Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:06 pm
Speaking at a rally in Las Vegas, NV at Mystère Theater at Treasure Island on Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump began by advertising his “very nice building down the street” if anybody ever needed a room. While that’s not something any other candidate for president can offer, it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of his qualifications for the office.
Trump said the worst thing his “movement” can do, and yes, he called it a “movement” (because if Bernie Sanders can have a movement, The Donald can have a movement), is start the show without every seat filled. Yes, Trump is that insecure about his false claims of packed rallies and over-exaggerated numbers and the press calling him out. “So if I had like three empty seats, they’d say this is terrible.”
Actually, Trump’s inability to tell the truth is a given. What’s terrible is not his inability to count, but all the other lies he tells.
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You could tell what was really eating at Trump was less concerns about a full venue than the Republican insurgency he is now facing as Republicans increasingly realize how much trouble they are in with Trump at the helm.
Watch the rally via Right Side Broadcasting (Trump enters at 57 minute mark):
“You know, I read about this ‘insurgent group,’ you know the same group that I beat is insurgent. There are a couple of guys trying to get delegates. I thought they already tried that. I mean I could give you names but I won’t because it’s meaningless. First of all it’s illegal, second of all you can’t do it. Third of all, we – not me – we, got almost 14 millions votes in the primary system. So, that’s more votes than ever received in the primaries in the history of the Republican Party, okay? We beat a lot of people. 16 people. There were a total of 17 including myself. One after another, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! It was a beautiful thing to behold, okay? A beautiful thing. It was a beautiful thing.
“So, it was a beautiful thing to behold. But think of this. So we get almost 14 million votes. We won 36, 37 states. Others won none. People who won none are saying ‘Maybe we can get something at the convention.’ It doesn’t work that way folks. You would have, because one of the things the polls say we have the most loyal followers by far…So when we get 37 states, when we get 37 states…we won 14 million. We beat Ronald Reagan who we love, we beat Richard Nixon, we beat Dwight D. Eisenhower, we beat the Bushes…
“And now you have a couple of guys that were badly defeated, and they’re trying to organize maybe a little bit of a delegate revolt, maybe. Reince Priebus…and the Republican National Committee they put out a statement saying you can’t do it. How would you like to have a party…where myself and others travel the country and worked for a long time…and I beat them fair and square…and wins not only the vote…not only wins 37 states and nobody else was even remotely close, I mean some of these guys won none. How would you like to have that…[And here Trump lost focus and went after Hillary Clinton and never quite gets back to his original point]. So how would you like to be in a party where Trump wins?”
So Trump’s conclusion is, “forget about it.” Because “It’s all made up by the press,” he said, pointing to the press amid boos. “A hoax,” he continued. “These are the most dishonest people,” he complained, before returning to Hillary and claiming that “I respect women more than Hillary respects women.”
Somehow, Trump could not make up his mind what he wanted to talk about more. Vegas, Wayne Newton, the crowd, the GOP insurgency, the “dishonest” media, “Crooked” Hillary. There were so many tangents it was difficult to pick out the main thread of whatever point he originally intended to make. State of the Union addresses in a Trump presidency promise to be popcorn events. It is possible that for the first time in eight years, Congress may not know if they agree or disagree because they won’t understand what he said.
Donald Trump is going to have to focus, focus, focus rather than boom, boom, boom, if he wants to get the presidency and “straighten out our country.” The conservative crowd might enjoy his incoherent, Palinesque rhetoric, but it’s not going to sell on the wider stage.
The truth is, Donald Trump’s problems are very real and continue to mount. He has put weights on his feet and jumped in the deep end, and he doesn’t seem to realize it. If he isn’t nervous, he ought to be – almost as nervous as the GOP.
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.
