Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:42 pm
Our collective Trump nightmare could be encapsulated in the last stop of his “Thank You” tour. All the elements, all the Trumpisms, came together in Mobile, Alabama as he attacked journalists, Michelle Obama, and reality itself, claiming “We won by a lot. It wasn’t even close.”
Of course, he lost by a lot and it wasn’t even close. But reality is not something a Trump crowd would applaud.
Donald Trump, who, along with Ivanka, has his line of clothes made in Mexico, China and elsewhere, used his visit to Mobile, Alabama yesterday, for an opportunity to tweet “Our goal is to bring back that wonderful phrase: #MadeInTheUSA!”
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Is it possible all those thousands of people who attend his rallies don’t know their hero pays foreign workers, not American, to make clothes in other countries? You would like to think so, but you should never, ever, bet on it.
This is why:
Explaining why Trump won in his opening prayer, Franklin Graham said, “I believe it was God.” This earned him enthusiastic cheers. “God showed up,” he announced.
In fact, it was the Russians, however much you’d like to think your religious leaders could tell the difference between a flabby Russian dictator and God.
It is rather bizarre to see a president-elect go back out on the campaign trail immediately after a grueling election schedule, but then Trump really has no desire to be president, and given the new scrutiny being given to his unhinged rantings, he almost has to do what he does best, by word and by tweet distract folks from what’s really going on.
As an example, this tweet he sent out:
If my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned & called terrible names!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016
To which Sopan Deb could offer only a “sigh”:
Sigh. pic.twitter.com/UuueLMwjSr
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) December 18, 2016
Obviously, any threats are unacceptable, whoever is making them. However, it is the height of hypocrisy for Trump to now pretend his own followers are innocent and that they are not zealously earning every name they are being called. A day didn’t go by all campaign long where Trump didn’t blame what he was doing on Hillary Clinton or somebody else. Don’t expect that to change now.
While he was speaking in Mobile, Trump attacked not only Paul Krugman for pointing to Trump’s Neocon tendencies, by calling him “demented,” to which Krugman responded,
I also hear that the Orange One says I'm demented. It's an honor to be cited.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 18, 2016
But he took a shot (for him, a mild shot) at Michelle Obama also, saying of the First Lady’s interview with Oprah Winfrey,
“Michelle Obama said yesterday that there is no hope. But I assume she was talking about the past and not the future. I’m telling you that we have tremendous hope. We have tremendous promise and we have tremendous potential. We are going to be so successful as a country again. We are going to be amazing.â€
“I honestly believe she meant that statement in a different way than in the way that came out, because I believe that there is tremendous hope. And beyond hope, we have such potential. This country has such potential. You watch, it will be so special. Things are going to happen like you haven’t seen in many, many decades.â€
While speaking of Donald Trump, Sen. John McCain told Jake Tapper Sunday that, “I think reality is going to intercede at one point or another, just because of the Russian activities.”
It would be nice if this were true but it is by no means assured. Trump has reality-proofed himself very thoroughly so far.
There is no evidence anywhere to be found that the president-elect takes cognizance of any facts anywhere, and his “Thank You” tour has proven his capacity for dishonesty is undiminished. He lies often and enthusiastically.
And scarier than that, there is apparently not a soul in his crowds who either know or care, while he is shouting his “made in the USA” nonsense, that he has his own clothes made in other countries.
None of them have a problem with “their” president shouting “America First” while only 29 percent of Republicans in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll are “bothered” by Russian interference in our elections.
Only to them could it make sense that you could put America first while still letting Russia elect our president.
Trump used his Thank You tour finale to remind America what an unhinged liar he is, and the Mobile crowd loved him for it: “We are really the people that love this country” he said, even as he prepares to destroy it with their enthusiastic backing.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
