Trump is a crafty bumbler when it comes to tragedies ---and almost everything else.
I hated that he went to Pittsburgh in the middle of the funerals, because he put the spotlight on himself instead of the victims of that shooting.
His newest ad shows a Hispanic man laughing about murders he committed, as though that man is representative of immigrants. Obviously he is not.
Troops on the border weeks if not months before a caravan that moves 20 miles a day gets there? Implying that they will push their way into the country when there is no evidence of that? Ad nauseum.
I can't wait for the man to be gone and the country to heal.
12
I understand that Trump is a narcissist (actually that should be in all caps). But I truly wonder if there is something organically wrong with the man; he's so disassociated from reality. How would we know?
If he is actually mentally sick (and I mean "clinically" sick), who would have the nerve to speak up? Ronald Reagan evidently had significant dementia in his last years in office, and his supporters covered for him. I would expect that Trump's minions would do exactly the same thing.
4
Ten rallies in five days!!?? And some judge is concerned that a lawsuit against the current occupant might take up too much of his "presidential duties" time. For as much as he is actually doing, he doesn't need five minutes a day.
7
@BigFootMN Good point.
1
The Murdoch family should be patriots and offer Mr. Trump a job as a Fox News host. It would give him a better salary, bigger numbers, no travel and no more of those pesky briefings and meetings. It probably would give him lots of time to hone his golf game too. Who could dream of a better job! (please know this was written with lots of sarcasm).
3
The Ideal Trump rally?
It doesn't exist and never will.
2
President Trump is certainly earning his salary with all those speeches. His Tweets are icing on the cake.
2
Putting the words “ideal” and “Trump” together in a headline does, indeed, necessitate the word “imagining.”
4
Stir up a pack of rabid, howling dogs long enough and someone will be bitten.
3
Nah. Trump couldn't pronounce "Thucydides."
4
Wonder if Trump plans to base the Space Force on the moon or Mars?
1
Imagine a Gail Collins column with no mention of Donald Trump. I doubt it's possible for her to write one.
@George imagine a White House without Donald Trump, and it would not only be possible, but probable.
6
Perhaps we could try not reporting anything he says or does. Ignore him completely. Turn off his microphone. Find other topics of interest.
5
He watches TV all day, gives incoherent speeches at night, plays golf all weekend, loots and destroys democracy and inspires hatred everywhere. I hope for something more out of a president.
12
I try very hard not to watch any Trump rallies, as they sicken me. But I've noticed, in the ones I've not been able to avoid witnessing, they're all TOO perfectly stage managed to be real, with "women for Trump" and other improbable placards held front and center, always in focus, representing any group that he's offended most recently. Are they (gasp!) "fake news?" I keep waiting for some intrepid investigative reporters to suss out the facts on these preposterous faux populist never ending campaign rallies. Anyone out there with me on this? (After all, it was the Donald who, after having to take bankruptcy on multiple occasions -- who else could lose money operating a casino--& being bailed out by Russian money when American banks wouldn't touch him) FINALLY hit upon a stage-managed very unreal "reality show" as the thing that works. Remember his WWF stunts?
I find it unbelievable that that he wouldn't bring those "successes" to his latest stint as Mr. President.
2
Maybe he should talk about his grandchildren? Making the world safer, healthier, more civil for generations to come? Does he know their names?
4
Every day he’s on my television and every day all I can wish is that he spontaneously combusts. Is that really too much to ask?
7
Donald Trump is holding 10 rallies over five days before the midterm elections. How bad do you think it’s going to be?
"Triumph Of The Ill" bad.
1
Thanks for laying bare the link between Trump's general hate-baiting, and his use of the caravan as a dog-whistle.
His "immigration" policies are simply another guise for racism.
Trump is simply stoking the fears of White Christians in yet another way, regardless of who is gunned down as a result.
4
Let’s amend the Constitutuon. Create a new elected position of “Most Popular President who Won by a Lot;” and give him the job for life (with no authority and a Huuuge neon sign). We could even add in a mobile to play with, when he’s on his back.
2
Gail, I put on a Haz-Mat suit and went into the mind of Trump to get an idea what *he* would consider the ideal rally. It didn't take long, I couldn't get in too deep to such a shallow mind... but what I found was interesting. Pathetic, but in an interesting way.
Trump enters, late, because what shows just how important you really are better than making people wait? And, even better, people being willing to wait hours, or stand outside in cold cold weather to hear your voice, and see you on a TV. Which they can get ad nauseum on Fox "News" in their living rooms, but I digress...
Immediately upon Trump's entry, the crowd roars its approval, and spontaneously starts chanting "Trump! Trump! Trump!"
After several minutes of this chant, during which time women faint and strong men tear their shirts off and toss their MAGA redcaps in the air, Trump approaches the podium. Before he can even start to speak, the crowd erupts with "Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!". This goes on for another 10 or 15 minutes, during which time Trump struts about and waves in the air.
As the chant fades, Trump stands at the microphone and says something that is a lie. Anything. A at each lie, the crowd erupts again, yelling and screaming incoherently for minutes on end. After a few hours of this, Trump moves to another safe state, and repeats.
4
Very Dear Ms. Collins:
Making a fare comparison of the pretty well laborated wording
of your frienshiply column vs. the Yalta agreement we have what we can rightfull apoint zero winners, however by the well condecorated adventage point due to faminety YOU WINN. regards.
I must reply, though I’m not sure what he said, he tried. Learning to speak another language is difficult..to write it coherently??? Nearly impossible for an adult. Good job.
1
I think Trump could pronounce "Thucydides" as easily has he pronounces "anonymous."
2
The ideal Trump rally would be a farewell rally. It would be Trump getting out there and telling the American people that "our long national nightmare is over" and that he's resigning effective immediately.
This thrice married, former reality TV star, and failed casino owner with his multiple bankruptcies does not belong in the White House. Our nation deserves better.
7
Perhaps the Trump presidency will come to resemble the ‘cliff-hangers’ that were shown during an intermission between the longer movies in cinemas in the 50s and early 60s. In these a short narrative of intense drama finished with: ‘stay tuned for the next exciting episode…’ leaving the audience with an expectation to be repeated the following week. ‘Cliff-hangers’ with the cartoons, functioned as filler, and to draw a curtain over the first movie before the main feature. The ‘Monster and the Ape’ for example, had enough horror to frighten young children, to expunge the memory of the first feature so that the main feature would seem like a new day. Here’s hoping the Democrats can construct a substantial narrative for the matinee.
1
Who pays for Trump's flights and Secret Service coverage in connection with these rallies?
We do.
Who elected him to run the country while instead he's planning and attending his rallies?
We did.
Who is he doing this for?
Himself.
Even if it were for the benefit of the Republican Party, and they cover some of his non-Secret Service expense (which I doubt they do) the Republicans are not the representatives of those whom the President is obigated to serve, which is the American People.
So why, then, is he allowed to spend this degree of our political and financial allocation to the office of the presidency on a blitz of rallies for Republicans?
These rallies are clearly getting the bulk of his attention, which is in limited supply as it is, and doing it at our expense.
Somebody, please explain!
9
"And compare himself to Thucydides or Winston Churchill or Pope John Paul II."
Who?
I don't think the MAGA crowd would be too impressed by those comparisons. I doubt they would know who Thucydides was.
Comparison to Reagan seems more in tune with his audience. Maybe Lincoln. Maybe Jesus (Trump does talk often about himself as though he were a martyr.)
3
"We know now that both the alleged pipe bomb-maker and the synagogue shooting suspect were obsessed with immigrants. Immigrant-bashing is what Trump thinks is the key to winning the midterms. It’s also the place where Trump becomes an abettor in the right-wing, white nationalist turmoil that’s torturing the country."
Thank you for stating plainly what has been missing from the coverage of the synagogue shooting: what threw the perpetrator over the edge into violence wasn't just rabid anti-semitism, it was also Trump-fueled hatred of immigrants.
106
Trump feeds off the energy of his rallies like an addict. He walks onstage applauding himself while his devoted mob shouts and chants and howls. When he launches into another of his incoherent diatribes, the handpicked background of cheering acolytes urges him on. It's all an orchestrated reality show, with contestants decked out in those ridiculous red caps, grinning for the cameras in mindless glee. For sanity's sake, I try not to watch scenes from those rallies, but sometimes a video clip sneaks past my inner censor. And then I ask myself, "Who are these people anyway? When did these Americans abandon any pretense to rational thinking? When will they just slink back into their burrows and let the country heal?" There are no answers that make sense.
7
@L. Smith
With you there! But I really suspect that a lot of them are paid actors. :) Trump would never leave his "greatest" performances to chance, not after the Inauguration debacle. One thing he knows is "reality TV," and he'll try to make it the centerpiece of his time in office as far he's able. That said, I do wish the media would stop covering them--they're always about nothing but his own vainglory, nothing newsworthy, & more important, timed to drown out news he doesn't like, e.g. his attempts via proxy to suborn perjury re Mueller (get women who worked with him to make false sexual harassment claims), murders by racists incited to violence by his hateful rhetoric.
Just voting for Democrats doesn’t solve the problems we are facing. we need progressive moderates to take up the mantle of leadership. Extreme left is just as bad as extreme right. There are independent voices of reason that never get listened to because they are drowned out by the crazies on the far extremes. The Democrats will keep losing against the far right if it’s the far left voice that is the loudest of the party ideas. I think this is because Liberals have no answers on how to solve the real problems or pay for them and conservatives just say government can’t do it and they’re probably right.
3
I beg to differ. The far left is not nearly as far away from the mainstream as the far right. When there are people marching with torches and chanting Nazi slogans, nothing I have seen on the left compares. If you are referring to certain officials being accosted while having dinner, they should fulfill their responsibilities to their constituents by holding forums where they can meet and listen to voters, instead of only holding meetings with moneyed campaign contributors. I see your comment as a false equivalency.
3
I remember when the NYT asked which leader in history did Trump remind them of and I said Peter the Hermit.
1
An Ideal Trump rally would have him even with more loose tongue. He could talk about the beauty of white skin and blonde hair and reminisce about the time his dad was arrested at a KKK rally. Good times.
9
In an interview with Leslie Stahl, Trump admitted that he attacks the press to insulate himself from criticism. Essentially he attacks the press so that people lose faith in the press. Here is a quote from Leslie Stahl about what Trump told her on this topic off the camera:
“I said, you know that is getting tired, why are you doing this — you’re doing it over and over and it’s boring,” Stahl said. “He said you know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
Stahl's striking anecdote fell into a silent moment in the room. Woodruff shook her head.
“He said that,” Stahl said, raising her eyebrows. “So put that in your head for a minute.”
