The October Atlantic has gripped my attention to the extent that I'm having a hard time wrenching myself away from an uncomfortable reality that is the focus of the magazine.  I looked around the room where I'm working now and reminded myself that I am surrounded by books and "stuff" that declare that the protection and elevation of white people should not be the focus of an American president.  I am reminded that the man who is president now got his political start by declaring his devotion to a false idea that the first Black president of the country doesn't have a right to be in that high office.  His stroll into a political career began with his advocacy of Birtherism... and he had to know that the Barack Obama was born in the U.S.A., yet he couldn't stand the idea that a Black man could be president.  His inherent belief in white supremacy could win in the American social climate of this time. He and his handlers built a campaign around that notion, and he was carried to an Electoral  College win in the  election. He did not win by popular vote, a fact that he doesn't face honestly.  

Other essays in the October Atlantic which all Americans should read: "How Americans Lost Faith in the Presidency" by Ken Burns and Lynn Novice; "Is Trump Ending the American Era?" by Eliot A. Cohen; and "The First White President" by Ta-Nehisi Coats.