(CNN) - Donald Trump's insistence Tuesday that "both sides" were responsible for the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, has turned what was a fumbling presidency into what now appears to be one on the verge of total collapse.

"You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now," Trump told reporters at a press availability Tuesday in New York City.

That stance was a reversal from comments Trump made 24 hours earlier, condemning the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who had gathered in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a confederate statue. It was, however, broadly in line with what Trump said Saturday even as the protests were raging -- arguing that there was plenty of blame "on many sides" for the violence.

Trump's comments on Tuesday provoked massive, across-the-board outrage with virtually every Republican elected official in the country expressing their disagreement and disapproval with Trump's sentiments, although, notably, most did not call out the President by name.