7
The media is complicit in this, including you NYTimes, when they repeat, repeat, repeat everything Trump says.
On a morning show the host complained that the Democrats don't say anything to rebut Trump's claims, to which the guest replied: "Yes they do, the media just doesn't cover it". Unless you say something outrageous, the media just isn't interested. Democrats are just too damn reasonable. Reasonable doesn't play or pay.
12
Well at least he did not go on about how he would have run in unarmed (as per Parkland shooting) to stop the "bad" man with a gun. Hmmmm... maybe there is something behind that?
1
Honestly, I wish the media would just quite covering him completely, at least until after the midterms. Not only would it give us a respite from the bile, it would drive him absolutely crazy.
8
You could always not watch the rally ...
2
Sorry but when politics becomes entertainment we get entertainers as politicians.
3
The arrogance of Trump reflects yet pales to that of our broader country. How many countries are in North and South America? (how many continents?) Yet all Americans assume the word America refers them. And we would have the world choke down the misnomer as well. The people who live on both sides of the border between the US and Mexico have managed to get along in a simpatico manner since the land grab war of 1846-48. The people who lived there understood and under stand, it's only politics. This administration and many good but frightened people who know nothing of the problem being manufactured for 'nationalist' political ends, are destroying a peaceful and beneficial relationship which has existed for both countries for many years. That is not to suggest that both governments are not very corrupt. They are.
Make people believe bad is good and good is bad, that's the strategy...
2
I think the ideal Trump rally would involve a brutal human sacrifice followed by a collection.
5
Donald Trump is a very shallow, uninformed, not very intelligent egomaniac. To him it's all about winning. Accusing him of being a loser is probably the worse thing you can say about him. It's also the same old same old going back decades to the Roy Cohn/ Donald Trump Playbook: Win at all costs. That's the name of his game and he will never ever change.
2
Stop giving the guy the print and the airtime. Ignore him!
8
One positive that might come out of these rallies: Trump continues to remind voters that "A vote for {fill in the blank Republican candidate} is a vote for me." Perhaps that will turn enough rational people off that they vote exactly the opposite. Perhaps, even a few who previously voted Republican.
7
"Trump is inaccurate as a matter of course."
Inaccurate?
Please Gail, call it what it is: outright, bald faced, pre-meditated lying.
15
Charlatan, con man, inveterate liar, misogynist, and sociopath. Never in my lifetime did I ever think that those words would describe our President. The saddest and most unbelievable part is that 40% of the American public are OK with it. Even more disturbing is the fact that children are at these rallies, learning how and who to hate.
15
Donald Trump is a despicable man. His actions and speeches over the last three years have proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. He has supported brutal dictators, white supremacists, greedy banks and corporations, misogynists, racists, the 1%, violence against the 'others', and unfit and unqualified politicians. He is a disgrace to the country and has tarnished our reputation in the world.
That being the case, it is difficult for me to understand why he gets so much press! It seems he is mentioned in every press report, every news show. There are whole evening programs dedicated to examining what he has said and done during the day! Much of this reporting is simply a repeat of the previous day's reporting.
Enough already! Isn't it obvious that he loves all the attention. That he says provocative things just to get people's attention. I realize that he is president but no president needs to be the center of each and every news story. Report what he says and move on!!
There are many other stories that need to be reported, some bad and some good. These other stories deserve attention as much or more than Trump. I am sick of hearing about him. Isn't the news media doing exactly what it did in 2016, giving The Donald a lot of free publicity? Haven't you learned yet that he is using you?
8
Hey, New York Times!
Maybe you could stop showing all of the pictures of Trump on your website. It would be very, very nice for the people of this country not to see Trumps face.
Almost every day you show a picture or two of that very unpopular president. It certainly would help me sleep better.
Thank you.
22
I enjoy Gail Collins' sophisticated wit and cannot avoid smiling reading her column . Alongside Collins' article in today's Times there is another worthwhile op-ed piece by Dr. Friedman, a professor of psychiatry, who points out that it is relatively easy to manipulate others to hate outsiders. There are three stages . First, emphasize the threat, Second, dehumanize the others, and , Third, empathy is gone. We have seen many illustrations of this. In World War II, the Germans used propaganda to paint Jews as displacing Germans in the economy , then used propaganda dehumanizing them--- as sewer rats , etc.--and then came the extermination camps. In our own country, during World War II, Japanese Americans were turned into vile "Japs" by movies, media, and propaganda---inhuman, unfeeling brutes-- with ease incarcerated in barbed wire camps. Empathy disappears . This is the tactic Trump employs, first exaggerating the evils migrants bring---plague, leprosy, smallpox, MS-13 , Islamic fanatics, rapists, murderers---and infusing dehumanizing portrayals to make the threat even more existential. And only Trump can protect us! So you must vote for him . This works from the distance at rallies, but when Americans actually encounter straggling children and suffering moms and dads---hungry, thirsty, walking painfully to reach America ---these Americans bring out water, food because empathy is the more natural trait, if not for Trump. But from far away, Trump wins votes.
4
What bothers me most about Trump being president is how many Americans approve of him, indeed are in thrall of him and appear to flat-out love him. I'm supposed to call the "lock her up!" shouters "my fellow Americans." I'm asked to feel the pain that purportedly compelled them , including self-proclaimed "Christians," to vote for him. I can't do either.
What Trump's howling crowds remind me of is that there is an innate potential for delusion, folly, and cruelty in the human mind -- for blind and slavish worship of false gods and empty slogans. Putting Trumpism behind us -- rejecting its purported "beliefs" and "values," which include so many things traditionally regarded as un-American -- is what next week's mid-term election is all about. If we don't reject it, this nation will suffer in ways we haven't known before. And so will the world.
11
Maybe, just maybe, the press will find the courage to ignore Trump's hate rallies and cease giving his lies and incitements to violence front-page coverage.
But, probably not. Trump is sleaze, and sleaze draws the eye, even of readers whose sophistication should preclude their fascination with vitriol.
7
Trump is a symptom of the right wing evil that has taken over our country. They believe in nothing except hatred.
4
What does Donald do all day when he's not starring in rallies? Executive time? Golf? TV?
Eleven rallies in six days? Doesn't he have a day job?
8
Well, let's just hope that one of his rallies doesn't inspire another loser. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
4
I would like to think the people attending Trump rallies look on it as entertainment, like world wide wrestling matches where the crowd cheers but knows it is all fake. But then I would be naïve.
5
You know those rooms that are becoming popular where you can pay to break things and blow off steam? That’s what Trump rallies are like except they are metaphorically bashing people. Why do the privileged White Americans have so much steam to let out? Are their lives really so terrible?
4
Politics done in the style of a professional wrestling match. This is what we have sunk to.
All he needs to do to get even bigger crowds is to put up ropes around the dais and then hang the microphone from the ceiling and the effect will be complete.
Idiocrasy is practically here in the red districts.
5
I thought the ideal Trump rally was one where he was struck by lightning.
9
You wind up wasting valuable time trying to understand Trump. It is simple. He is out for himself and anyone who agrees with him. That's it. He is always looking for opportunities to make money while acting as president. So all of his outlandish and provoking statements are geared to cause chaos and fear because that has been useful for him in the past. He has no intention of being a president of our country. This whole thing was a mismanaged mess and Trump is taking advantage of it as he always does. The sooner we begin to move against him (November 6) the better. We need to put the breaks on and stop him from his money making efforts.
4
Trump in the end will destroy himself. This is happening as we speak. I am starting to gain my faith in my fellow citizens thinking caps as we draw down on the midterms. Perhaps there are not the huge distances in reason that I felt were distorting our civilization. Check back on the 7th.
4
Yes, his campaign rallies are frightening. They show how easily people can be manipulated, since his followers are unaware of historical precedents of manipulation that led to world wars and economic disasters. But I'm weary of the media whining about how he again failed to be presidential. He never will be. He is psychologically impaired, a narcissist without empathy. I notice that the media now regularly identifies his lies, usually by stating "that is incorrect" in reports. Can we now regularly state that he "lacks empathy" and move on the the details of the story?
4
Read the Michael Lewis book the Fifth Risk. There are perhaps literally thousands of underpaid paid government employees preventing nuclear bombs from going off accidentally given stressed conditions and other mundane but critical tasks. Government does critical research for high risk tasks like innovative energy resource that the short termism free market doesn't have any interest in supporting. Trump's understandable is its trivial and moreover no expertise is necessary to do much of anything. Why? From his standpoint its understandable, after all he is an expert in getting outsiders often Russians to bail out his constant errors. He has maneuvered his finances to always be too rich to fail. There is of course incompetence in government. Trump governs with hate for government competence and ability. Its worse than senility. If we get by its will be through the
1
While Trump is out at all of these rallies, using large amounts of taxpayer funds, who is doing his job?
4
@Jean Travis
Trump is nothing more than a big-mouthed rubber stamp.
Thank you, Ms. Collins. You can bring a smile on the dreariest day. The idea that trump might have any inkling of who Thucydides was will keep me chuckling throughout the day.
1
Imagining the ideal Trump rally.
The ideal Trump rally would be if the sound system suddenly broke down and could not be fixed, and all Trump could do is gesture to pantomime his hatred and jump up and down like the raving Rumplestiltskin he really is.
Of course, his rally fans would not be able to hear what he says, but I don't think they really listen to the content of what he is saying when the sound system is on.
3
The Ideal Trump Rally would be the one that never happened.
3
I'd like someone to ask WHY and HOW MUCH we taxpayers are paying for Trump's use of Air Force One and other add-ons that are required to prepare for these rallies. Isn't that right? or am I mistaken that all of these rallies are paid for by us citizens's taxes?
If he is campaigning for himself (yes!) and his party (maybe!), then the GOP and his treasure trove of contributions should be used to cover ALL THESE CAMPAIGNING COSTS!!
And not us - whom he doesn't even count as U.S. citizens if you happen to disagree with him on anything; are Dems or other Independents.
WHY DOESN'T THE FREE PRESS BRING THIS UP???
2
The worst thing about the rallies? People actually show up, not just for the spectacle of a narcissistic carnival barker, but in support of his divisive policies. They eat up his ignorance of lawmaking, history, and the important place of the United States in geopolitics and economics. They cheer on his hateful and bizarre rhetoric that promotes policies based on ideas completely at odds with facts, statistics, and reality.
A journalist brutally murdered by his own country? The Saudi Prince denied it. Strongly. Another mass shooting and hate crime? More guns. Armed guards. Pipe bombs sent to his political rivals? Ho-hum. Poor people who want to live the American Dream? They are invaders. Change a constitutional amendment? I can do that without Congress and the state and a ratification process.
