> he's 100% the type of person to lean into the controversy it creates

Except, objectively speaking, he actually did NOT do that. He basically just ignored the “controversy” because it was such an obviously false narrative meant only to smear him that I’m sure he had enough faith in most Americans who aren’t consumed by partisanship to see it exactly for what it was.

> At that time, building favor with trump voters was good for him.

Your implication here seems to be that Trump voters, en masse, want folks who are doing Nazi salutes, or am I misunderstanding you?

> Your implication here seems to be that Trump voters, en masse, want folks who are doing Nazi salutes, or am I misunderstanding you?

I think he believes that the subsection of bigotted voters deserve acknowledgement from time to time and that he has a history of such behavior.