subpoenas that could be issued to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, who both serve on the White House staff.
But Trump denied that his attacks on Cummings, Sharpton and four Democratic congresswomen of color were racist or part of a considered strategy to mobilize his largely white base in next year’s election. “There’s no strategy,” he said. “I have no strategy. There’s zero strategy.”
Any hope that the anniversary of the Jamestown gathering would reinforce common American ideals over the country’s deep divisions was probably futile to begin with. Because of the president’s attacks, Virginia’s African American state legislators boycotted his appearance, calling him an “emblem of hate.”
One state lawmaker who did attend, Ibraheem Samirah, stood and interrupted the president’s speech: “Mr. President, you cannot send us back. Virginia is our home.” He was led out politely by police officers.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.