And that is just in the past two weeks.
Vote Blue and pray for the Special Counsel.
2
I still don't understand why so many eat up everything he says. Why is he a hero to so many? If Trump, his presidency, and the state of the union were a television show, no one would take it seriously. That is, unless it were spun as a comedy/satire. Then it would be a hit.
2
Put Donald Trump in front of a rally of his followers and the nonsense spills out of his mouth in no apparent order. We know the menu, but the entree sometimes come before the soup, and the dessert may be the first course.
Trump will speak briefly of the event of the day if it is a multiple shooting, but the actual event is always secondary to what he did or said or how he squeezed in a quick visit there, making sure it did not interfere with his rally in Kankakee, Boise or Schenectady.
Crowd size at both the event site he just visited and at the rally is always on the menu. The crowd, Trump tells everyone, was or is the biggest anyone has ever drawn.
There is always a midterm candidate in the state where the rally is held. Trump always introduces him or her, giving the candidate one minute at the microphone before Trump interrupts and shoves the candidate away, so Trump can get back to praising himself.
Donald Trump allays the crowd’s fears of terrible things that immigrants or Democrats are doing, and people in the stands look puzzled and turn to one another, because this is the first they have heard of those terrible things.
Trump always has new promises to make to the rally crowd, but no specifics are ever given. The music, chanting and insults hurled at the reporters occupy the rest of the time.
It is very boring, until you realize that the volume of the rally cheers and applause determines the policies of the Trump White House.
1
Trump is a creature who seems to live in the moment. Like any salesman, once he has closed the deal, he doesn't think about it, it's gone, and there's always a next deal. If he fails to close a deal, he doesn't dwell on that either. And it seems that he has no idea that the past will eventually catch up to him. If he's fortunate, his party will take a hit in the midterms. But if he's unlucky and the Republicans keep the House and the Senate, and the Resistance sees him a voter-proof, then Trump will reap the whirlwind.
It's happened to all Emperors, Dictators, and Fuhrers.
3
He is helping make the country emotionally exhausted and morally bankrupt. When I think of him, as a human being, I see a craven image.
2
But if people didn’t want impromptu incoherence they wouldn’t have voted for tRump. Stay tuned, we’ll see what happens next episode.
1
"And compare himself to Thucydides or Winston Churchill or Pope John Paul II."
Not to quibble, but in Trump's sociopathic--and above all, egocentric--world-view, he would never stop at a mere comparison.
I doubt if Trump could produce more than a handful of accurate statements about Winston Churchill or Pope John Paul II, including reasons those men attained a high place in history. If that. And he wouldn't have a clue about Thucydides, including how to pronounce his name.
Regardless, when and if Trump compares himself to these bright lights, it will be to belittle their pallid fame in comparison to his perfect record on every front as the Supreme Commandante of Superlative Achievment.
3
When I see these rallies I am struck by the conformity - lots and lots of red MAGA hats (I thought also that there was some kind of raised arm salute at the end of the Florida rally but it may have been the camera angle).
This constant reinforcement of MAGA - a mythical superiority or exceptionalism that existed before - which somehow failed - and that loss should be blamed on Democrats and their supporters (you know who I mean !).
And, only Trump can return them to that mythical past.
So, these rallies are a kind of magic show where he turns resentment and victimization into an illusion of comfort if you vote for Republicans.
The other illusion is to make them forget who caused the failed wars and the financial crisis that created the problems in the first place.
5
The Republican Party of 2018 is Trump's Republican Party. If you are a Republican you are supporting Trump and all he stands for. If you vote for any Republican you are supporting Trump and all he stands for. I've been an enthusiastic ticket splitter throughout my voting life, but not this year. Not this Republican Party. Get out and vote on Tuesday and send a strong message that Trump's Republican Party is not acceptable.
22
Could the press provide a daily accounting of accumulated tax dollars being spent for presidential transport and security for Trump's political rallies? I deeply resent my tax dollars being spent to support excessive rally-going vs. on beneficial community services such as infrastructure, education and health.
26
Gail - your unique gift for whimsical commentary is a needed tonic to at least temporarily soften our despair with humor.
That you can do so in a way that calls us all to action - is a testament to your skill.
Thank you.
10
I couldn't help but be reminded of how Trump suggested that if he had been present at Parkland, he would have rootin' tootin' gone in with guns blazing and shot the murderer.
Our cowardly bully in chief, President Bone Spurs, has fantasies about shooting bad guys (as do the powers that be at the NRA) but he's in it for himself, first last and always.
16
Listening to Trump talk about the need to renew the bonds of love and unity is like listening to Bernie Madoff talk about the need to have a trusted financial adviser.
33
Please do not forget the two African Americans killed at a Kroger in Kentucky by a white supremacist.
40
The bullet points for the puffery prince:
deny
divert
deflect
divide.
His marks:
immigration/open borders
Soros
Hillary
media
Desired results:
induce rage
rallying his base
own the liberals a/k/a the others
standing ovation from his followers.
6
Really, Ms. Collins, are you trying once again to rehabilitate Trump? To give him things he could say, should say, blah blah blah. Aren't we beyond that? Like the warming oceans, it is likely too late. It is not Trump at this point. It is what he represents. That, I feel, is beyond rehab. It needs to be stopped, not violently - but democratically - directly calling "it" out as a path, a direction, we simply cannot pursue. We are sliding. We must stop the slide. We have to collectively turn around, reach across the political divide, and push back up that hill. For integrity, decency, our collective self respect, and for our very survival. We need to turn around a movement. We are beyond "what ifs and wishes". Too late for that. Too important. To dire. We should expect "much". We likely do not deserve a break to ponder the ideal. It has gone to far, we all are to blame to a degree. Accept this and realize, only we can fix this.
2
Trump is getting stranger, more off the wall, and more idiotic by the hour....and not a peep from the Republicans in the House or Senate. Only Paul Ryan once in awhile, only because he is leaving.
18
Let’s face it trump isn’t in charge, that goes to McConnell, he’s the one in the dark making sure the republican dogma is cemented into our country. Trump is the clown in front of the Republican tent creating chaos as a distraction. I fear trump and the gop more then any foreign terrorist because they’re doing something no foreign enemy has been able to do - dividing us so that we eat each other with hatred. Pathetic!
26
Why are you continuing to feed the troll? Stop writing about the ridiculous things he says and does, and write about the policies and what they will mean to Americans. He's loving the attention!
7
I often commented to NOT give him ANY press coverage. His name should not be used at all.
He has not accomplished anything. All he has done is sow division and hatred toward people who dont look like him.
So he deserves no coverage.
2
Thank you for a much-needed laugh.
2
The ideal Trump rally: Donald Trump alone, just Himself and a mirror; The Donald blathering and endlessly spewing venomous insults and lies, congratulating himself on his grand accomplishments, his ‘stable genius,’ and his stunning good looks.
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest...’
And then Nurse Ratched arrives with his medications.
11
The question is, why does the media even bother to cover these moronic rallies. They're nothing more than entertainment for Trump's racist base. Widespread reporting of his hateful lies amplifies his evil. Can you imagine his rage when he encourages the crowd to scream at the press pool and there's no one there? The NYT and other respectable news organizations are feeding the monster; please stop it.
13
@frederick10280. I agree wholeheartedly! We would have been better off if they covered him less in 2016, too! At the very least - how about Trump-free Tuesdays.
1
President Trump never left campaign mode, even after his election in 2016. He needs these rallies to prop up his fragile ego; he thrives on unquestioned loyalty and adulation.
If one could tally the time and expense for all of these rallies the past two years, plus how much time he golfs and hangs out at his resorts ( https://trumpgolfcount.com ) - not to mention his time watching television, doing interviews with Fox, and tweeting in the middle of the night - one wonders if he has time to do anything else. The cost to taxpayers is already staggering.
9
Trump, the the leader of the "free" world?
No, he is an arsonist who throws fire bombs at his perceived enemies, the press and at the free world, while adoring and buttering up to every autocratic thug in the not so free world
Every time he goes off the teleprompter and talks in word salads should be reason enough for him to be indicted and arrested for murdering his own native language.
I have heard from informed sources who - understandably - want to remain anonymous, that during any meeting with foreign heads of state two government paid translators are present.
One is an expert in Trump mumble-jumble language who translates it into English, and the other one translates it into the language of the foreign head of state.
4
Hate is the red meat Trump feeds his voters to make them feel invincible. Trump's job is to keep them well fed.
It's a dance with the devil, and honestly, when you see Trump call neo-Nazis "many fine people" after their violent speech and actions, it's hard to tell who's leading and who's following.
7
MAGA has morphed into TIGAH -Trump is Great, ain’t he!
5
Gail, this is so good. Thanks for nailing it, again. I'm a native of the Southern Illinois area he visited this week. Truly scary redneck, racist, hateful people thrive there. Among a few other kind folks. If growing up there taught me anything, it's that you will never change the rightwingers there. They are absolutely dug in, and have been long before Donald Trump said his first words: "Daddy, give me a few more million through your fraudulent businesses."
2
You might be “losing it”
1
Okay Gail, Pulitzer for you:
"His rhetorical high point probably came when he went to the synagogue where 11 people were murdered and didn’t say anything."
9
20$ trump doesn't know who thucydides is
8
Ideal Trump rally.....????
Well....Trump is a No Show....and we don't have to see him
again on TV.....
Isn't everyone really sick of seeing him every single day and night
…..for this reason alone....Trump and this carnival needs to go
to no ratings....no more talk about Trump.....
Just vote....next Tuesday....and turn off the TV every time Trump
appears...the cable news will turn him away if their ratings go
down …...so if Mueller doesn't get him off the air; then ratings will.
5
First of all he's never heard of Thucydides and wouldn't know how to pronounce his name-but I cannot laugh at any of the rallies anymore. Compare them to newsreels of Hitler spewing lies and enraging his audiences-there's really no difference. I shudder to think of what garbage will spew from his mouth before next Tuesday, and what sort of violence his ghastly rhetoric might inspire.
7
Trump is like a Star Trek monster who thrives on attention. Please starve the beast.
5
Spot on, Gail.
3
Gail, who's paying for all of this? These rallies cost money! Air Force One, Secret Service Protection, Trump's closet of red and blue ties....could be that we, the lowly taxpayers, are footing the bill. If we don't go to these rallies, can we deduct this from our taxes, or do we follow our president's lead and not pay our taxes at all?
6
"Please allow me to introduce myself,
I'm a man of wealth and taste...."
What a relief. Trump cannot compare himself to Satan.
