Context matters. Was he saying that referring to the "terrorist vs innocent people" or "protesters vs counter-protesters" in context of the Charlottesville protest where the terrorist incident occurred? It's a gaffe for sure but I don't think the intention was to congratulate a terrorist.

Fake news much? This quote related to people defending and opposing confederate monuments, not white nationalists. If you read even one more line of the quote, it becomes immediately clear:

“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” Trump said. “The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”

“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.

Surely you can see, that "neo-Nazis and white nationalists" is one category, but "other than" is another, and "also very fine people" does not relate to white nationalists - it specifically excludes white nationalists, mentioning it as distinct group. That is immediately clear from reading just two lines of context.

I can't imagine fainter praise, frankly.

Full quote:

> "you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue...and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally – but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?"

It's clear as day that he condemned the neo-Nazis.