He can and most assuredly will try to stoke up a race war.

This morning Trump tweeted ‘you start looting we start shooting’ – and with this he played straight into one of the white privileged instincts of the out of control looting ‘scary black folks’ coming to get them, and that only he can save them from such a terrible fate. When he says that the DoJ and the FBI are going to get to the bottom of the murder of George Floyd it is the exact opposite of what he wants. He will use those tools at his disposal to delay any kind of investigation or sense of justice being delivered. You can see that from the press conference yesterday which did not give any concrete actions and had an utter lack of urgency surrounding it, even as Minneapolis burns. If he can he will play this straight through to November. He cannot use Covid-19 as a re-election tool, he cannot use the economy as a re-election tool. BUT he can and most assuredly will try stoke up a race war. Vote for me to save you from the ‘scary black man’ bogey. He will do this irrespective of the deepening divisions that have been cratered by his administration because at heart he really is a white supremacist for whom black lives really do not matter, and he knows for part of America, this is also a fundamental truth.

This is going to be a bumpy ride.