6
Poor Gail. I think that even the op-ed pages’ premier Humorist-in-Chief has been bummed out by the recent nonstop malevolence and revolting behavior of the Fake President. It’s difficult to be inspired and create laughs when there’s a destructive tornado bearing down on a daily basis, with no end in sight. Are there any temporary vacancies available for her in the Style Section, for some R&R?
We are so sick of Trump. I think he should be put in jail for putting the nation through this crisis.
His supporters, some are who are in my same family, thankfully not my immediate nuclear family, should really not be forgiven easily for voting for this tyrant, who hates just to hate, who divides just to show he can divide, who has a soul that is empty and void. Their is an abyss inside Trump, his eyes vacant, his sole intent to demonize, there is evilness seeping from his pores.
6
Leader of the free world? Pleassssse. That is so pre 21st century.
4
Could you please stop referring to the US President as « the leader of the free world »?
People living in the free world find that outrageously ridiculous.
Good luck to you on November 6th. Sincerely hope you save your great country.
5
Talk of love and loyalty from the guy with three wives. Yeah, that works.
9
My imagination of the ideal Trump Rally is that a teenage girl walks up on stage and somehow Trump falls silent for a moment and she asks:
"Why are you so angry? You're rich. Life has gone your way.
As far as I can see, you don't have any friends. It doesn't look like your wife loves you or even respects you. Is that why you are angry?
Everything you say is a putdown or a complaint. Almost all of it is mean. Why are you so mean? How does it make you happy?
Why do you lie so much?
I really would not want to be your friend, because you're mean and you lie all the time, but you really need a friend."
10
Journalists, please stop calling the President of the United States “the leader of the free world”. How can a minority in one country elect a leader for all the other countries in the free world?
7
When Trump says, "And they got a lot of rough people in those caravans. They are not angels,” someone should show pictures of the so-called carvan with mothers and babies among them, such as this one: https://tinyurl.com/yddwfunt
They may not qualify as angels but they certainly don't look like a threat. Babies, that's who Trump is afraid of. Such a baby, to use one of the insults that Trump doles out every now and then.
4
When will this blowhard leave the stage he has been on too long and causing an ugly atmosphere of violence and hate that is not worth a booming stock market that will eventually crash any way.
1
By the time we get to 2019, Trump rallies will be Klan rallies; inspired by 1938 Munich. Trump will wear a uniform.
Fine; we get it.
Republicans are too far gone - but they are winning everything local, state, and federal. If they were as ridiculous as you make them out to be, they would not own everything local, regional, state, and country (and courts) as they currently do.
So what will democrat rallies be like? Lilith fair 2019? A celebration of the notion that all are victims? A pity party of people in rainbow hues, handing out free 'coexist' stickers? Young people screaming to have their student debts forgiven, people demanding free healthcare, women wanting every male's life probed for likely infractions? Demands for removing all curbs on immigration (let in anyone who wants to come)? And 90% income taxes on anyone making more than your average school teacher.
Will 2019 democrats vote only for are those who are pristine and pure; i.e., only those who are unqualified, inexperienced, and have never ever done anything in their lives. Will they demand that party put forth candidates selected exclusively from the population of English lit faculty of no-name liberal arts colleges and librarians (because they know everything). But only if they recycle, have black and Hispanic friends, show evidence of attending at least one poetry reading per year, and can preach about gender and diversity.
I think those in uniforms win.
3
Don't forget to vote.
2
"Don't forget to vote", especially if you were in the 40% of stay-aways in 2016.
The election was not "stolen" by the Russians or the Electoral College; it was given away by the stay-aways.
Who is footing the bill for these divisive, political rallies? The taxpayers? Is this “legal”...
2
Bluto. He makes the cartoons interesting.
1
If he shut his mouth.
That would be relief.
6
The best rally would be no rally.
Tax payers should not be footing the bill for all his flirting around on Air Force One for the sole purpose of spewing hate and division and extorting the country by charging his security detail and hanger onners to stay at his properties.
Many people have said that the new, incoming Democratic Congress needs to put a hard limit on this outrageous and illegal behavior.
3
One speech without a lie. Just one.
2
Of course, DJT pumps up rejection of those victims of right-wing social policies who are slow-walking in Mexico ...
Once he firmly fixes the thought that whole swaths of humans are entitled to no help or human aid, the next step is promoting the idea that "not entitled-ness" also extends to many of our own citizens ...
What, I wonder, did DJT do with his soul? Stuffed it with dollar bills ... and a con artist's sense of entitlement ... and then it just vanished!
Vote Blue!
3
There is no caravan danger. Democrats are not your enemies. The NYT is not bent on the destruction of republicans. The press, although completely feckless, is not an enemy of the U.S.A. Putin does not make a good ally. The military includes the National Guard. Terrorists can come in by ship on the east coast, too, or airports. They don't have to use the southern border. trump lies about stuff. He uses an unsecured cellphone and won't stop doing it. trump won't tell us if his fortune comes from Ukraine, China or where.
All of these things are true. Rajn and other trump cult members commenting here: they offer nothing, ZERO except 'Gail Collins is stupid, trump knows everything, and he's gonna win cuz maga...'
I'm beginning to believe America will be OK after we drive this creature from our beloved white house. If all his supporters have is smelly insults, I'm not afraid. And believe me, that IS ALL they have. Scroll down the comments here and in any other publication.
Respect for existing culture, learning the language, waiting in line for your turn to enter: When did white men EVER do that for the Native Americans who lived here before you? Any nation they colonized and enslaved? If you live to maintain your own status ONLY, don't be surprised if you get run over.
And if y'all had treated minorities better in the past, perhaps you wouldn't be so afraid to be a white minority in the near future!
6
"We're getting prepared for the Caravan, folks, you don't have to worry about that!". Trump crowed at his Estero, Florida rally last night. Oh, goody, People, ya think that's one thing we won't have to worry about after the Mid-Terms next week? President Trump is on a crusade to wake up his red meat base at all of his 2020 rallies he's fomented every covfefe week since his was election 2 years ago.
Gail Collins, you're getting down to brass tacks today -- not a cough in a carload (Old Golds), not even one smile in your column "Imagining the Ideal Trump Rally". Last night Mr. Trump predicted that his loyalists, Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott will win the Florida Governorship and the US Senate seat on Tuesday. So many of us Floridians are hoping against mitigated hope that Andrew Gillum will be elected as the first Black Governor in American history, that Bill Nelson will be re-elected to the Senate.
When the president of the United States tells us Americans that the massacre of praying Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh could have been avoided had there been an armed man in the Temple to mow down the demented killer, we know that we are a frighteningly divided nation on the cusp of another civil war. We feel like we are coming through the rye (H/T Salinger), and praying the Millennial voters will be there catching us in the rye next Tuesday.
4
Trump isn't holding rallies in support of Republican candidates, he's campaigning for himself for 2020. His rallies aren't about sending people out with feelings of hope, it's about sending people out with feelings of anger. The anger Trump has engendered through rallies and television coverage have led some to act on that anger as we have so tragically seen.
Trump won in 2106 by lending validation to the worst elements in our society. Those who are racist, support white nationalism, are misogynistic, or xenophobic all felt empowered by this vulgar charlatan.
Trump's blatant disregard and disrespect for the families of the shooting victims in Pittsburgh was the most shameful display of hubris I have ever seen any president exhibit. I thought I could not be further shocked by this man masquerading as president, but this shocked and angered me. I wish he would just shut up! I have had enough of his vanity constantly on display, and I have had enough of his braggadocio. Now he has set his sights on the 14th Amendment. Enough!
Vote next Tuesday, please vote so that maybe we can stop the damage that is being wrought by this amoral man whose Party lost its soul when it endorsed him for President
4
The complicity of the media in Trump's distortions and demagoguery is an absolute disgrace.Every time he speaks, no matter how disingenuous or factually absurd, the media covers it, and it becomes an instant campaign commercial. Where is the editorial judgement ?Trump's absolute falsehood about being able to end "birthright citizenship", and surreal assertion that the pathetic " caravan " of the desperate is an invaison threat, requiring a military response,are glaring examples of the craven,enabling , media's failure to exercise it's fiduciary responsibility to the American people.
1
I suspect that the truth about the rallies is that they are heavily salted with paid and directed instigators, paid by Trump and Republicans, and perhaps by foreign interests. A few people starting chants spark the audience to go for it. These rallies are a master class in inciting mob behavior, Trump couldn't do it on his own. Remember that Trump accused the Democrats of busing in supporters. He always accuses others of what he is doing .....
2
“Trump is absolutely driving home the fact that he is not going to improve his act just because we’re in a crisis. In Illinois, egging the crowd on, the president suggested he might “tone it down just a little bit” after the worst anti-Semitic assault in recent history.
“No!” cried the audience on cue.”
At this weary and sad point, it’s an honest toss-up as to who is actually worse: Trump or his hooting, hollering and rage-filled “fans.” And yes, fans are what they are, not citizens in any respect since these “rallies” are nothing more than a cheap WWE version of Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate. They can loudly cheer their racism and their hatred and let loose the darkest parts of themselves, all while the ignoble scoundrel urging that cheering is robbing them blind. All of it is just nauseating.
5
What we need is an official fool. A fool can explain that Trump is not the president, but is an organized crime boss using the presidency as a disguise behind which he carries out his hits. The White House is the base of operations. His "senior advisers", otherwise known as Javanka, are the boss' family capos.
A fool can explain with impunity that Trump intentionally and thoughtfully - with malice - uses the weapons of hate, racism, bigotry, fear, threats and violence, and that he intends that people act on this speech. A fool can explain that Trump does this to give him plausible deniability and protection from prosecution.
A fool can elaborate on the criminal acts of GOP members of Congress and the Supreme Court in aiding and abetting him in his criminality.
A grateful nation can finally see Trump for who he is and what he's doing - a career criminal using domestic terrorism against Americans with the intent of enriching himself while destroying the country.
VOTE
Your life depends on it.
4
Sit tight there lost one. The next focus of the administration will be “the arts” and education. Can’t wait can ya?
The rallies are not for people who want to hear inspirational words or plans from a true leader. The crowds are there to voice their approval of his greatest hits, even the ones he didn’t and won’t achieve like the wall and ending birthright citizenship. They love his swagger. They love his ideas. Most of all they love that he didn’t forget them. He went there and in office continues to go there. I truly believe that white nationalists and misogynists are a small fraction of his followers. We cannot continue to be perceived as looking down our noses at the poorly educated and those who disagree with us on immigration and guns and feminism. They are Americans and they have a voice. A very strong voice that we heard and will continue to hear, long after trump is gone. Democrats would be wise to listen and to speak on common ground issues like health care. It is the only path forward. A country divided against itself cannot stand.
