It is often difficult to know when a turning point occurs, as frequently they are not clear until well after the event.
Trump may well have created one this past week, though, based on his mercurial reaction to Charlottesville. First he said both the neo-Nazi protestors and the counter-protestors were equally at fault. He then grudgingly condemned the neo-Nazis, but on Tuesday he was back to equating activists protesting racism with the neo-Nazis and white supremacists, stating there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Former Presidents George and George W. Bush issued a statement saying hate should be rejected; Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, declared, “There are no good neo-Nazis” and Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said “There can be no moral ambiguity.”
The commanders of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard– who normally avoid political issues -- all made public statements condemning racial bigotry and extremism.
Several CEO’s resigned from Trump’s Manufacturing Council and his Strategy & Policy Forum; the remaining CEO’s decided to disband the councils, but before they could carry that out Trump disbanded them via a Tweet.
16 charities decided to cancel fundraisers at Mar-A-Lago and a megachurch pastor resigned from Trump’s evangelical council.
Trump, of course, is not going to change, even with the departure of alt-right advocate Steve Bannon. But Congress is tiring of Trump and will be much less likely to go along with what he wants. It makes it even less likely that Trump is going to succeed with his agenda.