The Banality of Evil, Again

President Trump erupted in anger at the CBS journalist Norah O’Donnell after she read him excerpts from what is said to be a manifesto written by Cole Tomas Allen, the man charged with trying to kill Trump at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Some conservatives seem to think no good can be served from reading these words, but that’s a mistake: It’s always useful to be reminded, again, of the banality of evil.

The distinguishing feature of the manifesto is its insipidity. “I am a citizen of the United States,” Allen writes. “What my representatives do reflects on me.” Later, he justifies the possibility that he might harm the people in the ballroom “on the basis that most........

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