2
I am losing the ability to laugh at the mockery of a demagogue who is single-handedly (albeit with a shocking amount of help from those in power) destroying the nation and planet.
1
Well, Gail, you've summed that up nicely so there really isn't much to add.
Just an observation. The brilliant George Orwell predicted Trump. He was also the origin of the quote, “At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.”
Looking at Trump's bloated appearance and increasingly bizarre rambling, it seems that he has morphed into Orwell's Squealer. Not really in charge, but always in your face making lots of confusing noise.
So who — or what —entity is our 'real' president? And why are they trying to destroy America?
2
I am comparing him to the devil as what person, and our 'American' president no less wants to incite violence, civil unrest, hatred and fear? He is a buffoon but a very dangerous incendiary one.
Today I can't even smile despite the fact your column always provides us with humor in the time of Trump.
Trump will not go quietly into the night when he is removed and he is telling us this every day. Violence is the answer Trump wants to hear.
Trump is weak and getting weaker.
4
Donald Trump, Republicans (in general):
The Other is bad. In fact, the Other is evil. And they're all coming to take over the country, steal your jobs, rob your homes. On top of that, they're just . . .weird. They dress weird, pray weird, speak weird. They make me very uncomfortable, especially close up. Don't want them too near me. Might have to kill them if they don't stay away.
Democrats (in general):
The Other is strange, even a little bit weird, but interesting. They have cute kids, just like us. Wonder what kind of food they make. And wonder if we could get them to make something for the bake sale.
3
He dodged the draft. He dodged two marriages. He dodged six bankruptcies. His self-invented Horatio Alger billionaire legend is dodgy. His campaign advisors and their tactics were dodgy. The nepotism and rent-seeking of his children is dodgy. He has no soul, only the mirror he holds up to himself, gold plated and emblazoned with his eponym.
Now he's dodging the presidency. He has grabbed America by the crude name and the outright lie. Like so many homegrown terrorists, he himself is the evil invader he has conjured and decries.
3
The garbled nonsense that spews endlessly from the president's mouth can only be understood in a country whose collective brain can process such incoherence in a manner that makes sense do that brain.
It's as though the president were speaking a totally foreign language so incomprehensible to English speakers that it might as well be from another planet.
Come to think of it, the blather might well be from another planet. We worry about the malign influence of Vladimir Putin on the politics of the United States.
Better perhaps we should concern ourselves about Captain Xoron from the planet Zidiot leading a caravan of Xupids through the Milky Way.
1
Worst part. The GOP is Donald Trump.
We should never forget that the Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump. A vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump and all the hate and inhumanity he represents.
2
"Trump keeps coming back to immigration even though it's clear it's poisoning the nation."
Here we have the problem: Nobody to the left of Trump has been able to figure out what hit us Nov, 2016.
Obviously, Trump and his Trumplings do not care whether "Build the Wall" is poisoning the nation. I imagine they would say the anti immigrant "ethnic cleansing" is having a purifying effect.
Trump clearly puts something out, judges its effect on his audience and goes with what works.
No President, or any public figure, in my lifetime has dominated the public stage as Trump has.
This is beyond what even Orwell could imagine: Big Brother was only on a screen in the apartment; he did not follow on a portable device.
We might ponder why.
More importantly, we have to figure out someone who can knock him off that stage.
So far, we are reduced to knocking on doors and facing the brain snatched citizens on the other side of the screen door who have already decided and cannot be persuaded.
1
The ideal Trump rally would have to be held in the largest dumpster the world has ever seen.
4
I watched a few seconds of a clip of him last night talking about sending more troops to the border than there are refugees wearily traipsing away from violence towards what they believe will be a place of safety. I can't imagine how traumatic it will be for them to meet with heavily armed troops. And what will the troops do? Engage in hand to hand combat with women and children? Subject them to more violence?
I couldn't watch any more. I can't get my head around the terrifying lunacy and chicanery of this awful, loathsome man and the mind-boggling idiocy of his supporters.
Please, America; please please please #VoteBlue.
3
I think Gail you are becoming too serious so I follow with some humor for the week
One vote is worthless
Two votes aint much
But three and scrub four
That is GOP glory
Let’s face it trump is not the problem. It’s the “deplorables”. Once again Hilary was to
Smart for her time.
4
Yesterday while taking my son trick or treating, I stumbled onto a conversation with a neighbor about the rancor in the country. He replied that the hate and division started with and was the fault of Obama. I was stunned and was mentally comparing Obama’s rhetoric with Trump’s trying to piece together how someone could draw that conclusion. Two things emerged. First, to many Americans Obama was the “other”. He wasn’t American and he did not love the US. He was doomed to this judgment regardless of his actions as president. Second, our problems won’t go away when Trump leaves office. Someone else will tap into that anger and ignorance to boost their poll numbers. Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio will adopt Trump’s blatant idiocy and carry the torch. We have an established right wing fringe and it ain’t going away anytime soon.
4
Trump’s ideal rally is one where he announces that the increasing number of troops being sent to our southern border are going to invade Mexico to attack the caravan “down there instead of here on our own soil”.
Dear Leader loves those rallies! Maybe his followers can come up with a special salute to greet him with, and parade around with big banners before during and after the events. How about a giant "T" in a tasteful color combination of black, white, and red. And how about a young person's group? Call it "Trump Youth".
Think of the possibilities.
The sad reality is that Trump has been a bottom line blessing for the media (including the NYTs), and that is why they follow his every outrage - it's good copy and builds readership or viewers, resulting in advertising growth. The media wants it both ways - to profit by his theatrics while self-righteously opposing his message. They recognize him for what he is and could ignore his outbursts, but that would cost them - readers and viewers would look elsewhere for the Trump news. Trump knows this and plays them like a fiddle.
1
Well, what else did we expect from this worthless fool? Our gutless Congressman, Mike Bost, is running neck and neck with his Democratic opponent. He has had nothing much to offer voters, certainly not any legislation that bears his name during his four years in Washington.
So, DJT came to shore him up, but there's been no bump in the polls following his visit last Saturday. And the local Trumpistas have been remarkably quiet since Pres. Goldilocks came to town. Ah, well, wotthehell, as Mahitabel used to say.
Two years from now (assuming no successful impeachment until then), many of us are afraid we will be engaged in a shooting war that DJT and his supporters will expect the country to rally behind. The thing is, though, that burning one's bridges, as Goldilocks has been doing for two years, doesn't leave many options for reinforcements.
Stay tuned!
2
FYI, John Paul II was an evil guy who was aggressively anti-gay, persecuted U.S. nuns and generally a right wing dictator, no one in short to put it in the same category as Winston Churchill.
1
We really need a rest. The country’s been through a terrible streak of terrorism — the pipe bombs followed by the mass shooting in Pittsburgh. And generally, the president has been worse than useless. His rhetorical high point probably came when he went to the synagogue where 11 people were murdered and didn’t say anything.
http://www.siyasat.pk/ex-ig-islamabad-tahir-alam-khan-telling-the-procedure-t141309.html
Gail, I usually enjoy your humorous takes on the world even as crazy as it is. This column lacked much of your trademark wit.
That’s not a criticism. I don’t know how you can keep your sense of humor in this increasingly oppressive politics and psychological environment. I know I’m on the verge of losing mine.
Today, you managed to sum up this administration succinctly: “It’s insane to expect him to lift up the nation.” I can’t think of a single instance of word or action that was anything but divisive, cruel, derogatory, inflammatory, or just plain wrong.
Thanks for trying to keep us from collapsing into a collective national depression. We can only hope that November 6th will reinstate some ability to halt the most egregious actions and begin to demand some accountability from this presidential* circus.
2
yow what a fine can of worms this headline is. The ideal rally involves a speaker that whips his crowd and himself into such a blather that his coronary issues come to the fore. What a climactic ending to the Ideal rally.
3
I wish he'd just cut to the chase, and go full carnival barker or burnt out rock star.
"Helllooooooo Peoria! How's the crowd tonight? Are you feelin' it??? Are we here to ROCK AND ROLLLLL? We've got a huge turnout tonight! Huge!!! White Snake couldn't bring this big a crowd! Their ratings are terrible, terrible! So let's get ready to Rock!"
He'd get just as much applause, maybe more, and we'd be keeping people safer, as he fails to draw attention to and make targets of people he has demonized. We'd feed the beast, without spreading the poison.
For a few minutes in the news cycle, one teenager from Missoula, who made faces - confused, ironic, smirking, gobsmacked - as Trump lied his way through a rally, became a public hero. All the ironic humor from a sarcastic but well read teenager, making a mockery of a rally. He was physically replaced by two female androids.
We wouldn't need him or his heartfelt sense of irony, if Trump could just go the White Snake route.
2
The trump way to end each day.
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating his (a) Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, "What a good boy am I! "
1
So supporters at Trump rallies are howling, but those at Democrat rallies are not? Gail must have werewolves on her mind from last night.
I note the arrivals in GA of Oprah and Obama this week. Do "we" need a rest from them too?
2
Donald with his very limited vocabulary has run out of superlatives to describe himself.
1
I heard something once, and I think it was Lyndon Johnson talking about the GOP Southern strategy to keep white people angry at blacks. He said something like, "Keep a white man focused on hating a black one and he will never notice you are picking his pocket."
It's gotten to the point that that gullible white man is so intent on hating anyone not white, that you don't have to pick his pocket - he will hand over all his money and his very soul to you.
If that's what we've become as a nation, then we don't deserve our democracy. If we have to kiss it goodbye, hunker down, take care of the people you love, and keep preaching something better. Maybe your children will hear you even if your neighbors don't.
2
Donald does not compare himself to the likes of Thucydides, Churchill or John Paul II. He considers himself above such riffraff. He has jobs they will perform for him in his afterlife. Thucydides will be his personal grape peeler. Churchill will be on the pots and pans. Pope John Paul II will massage his heel spurs.
The one problem with his plan is the guy running the place won't grant him a visa much less permanent status. Upon hearing this, Donald vowed to form a caravan with his buddies at Fox and illegally cross into heaven. God immediately dispatched 5,000 angels to the Pearly Gates.
1
I am so tired of Trump and his insane rallies. It would be lovely just to not hear his voice.
What if (since we already know what 90% of what he's going to say), when Trump holds a campaign event or rally, the press just ignored the whole thing. Not even a mention that the rally ever took place. I think that might drive him around the bend. He couldn't stand the lack of attention. In the meantime it would allow the news media to cover actual news and people like me would get a rest.
