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But talking about the ragtag antifa group helped Trump avoid other awkward issues, such as his own rather unchaste Ten Commandments violations alleged by stripper Stormy Daniels.

Expressing a willingness to look the other way so long as Trump delivers with his appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council famously said of the Daniels case that should "get a mulligan ... get a do-over."

Trump may well get another mulligan for urging the Christian leaders in the White House meeting to break federal law by openly supporting him from the pulpit.

Among other achievements that he said they must preserve, he claimed to have overturned the provision in federal tax law known as the Johnson Amendment that bars churches from endorsing political candidates. He not only cannot overturn a law without congressional approval, but the executive order he signed is worded in a way that leaves the Johnson Amendment untouched.

It's not nice to spread falsehoods, especially to religious leaders. But as they are encouraged by today's culture wars to feel like an oppressed minority, it's not shocking to see evangelicals view him as a secular "savior," the label some Trump conservatives have used to mock Barack Obama's supporters.

As for Trump, his desperation appears to be showing. It is not antifa that has fear percolating in his heart. It's Democratic voters. They're energized and well-positioned to take back at least one house of Congress in November.

His disapproval rating hit 60 percent, a new high, in a poll released Friday by The Washington Post and ABC News. Embarrassing revelations about his personal lawyer and others in his orbit did not help his image in the dog days of summer.

Even his declaration at recent rallies that, "Yes, we're building the wall" (the one he promised on the Mexican border) is a falsehood -- and Mexico still isn't paying for it.

But his words apparently do have an impact. Robert Chain, 68, of Encino, Calif., was arrested and charged Thursday with making "credible" threats of violence to Boston Globe employees, calling the newspaper the "enemy of the people."

Yes, that's the Stalinesque label Trump gives to media who deliver news that Trump doesn't like. We media workers are not enemies of the people. We're just people whom Trump wants to call his enemy.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.