When bad politicians do good things

Comment published on New York Times blog, in response to opinion article by Michael Crowley and Maggie Haberman, “When Trump condemns white supremacy but stops short of gun controls,” August 5, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/politics/trump-speech-mass-shootings-dayton-el-paso.html#commentsContainer&permid=101851559:101851559:

That Trump can finally denounce white supremacist extremism, despite all that he is contributed to it...Occasionally, bad politicians do good things because they are influenced to do so. After all, politicians do not truly lead; they follow. Ending slavery was not Lincoln's idea, nor ending the Vietnam War Nixon's. There is some hope in this.