1
Please do not forget to mention the racially motivated killings in Kentucky at the Kroger market.
It was perpetrated by a hate monger. Before killing two innocents he went to a church to kill observants. Fortunately the church doors were locked.
No mention from the White House about this!
2
Well, as long as we're talking about immigration... I think we should talk about having a President who speaks English, too.
Imagine if three years ago you could have read this article. You’d of thought we were in an alternate reality. I’m reading the word lies, liar all the time now. Sick and evil. Who would have thought we’d be describing candidates that way. I’m afraid we’re going to be so changed by this animal trump that we’ll never get back to a good place.
1
It’s a misnomer to call these gatherings rallies. Like a rock band on tour, they’re shows, with more or less the same set list played to hordes of screaming fans. Introducing new material gets a ho-hum response from fans, but bring out the oldies but goodies and they’re chanting along, screaming the choruses, and pumped up by the hatred and lies and bombast of the performer.
2
According to Trump, Jamal Khashoggi's murderers: "had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups!" Otherwise, apparently, it would have been ok.
A Trump supporter mails pipe bombs, many pipe bombs. A neo-Nazi guns down 11 worshippers in a synagogue. Democrats don't applaud Trump during the State of the Union. Naturally, everyone should be held equally accountable for this "incivility."
Trump hasn't talked much about the pipe bombs, or the synagogue shooting, or the shooting at the Kentucky Kroger store because they were perpetrated by white males like himself. If instead it had been people of color, we'd be seeing a whole different reaction. In that case, tactical nukes would surely be trained on the caravan.
Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have "realized" that the tax cuts will not pay for themselves. So now we must cut Social Security and Medicare.
And don't forget: Trump will respect the results of the election, as long as Republicans win.
Trump and his GOP are the absolute worst we have to offer.
3
And compare himself to Voldemort!
1
When I read this newspaper, it is rare to read an article which is not an attack on Trump. Why not look at yourselves in the mirror?
And you constantly change the language making Trump seem worse than he actually is.
So you say, "he blamed the synagogue.." But what he actually said was, " “if there were an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop” the shooter." The word "blame" is not there in his words, only in your version of his words.
What he said is not blame but a suggestion. Maybe the suggestion is naive, but it is a suggestion and not blame.
You should watch yourself because you constantly slant the language so much that I have got into the habit of asking myself, "never mind what Gail says. What did Trump actually say?"
Almost always what he actually said is milder than your version of what he said. That is not the way of peace, it is the way of a battle. You constantly wage a battle against Trump and then say, "Look look, he is fighting." At least some of his fighting is his way of protecting himself and his party from your constant attacks.
1
So the synagogue would have been ok if they hired some 65 year old retired cop with his service revolver to provide security. Yet the Pittsburgh PD suffered four casualties to their SWAT team to bring down the maniac armed to the teeth for his assault. Who is it who thinks Trump makes any sense about anything?
2
Presidents also don’t brag about the longest recovery from a recession since the Great Depression. But Obama has SO much to brag about after 1 Jan. 2011. Doesn’t he?
You know that things are getting tight when Gail is deadly serious in a column. Not one serious joke even about trump’s hair or the tint of his face.
Why wouldn’t he come back to ILLEGAL immigration? It’s probably what got him elected in the first place, and the nation isn’t being “poisoned” merely because the majority disagrees with Gail and liberals generally on “open borders”. In fact, it could get a lot of Republicans elected and re-elected in just a few days.
You can tell that Trump has liberals seriously concerned about next Tuesday when Gail can see NOTHING actually funny about him.
1
@Richard Luettgen. Any American who doesn’t clearly recognize, at this dire and dangerous moment, what a clear and present danger this Fake President is to the rule of law, the fundamental underpinning of this singular representative democracy we have gratefully inherited from our forebears, is either seriously delusional or so utterly compromised by tax cuts or some other Trump-delivered special interest goodies. In both cases, they are truly lost and stuck in the muck of an ethical swamp of their own making. So sad!
9
Trump brags about accomplishments that don’t exist. But the Trump defenders are unable to rise above “Whataboutism” so you complain about Obama bragging about actual accomplishments.
And not to get TOO subtle after comparing lies with truth, Obama never once made himself the only part or even the key part of an accomplishment. Trump can barely stand to acknowledge anyone else.
But it’s nice to see the Trump fan admit that Trump’s only remaining “issue” is “ immigration”. No more pretense about tax reform or trade or hahaha infrastructure. Closer to the truth in that respect.
10
@Richard Luettgen. “But Obama has SO much to brag about after 1 Jan. 2011. Doesn’t he?”
Ten million jobs, among other things, while contending with a Republican Congress that refused to move forward on anything. The Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear deal. Republicans might not like these agreements, but that doesn’t mean they don’t confer bragging rights. After all, what has the GOP come up with as replacements?
Republicans control the White House and Congress (for the moment) and can’t accomplish anything legislatively. So they beat the drum on immigration.
10
I have to ask: Did Gail Collins volunteer for this assignment or was she assigned? Watching Trump rallies doesn't seem like a very healthy way to spend your time. If forced to watch all of them, I suspect an employee would qualify for workers'-comp before the end. I suppose someone has to do it. However, like entering a nuclear reactor, exposure should be brief and frequently rotated. Collins' current beat seems cruel and unusual to me.
7
At this point Gail, the ideal Trump rally is one that doesn't happen. He's not there going through his usual exaggerations about his importance. He's not making his usual lying statements about immigration, liberals, African Americans, Muslims, you name it. The best thing that could emanate from this president is silence since he has nothing constructive to contribute to our national dialogue.
10
@hen3ry "At this point, Gail, the ideal Trump rally is one that doesn't ... get covered or commentated by the legitimate press."
There - fixed it.
2
@the dogfather You're absolutely correct but the media needs to justify its existence somehow!
Trump is no national leader; he is just his own cheerleader.
6
In his November 2016 interview with Leslie Stahl, Donald Trump reportedly admitted he disparages news media to bulletproof himself from criticism and boost his credibility among supporters.
Stahl said Trump responded on this topic as follows: “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”
That alleged statement speaks volumes on how shallow Trump is and how utterly despicable his 'winning at all costs' approach is.
571
@Ed Perfectly said.
18
@Ed -- Is that interview on tape? Hate to say it, but I don't believe that quote ... it cannot be verbatim -- it's a whole sentence, well constructed, lucid.
Stahl may have paraphrased him; Trump couldn't even read that quote off a teleprompter.
15
@Ed Those words were the closest Trump ever came to telling the truth. Thanks for reminding us.
22
I'd be more willing to listen to the grievances Trump voters have if they weren't so spiteful and angry. As I used to tell my kids when they were angry, "come back when you've calmed down and we can discuss this without all the drama." All the anger and meanness displayed at Trump rallies just shows his supporters to be irrational. They complain about how they're portrayed, then act deranged at the rallies. What do they expect? Maybe their arguments about tariffs and immigration could make sense, but you can't tell with all the "lock her up" and "build the wall" screaming. As long as they act demented, that's how they'll be described.
20
The way for Trump to do something really, really great for the country would be for him (or someone near him) to stuff a sock in it. Silence would be such a relief!
7
I think these rallies are designed to drive critical thinkers mad. The earth is flat, Robert E Lee was a hero, guns don't kill people, the rich are completely trustworthy and are oppressed by regulations, war is peace, fox is fair and balanced, some are more equal than others, victims are to blame and taxes are for losers- repeat this nonsense many times and you've achieved the alchemy of truth-- But just like the twilight zone hero who always wins, the children of the rally may someday wish for the simple joys of clean air, water and human decency.
394
@John Quixote
Spot on.
12
@John Quixote
Actually, Dumpf could say he will commit 100% to deal with climate change and his mindless stooges would still applaud-- because by now they are used to his saying things opposite to what he said 2 minutes before.
His rallys are like revival meetings of call and response. He barks the same empty garbage and the crowd responds with their same idiotic chants.
What a reassuring, uplifting experience for all.
19
Good thing Trump stopped the carnage moments after taking the oath of office.
4
For me the ideal Trump rally would be an empty auditorium and the echoes of Trump babbling to himself.
8
Great Idea - Just Say No to Rally and other nonessential television on time.
3
“And compare himself to Thucydides or Churchill or John Paul II.”
In 1966, when John Lennon, with typical “Lennonesque” irony, compared the popularity of the Beatles to that of Jesus, America’s southern evangelicals went berserk for months.
In 2018, I strongly suspect that if Trump compared himself favorably to “Jesus” at one of his rallies, his evangelical supporters wouldn’t blink an eye. They’d cheer all the louder.
8
@Susan
Trump's own words are a PERFECT template for how he would respond if Christians actually challenged him about his purported belief in the teachings of Christ. One barely even needs to adjust what he said at his nationalist coming out party. Just switch 2 words and it reads fine:
"[Christ] was a person that wanted the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can't have that. You know... they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called [the Anti-Christ]. And I say, really, we're not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I'm [the Anti-Christ], okay? I'm [the Anti-Christ]. [Anti-Christ]. Nothing--use THAT word. Use THAT word."
You'd have the pundits on TV talking about how he was merely saying that he was putting America first and wanted to show strength. Falwell, Jr. would say Christian conservatives were well aware that Trump was the anti-Christ during the campaign and that it was already "baked in" to their vote. "Rev." Perkins would give him a mulligan. Mike Pence would make a statement about how he still considers serving Trump's agenda was one of God's greatest "blessings"; Anti-Christ or not at least he says "Merry Christmas." Huckabee Sanders would swear to her dying breath that she had never heard the statement and refuse to get into a back and forth about whether working for the anti-Christ presented a moral conflict for her.
The only thing Trump did was trot out that tired conservative cliché about how the good guy with a gun can stop the bad guy from committing a heinous crime with a gun. It doesn't work. The rest of America is getting tired of feeling they need armed bodyguards to do the simplest things like go to school and go to religious services.
4
Frankly Gail your columns are beginning to sound like ' mostly ironic humor, some Trump ridicule' but otherwise a lighthearted useless and empty article.
Meanwhile remember as Democrats are as lost as yourselves in egging on their supporters Trump is rallying and fighting for survival. He is thinking these guys are pointing finger at me the other four fingers are pointing at themselves. They are laughing at me today but tomorrow America will laugh at them when we win.
At that rally trump complained that he was having a “bad hair day” because he had to stand outside in the rain talking about the synagogue massacre. His people roared with laughter.
Gail, you’ve made a career out of being funny about our political leaders. It appears that you’re now sensing an important truth: trump is beyond satire, and this presidency is an ongoing tragedy for America. Stay serious and stay focused. With luck, we’ll soon once again have a president we can laugh at for his or her human foibles, and we will look to you to point them out.
