Trump Trying To Be Substantive

He'd rather spin a sinister narrative

Trump gave a rally this afternoon in South Carolina, billed as a substantive policy speech. I listened a good bit, as I was curious to know if Trump really is losing it. Many of his advisers, Fox News hosts and even Nikki Haley have been urging him to talk about policy and stop attacking Harris and I really wanted to see if he could do that. Below I share some of what I heard. If I missed anything, I watched clips, with special thanks to Aaron Rupar on Twitter.

After riffing a bit, Trump said he was supposed to do a speech on the economy, because “some people say it’s important.” He seemed to make light of this, and tease his audience with the following, as he gestured to them:

“We’re doing this as an ‘intellectual speech,’ you’re all intellectuals today.”

About Kamala’s laugh:

“That’s the laugh of a crazy person. They told her ‘don’t laugh!’ They won’t let her laugh. Her laugh is career ending. That’s the laugh of someone with big problems.”

“If she wins, our country is finished.”

“You know why she hasn’t done an interview? Because she’s not smart!”

“She can’t solve the problem because she is the problem, people like her.”

“Her economic policy will be a copy of mine. That’s what she does.”

This particular attack below was said with a chiding, sarcastic tone. As a woman, I heard it as a sexist dog whistle: women change their minds and end up getting what they want.

“She doesn’t want anybody to know what she’s for, and that way she can change it, you know. She’ll tell you what she wants and change it the way she wants it and ultimately it will be the way she wants it.”

And more general attacks:

“Switching candidates is a minor form of cheating.”

“We’re a third world country, a banana republic in so many ways. But we’re not going to let that happen. We’re starting a free-fall.”

“Europe is a disaester because they tended to go a little bit woke.”

“You’re living through the misery, a misery like never before. We are disrespected all over the world. We’re being laughed at. Putin respected us, Kim Jong Un respected us.”

“Kamala wants to be in charge of the economy, and her running mate—he’s a beauty, isn’t he?”

“We’re not going to let this incompent socialist lunatic run our country. Kamala, get out of here! She’s the worst Distict Attorney in history.”

There was a lot more.

Other than finally saying her first name correctly, it was the same routine. Any policy he mentioned was not substantive, and came in the form of attacking Biden and Harris’ record in a vague, exagerated and largely untruthful ways (disclosure: I am not a fact checker). He linked Harris to Biden and tried to make a case for why he would do better.

Trump was able to put sentences together, sort of, but it just wasn’t much of anything. He is relying on his old playbook of rousing the crowd into hate. For Trump, hate has equaled votes. His way of talking at these rallies is a nuanced form of manipulation. Not only is he brainwashing the crowd into hating the other side —not just disagreeing with them, but personally hating them— he is taking whatever struggles his supporters are experiencing and amplifying them in their minds to a fever pitch. Gas prices bad? They’re REALLY bad! Mortgage problems, they’re off the charts! Prices at the grocery store? They are astronomical! He is creating an exagerated, ficticious world. And only he can make it a dreamland.

I hope this was helpful. It’s not particulary fun to write, but when I sat down today to compose a post, it was all I could think of. We have to stay focused in the time left before the election. I don’t hate Donald Trump, I just want him to go away.

As a reward, here is a cartoon about something unrelated to politics!

I think.

Happy Wednesday, see you tomorrow!