海角大神

Donald Trump鈥檚 Twitter feed keeps landing him in entirely foreseeable trouble. Maybe he鈥檇 be better off to cap it for the general election campaign 鈥� and not tweet at all.

That鈥檚 one conclusion a reasonable person might reach in the wake of Mr. Trump鈥檚 latest Twitter controversy.

To review: On Saturday Trump tweeted of an image of Hillary Clinton overlaid on a background of US currency, accompanied by the words 鈥淢ost Corrupt Candidate Ever.鈥� The problem was that the 鈥淐orrupt Candidate鈥� phrase appeared in a shape resembling a Star of David.

Critics quickly called it an anti-Semitic image. After enduring derision on social media, Trump deleted the tweet and replaced it with a similar version that featured a circle instead of a star.

Team Trump today calls the incident an example of political correctness run amok. They pointed out that the shape in question is also the shape of law enforcement badges.

鈥淣ot every six-sided star is a Star of David,鈥� Trump campaign adviser Ed Brookover on CNN. 鈥淲e have corrected this tweet and have moved on.鈥�

Fair enough. But as so often seems to occur with Trump and social media, there鈥檚 a further twist to the story. The traced back the image used in Trump鈥檚 tweet and discovered it was identical to an image tweeted on an Internet message board for neo-Nazis and white supremacists. It鈥檚 unclear how the post migrated to Trump鈥檚 feed.

Is Trump consciously dog-whistling anti-Semitic tropes? 聽It鈥檚 perhaps more likely that he is oblivious about the dangers of this imagery, writes Allahpundit at the right-leaning web site Hot Air. A follower aware of the anti-Semitic nature of the Clinton picture tweeted at Trump, and Trump (or some designated social media aide) liked it and appropriated it for use, unaware of its danger.

鈥淧lay with fire and you鈥檒l get burned, even if only accidentally,鈥� Allahpundit writes.

From a practical point of view, the controversy was badly timed for Trump. It produced a rainstorm of negative coverage at a moment when Mrs. Clinton was undergoing her own tough news day, due to her Saturday interview with the FBI over her use of a private email server at the State Department.

Google search interest in Trump鈥檚 tweet nearly equaled that of Clinton鈥檚 interview, according to data crunched by Washington Post numbers guru Philip Bump. Instead of getting out of the way of Clinton鈥檚 bad news, Trump created some of his own.

鈥淒onald Trump, once again, nearly turned a good day into a tie,鈥� on Bump鈥檚 post.

That鈥檚 why Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus may wish Trump would set aside his keyboard for a few months. Trump鈥檚 undisciplined approach won him the nomination, but isn鈥檛 working well (so far) in a general election campaign.

As his poll deficit shows, Trump鈥檚 not attracting enough college-educated white women and other key demographic groups to actually win the election. He keeps playing to his base instead. If Trump is to truly pivot to a more measured approach, perhaps Twitter would be a good place to start.