3
He won’t stop.
He won’t change.
Wishing it won’t make
it happen. He has an
“evil genius” for knowing
how to rile-up his “base”.
Fear of immigrants,
fear of taking their guns away.
We have a population
ruled by prejudice and
they found their match.
Our only hope is a voter
turnout of Democrats to
vote for a Democratic House
and Senate. Wealthy Democrats
need to put money into
advertising and voter turn-out.
Democrats have to campaign
on reason and fairness. Going
into the gutter with Trump
won’t work...the sewers
are his natural habitat,
not ours.
3
Netflix should offer him the lead in a series about an insult comic who becomes President but only if he resigns the actual Presidency. He could have all the adulation and fan contact with none of the boring policy nonsense. We would all be much happier.
4
Was there an actual point to be made in your opinion column other than “Gail despises Trump”? Is Trump’s comment on adding security to houses of worship misplaced? Not so if you consider the increase in Anti Semitism both hear and abroad. The ADL rightly points to many of the concerns we should all have.
Should we be concerned that a caravan of immigrations has traversed Mexico and is now looking to enter the US? The short answer is yes. We must secured our borders and have a working immigration policy. Gail, you can despise Trump all you like but at least acknowledge the issues.
@George The "caravan" is about 1000 miles from the border and is not to be compared to an invading army. As for "adding security" tp houses of worship, can you just picture armed guards standing at the door of every religious institution in the U S ?
2
Donald Trump's is a power grabbing and despicable human being whose rhetoric has contributed to the horrific events on last week. At some point in time in the future, if we are fortunate, the country will need to reboot to overcome the hatreds he is furthering for his selfish ends. I hope and pray to God it will not be too late.
2
At his Illinois rally, Trump didn’t even give a shout out to up-for-re-election gov Rauner, who seems from a Chicago perspective sure to lose.
As for immigration, I’ve yet to hear any Democrat even dare to suggest we welcome people who are striving such that they walk hundreds of miles to get to the US. The notion Dems want open borders must be another Faux News canard, prompted by POTUS.
Donald Trump sits shiva for no one. If his own daughter or son in law or grandchild passed away, it would be toss them in the ground and go play golf. And the base would go along with that too. And for that base I would add: when you just start to get your eyeballs above the economic cliff and look around and the Republican policies step on your fingers once again, and you realize the net meant to cushion the fall has been removed, Donald Trump will not feel badly for you. He had no sympathy or felt any remorse when it became clear to his wife he had been bedding a playboy bunny while she was breastfeeding their son. Why, in any universe, do you think he has any concern for you? Oh, I am sure, you will find a way to rationalize that too.
4
Fact of the matter is we in this country have not seen anything like Trump, in our lifetime. As an elected President he behaves as though he is the President of only half the country. So essentially he is doing only half his job. Politico has analyzed what a typical 9 hours of Trump's executive time shapes like, totally unstructured, composing of multiple down times when he only watches TV or talks on the phone.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/29/trump-daily-schedule-executive-time-944996
The rest of the time he becomes the republican party campaigner, non stop campaigning. On our tax payer money. Yours and mine, our tax money is funding Trump's campaign speeches rallies security publicity everything else. How are we the people who did not vote for Trump, now complicit in publicizing the Republican party's agenda and fear mongering, conspiracy theories and everything else the alt right has successfully injected into the WH brain neurons?!! Its most baffling and pretty disgusting.
Even though we live in a blue state, I went ahead voted early, straight down ballot, all the way for democrats! Go Blue.
6
Here is a very clever list of substitutions for the hate speech, filled with irony. I was going to write "nope" in answer to the line asking "is it too much to ask...?" But I went on to read that list and it answered cleverly in the same way, boiling down also to "nope." Thank you!
1
“It’s insane to expect him to lift up the nation. But is it too much to ask that he just avoid the violence-inducing themes in his repertoire?”
Yes, Ms. Collins, it is. That’s all he does, all he’s ever done. He tears others down to make himself big, makes enemies of friends, divide divide divide. All Trump is interested in his own power. And just like a child who has spent his first two years of life without boundaries (by his Republican Congress), he’s spoiled and unhinged and entitled. He’s as despicable a man as any despot in any time. There is blood on his hands. Shame on anyone who supports him. If Republicans retain power after the coming election, this will embolden him further. We needs Democrats to parent him, to remind him of his boundaries. Without boundaries, we are doomed. And it’s not just the USA that loses, it’s the entire planet. Call me a doomsayer, but these are dangerous times.
371
@AT
"If Republicans retain power after the coming election, this will embolden him further."
Donald Trump is a lost cause. He's mentally ill and can never change.
Yet the focus is always on Trump when the blame falls squarely on Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan for ALLOWING Trump to systematically divide and destroy our country.
The news media needs to hound these TWO "Leaders" for their pathetic and supportive reactions to Trump's daily lies, hatred and bigotry.
McConnell and Ryan ALONE hold all the power to call out, restrain, censure, and take action against this increasingly deranged mad man, Trump.
Yet they have DONE NOTHING. AND their cowardly silence just EMBOLDENS Trump to be more outrageous.
McConnell and Ryan should be showcased DAILY by the media for failing to exercise their constitutional duty of "checking" this out-of-control president.
Perhaps a dedicated daily column entitled,
"How McConnell and Ryan Failed to Do Their Job Yesterday" would be appropriate.
E.g., Trump calls refugees INVADERS at his rallies and in tweets and within days, a Trump SUPERFAN, inspired by Trump's hate speech, murders 11 Jews calling them INVADERS right before he enters the synagogue to kill them.
Yet McConnell and Ryan DO NOTHING to censure or stop Trump's hate mongering.
McConnelll and Ryan are as guilty of INSPIRING this deranged man to slaughter of these 11 extraordinary human beings as Trump is.
They are cowards.
27
It's obvious that so many of the people at his rallies are not reading a legitimate newspaper or on an online site, or seeking out information beyond the parameters of FOX News and other Trump propaganda shows. So they get their daily, limited , warped information from these junk programs then listen to him regurgitate the slop from the Master's mouth at another, by now fully predictable but ever more dangerous rally. I guess being incurious, uneducated is the new 'cool'. These are not my fellow Americans. I have tried in the past to understand their complaints and fears but have burned out in the process. As Trump ramps up the hate and meanness and many in the crowd cheer him on, I'm finding I don't like anything about the majority of them.
265
@mikeo26
It is Bread and Circuses without the bread. Same type of crowd; same shameless tyrant. Nothing but a distraction form the rot at the heart of the empire. Everything old is new again.
28
@mikeo26
Unfortunately, this cool isn't so new. Spiro Agnew, Nixon's henchman, loved bashing "intellectuals." For example:
"An intellectual is a man who doesn't know how to park a bike."
"Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird cages."
And my favorite:
"In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism."
Bashing intellectuals (critics), Southern Strategy, Silent Majority...even as a kid I could see where this was going. And here we are.
Don't get me started on Reagan's contribution to this state of affairs...Moral Majority, anyone?
38
I keep asking, and none in the media have so far reported, what all these rallies are costing us taxpayers in terms of Trump's travel on Air Force One, Secret Service overtime and other expenses associated with dragging his entourage on never-ending campaigning around the country? Is it even legal?
11
I also believe that Trump is terrified of more democrats in congress, tipping the scales of the Russia Investigation.
5
Thucydides, eh? He lacks something of the eloquence, but he is living proof of T's notion that fear and self-interest are the great motivators of human actions.
3
More rallies! Discrimination, martial law, vigilantism, incarcerations, detentions, deportations and other necessary actions will need a disciplined and well-armed vanguard of those who see the true way.
2
Gail, let me say first that I love your columns and the the humorous takes on our politics that you write about. With that said--there is nothing humorous or light-hearted about these rallies--a word that doesn't do these hate-fests justice. The daily coverage of these Trump rallies during the 2016 campaign by media--across the spectrum--gave Trump the absolute edge in free advertising and coverage for himself and his campaign. During the first year and half of this administration the coverage of these non-presidential campaign events has continued unabated until the last few weeks. Media has to take responsibility for giving Trump a platform to spread his hate and lies. These are not presidential events--which the media should cover. If Trump and the GOP manage to keep their Congressional majorities, then much of the media will have to pat themselves on the back and take a bow. And Wednesday will be a sad day in America--that you can believe.
179
@Meg. On the other hand, perhaps it's because we know what is happening at Trump's demagogic rallies, and how dangerous his acolytes can be, that so many people of conscience and good will are participating in and contributing to Democratic campaigns. We don't want to give his howling mob the advantage of operating unseen.
15
I could not possibly agree more. I have always been mystified that "a Hitler type" could rise to power in a country as sophisticated and well-educated as '30s Germany. I believe we are now seeing a repeat of that calamity in real time.
20
@Meg I agree. Where is the media covering the human interest stories of the refugees who are fleeing violence and oppression in their own countries? The media don't refer to them as "refugees," they are referred to as the "immigrant caravan." And I'm not talking about just Fox News--have we seen one human interest story from any credible news source?
Trump has done his best to demonize these poor women and children, but the media have done nothing to show the "other side." Surely there are "some fine people" in this "caravan."
5
The ideal Trump rally would be one that had to be cancelled because no one showed up. It would be one with no audience because all Americans had rejected the racism, bigotry, misogyny, ignorance, greed, and violence that is all Trump has to offer.
Vote Blue on November 6. Let's restore true American values.
16
The Atlantic is reporting, with evidence to back it, that GOP operatives are seeking to pay women to come forward with claims that Mueller has committed sexual harassment in the past. One of the women approached, offered money to come out with a statement to that effect, informed the Special Investigator that this is happening. That is a certain indication that those close to this president know just how damning the evidence the investigation has uncovered truly is, and are now doing everything possible to discredit Mueller before he presents his findings. That's where we now are, that's how bad it is. Next Tuesday we will find out what kind of country we're living in. The likely answer scares the hell out of me.
36
Since so much of Trump's current rhetoric seems focussed on "the caravan" one begins to wonder if perhaps it is the GOP that is paying the participants, rather than George Soros. After all, the GOP seems to have much more to gain from their journey.
27
@Coco Pazzo
Bravo! Exactly. They would have to invent it if it didn't exist.
@Coco Pazzo
I wondered the same thing.
I think my brain is infected with an Alex Jones parasite.
Gail,
I welcome your voice back, it brings a spot of sanity to the nightmare we are in.
God help us in the midterms!
