The president did not answer questions from reporters about whether he rejected the support of white nationalists or whether he believed the car crash was an example of domestic terrorism.

Mr. Trump's reaction drew praise from neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which wrote: "Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us... No condemnation at all."

In the aftermath of the rally and the car ramming, some criticized the police handling of the rally. Claire Gastañaga, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, wrote that "The situation that occurred was preventable" and the ACLU's lawsuit, which resulted in a federal court granting an injunction allowing the rally to go forward at Emancipation Park, "did not cause it."[146] Gastañaga wrote that: "The lack of any physical separation of the protesters and counterprotesters on the street was contributing to the potential of violence. [Police] did not respond. In fact, law enforcement was standing passively by, waiting for violence to take place, so that they would have grounds to declare an emergency, declare an 'unlawful assembly' and clear the area."[146] On August 12, investigative news organization ProPublica published an article reporting that Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police "wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades" and allowed "white supremacists and counterprotesters to physically battle" without intervening. A. C. Thompson wrote that in "one of countless such confrontations," police watched passively as "an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counterprotesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible."[97]

"We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one!" He said, "we condem in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."[207][208][209] He added, "What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order."[209]

Tensions increased on the evening of Friday, August 11 when a group of white nationalists—variously numbered at dozens[79] or around 100[80]—marched through the University of Virginia's campus while chanting Nazi and white supremacist slogans, including[65] "White lives matter"; "you will not replace us"; and "Jews will not replace us."[6]