8
In reading profiles of Trump's base I understand the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of this groups formation and staying power---Mr. Edsall does an excellent job with this description in today's NYT. And, the democratic party should be listening to the grievance of this group---although, the tax and regulatory policies of the Republican party have brought many of these grievances on. Having said that, what troubles me with Trump's base is their vulgarity and meanness. I am OK with an individual asking that we rethink our immigration policies--even offering alternative laws and policies; I am not OK with locking children in cages or shooting them when they cross the border.
38
Ms. Collins, the President is facing an existential crisis.
If the midterm elections deliver anything other than a straight flush, i.e. return GOP majorities in both Houses, Donald the Magnificent risks being investigated thoroughly, both as a person and in terms of (the effect of) his "policies".
It would, for instance, mean that the Mueller investigation could run its course and deliver a report to a receptive audience or that Trump's business dealings could be scrutinized. If the price for avoiding that is a divided and polarized America, so be it.
Is it too much to ask the President of the United States to rise above his own immediate concerns and pet-peeves? Well yes, in the case of Donald J. trump it is. But you all knew that when you enabled his elevation.
By the way, regarding the GOP and its donors' support for el Gran Trumpo, it is instructive to go back to Germany in the 1920-ies and '30-ies. There too the money-men and industrialists supported a right wing blowhard, confident that he and his thugs would easily be brought to heel, once they had crushed the left-wing agitators. They funded him and generally enabled his rise to power, only to find out that once he had this power, they were powerless.
All metaphors are wrong, of course, but it would suggest that much more than a Democrat "victory" in 2018, the salvation of America lies with the donorclass seeing and understanding the danger, and cutting or re-directing their funding, away from Trump.
37
So Trump says the synagogue should have had an armed guard. Well? He was wrong to say it? Make a point of it? The alternative is to wait for the Police to show up. The difference between the Police and an armed guard is time. Time is what a crazy person needs. Are the synagogues in Israel protected by armed guards?
I am as curious as the next guy about 2020. Who will run and who will get the nomination. From the 10-20 Democrats that are likely, which one will be able to fill venues with overflow crowds? Repeatedly?
I agree, the size of the crowd in and of itself isn't an indicator. Trump's crowd intensity, especially 2 years into the first term, is unusual.
Trump is as old as Hillary and Biden. Who thinks we're going to see Hillary sprinting across the stage, give a 90 minute stand-up routine, 10 times in the next 5 days? Joe is peppy, but, he is given to saying some crazy things, from time to time. Joe's draw might run the gamete of the party, but I don't think it is very deep.
It doesn't matter. I doubt I'll make it to a Trump rally any time soon. So, I'll watch on OAN(cable) or RSBN(youtube). I rarely miss one.
1
@Mike
The reason that we have reached the point of having a armed guard in a church or school is due to the 300 hundred million guns in our society. And the fact that even law abiding citizens with nor record, can use those guns to kill a bunch of people within several minutes.
We are the only country in the world to have the frequency of these crimes.
Who would have guessed?
As for Israel, they are a war zone since 1946. I do not care to live as those in Israel do.
9
@Mike First of all, Trump only said that the synogogue should have had an armed guard because he is pandering to the NRA, who never saw a gun it didn't want to promote and sell. He also wanted to make sure that his crazed cult followers knew there was no danger of his damaging some sort of gun control after the latest massacre, while only pleasing the white nationalists among his base that it was the fault of the Jews themselves that they were killed. So it was a win win comment for him and his base but a lose for everyone else.
If only these mass killings were confined to synogogues, churches, mosques, perhaps having an armed guard might help although that's dubious. But these massacres are everywhere--in schools, colleges, nightclubs, movie theaters, restaurants, shopping malls, beauty parlors, and in the case of the 58 killed and hundreds wounded in Las Vegas, in an outdoor concert venue. So how, exactly would an armed guard have prevented most or any of these killings? Are you proposing that there be armed guards at every single establishment? How would armed guards have stopped the Las Vegas killer, who was shooting from above? Also, what's the guarantee that it isn't the armed guard himself that turns out to be a domestic terrorist, also known as a mass killer?
The only way to stop the carnage is to enact sensible gun control, starting by banning semi automatic weapons and body piercing bullets, neither of which are a guaranteed right in the 2nd amendment.
8
@Mike
Didn’t Texas have a big church shootup where the pastor was packing heat in the pulpit every Sunday? So much for placing your trust in the lord. The shooter happened to show up the one day the pistol-packing pastor wasn’t there. I took it as a sign from the Lord that it’s foolish to arrange your entire life around random shooters.
1
Remember that 1960's Peace Movement slogan:
"What if they gave a war and nobody came?"
What if Trump threw a rally and nobody came?
- For whom would he be acting out his formulaic script?
- Upon whose adulation would he feast?
- At which imaginary enemies would he lash out?
Starved of attention and applause, he would no longer be Trump.
The man who ceases to exist in the absence of audience validation would... disappear.
Never happen, you say? I beg you, don't ruin my fantasy.
23
What Trump does at his rallies could be instantly and irrevocably stopped, at any time. All that has to happen is for the media to pack up and leave, every single last one of them. Without the oxygen they provide, he will have zero interest in barking to the crowd that he secretly really hates the most, and will visibly deflate like a dried up balloon. These rallies are not for the people who attend them. They are to glorify him in front of the world, and the world can only see that if the media covers it. The people there are merely nameless and faceless props. The media claims that the rallies are news and they are obligated to cover them. How so? He has said the same exact things at every single rally. There is nothing newsworthy. He doesn’t even get into the weeds on policy. You can bet that the very second there isn’t a single media outlet at one of his rallies, he will stop having them, because he will no longer be able to breathe. Let’s go, media. You brought this monster to power. It’s time you redeemed yourself.
69
Thanks for a great analysis. It's not the live audience. Those people don't get that, as you say, Trump hates them and looks down on them. No, it's the broadcast to a world audience showing everyone how much he is loved; that's what he's after. I've been saying this for 3 years: stop helping him!
10
@Frau Greta
You are correct. It is the media who funded his campaign and got him elected.
6
@Frau Greta MSM stopped covering his rallies a long time ago. OAN and RSBN cover them.
If it is NOT on CNN, it isn't real?
1
Maybe a normal thing in a Democracy functioning perfectly well is that once every 80 years the people elect a fairly awful President.
Trump will never have a press conference where he admits he was a lousy President. And even 20 years from now there will be some folks that will say he was great.
But these last 21 months may have been awful enough that enough people will realize that they voted for a bad candidate.
I make mistakes too. I have been in bad relationships, or bought shirts that looked terrible on me. But I learned from those mistakes, and overall, I do fine enough.
The nation can recover from this error.
11
Oh, what a sad day, when not even Gail can find something funny about where we are now. Disappearing insects, disappearing species, disappearing jobs, and non-entities as leadership. Maybe you're right, maybe it's time to stop laughing and do something about it.
199
He "spews venom, hatred and lies [and] you can see why he persists in such abhorrent behavior just by watching the crowd. They want it. They love it. They need it."
And he needs it, too. Both -- the crowd and the man -- are "needy," in the language of pop psychology.
But that's a snap diagnosis; what is more important and more interesting is WHY? What experiences in their lives lead thousands of people to slaver and howl at his crude antics? And what in his past made him vulnerable to becoming addicted to the roaring approval of people he would have contempt for in any other setting?
Even if we knew WHY, the pathology would remain. Meanwhile we can protect ourselves from it, to some degree, by voting for a healthier democracy.
14
Re that plan to toss out the born here part of the Constitution.
Might work for me. I was born here. Maybe I can get out of having to be a citizen.
7
Trump's ideal rally is one that he resigns from office at the end.
9
When is he going to use the old line, I just flew in from Pittsburgh, boy are my arms tired. What a crowd, what a crowd.
9
What I greatly fear is that this may very well be just the beginning of a long downturn in our political system and Democracy. If the American people do not wake up to what this self proclaimed demigod is doing at our expense and do it soon, the country may never recover. And that is not an exaggeration.
There are a lot of people out there in the hinterlands that are experiencing what is called "Free floating anger." Ask them to explain what they are angry about and you would get a variety of answers that all point back to the government and what they consider government over-reach, regulations and rule of government that is somehow depriving them of the lifestyle they think they deserve. I believe you will find the most ardent of these government haters are located in areas where the opioid epidemic is the worst. Trump knows this and is playing off their fears and anger.
The ideal Trump would still be in his Trump tower with his trophy wife.
8
Were I MSM I would be afraid to cover a trump rally.
The ideal trump rally is where someone in the crowd isn't set upon a path of murder of others.
The ideal trump rally is where he says goodbye to his supporters and will keep them in his thoughts while he is in exile in Russia.
16
25th amendment do your duty. No need to wear a concealed wire. The man declares his condition in the public square.
11
Trump's talk about the size of the crowd is more serious than simple bragging rights. It's likely all about mob mentality. "If all these people think this is good then maybe it is good."
Many of Trump's supporters hardly think beyond FOX News bullet points combined with anger and hatred.
Whereas Obama tried to contribute to thoughtfulness, even at his rallies, Trump doesn't want his people to think and question and reason things out.
The crowd substitutes for their brains. The crowd is the mindless beast he is herding into battle. Size matters.
177
@JustThinkin
Agreed. Size matters. Maybe like Stormy Daniels, we ought to start calling Trump..."Tiny".
8
Like the proverbial shark that must keep swimming to avoid dying, Trump must keep getting more and more outrageous in order to avoid losing his base. The base demands to be perpetually riled up and entertained!
17
Thucydides? That sounds so foreign. Never Happen!
2
Bombs in the mail to Trump critics, murder in a Synagogue, the brutal silencing of a Washington Post reporter, all in a few weeks, and Trump’s response is to go out and lead raucous rallies that fill people with hatred for others.This is a callous and reckless man.He will not preserve and protect the Constitution as he promised and he will not keep the American people safe.He needs to be charged with incitement to violence or some other charge which will stand up in Court.Mueller may reveal offenses but even absent that ,this man is a danger to our society.I am not afraid of immigrants, I am afraid of Trump!
23
Trump, Trump, Trump.
Perhaps it would be more useful for the press to focus on the real-life consequences of this administration than the President’s obviously flawed character.
Instead of another report on his bragging about his crowd sizes (every time he says it, we hear about it) perhaps we could hear about:
The destruction of the environment
The “tax plan” shifting wealth from the middle and working class to the richest of the rich
The booming national debt
The massive financial corruption of this administration
The attempts to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security
The destruction of the infrastructure of our government
The annihilation of our civil democratic values
The increase in racist violence
These issues would be more relevant to most people than reports that celebrate Trump’s outrageous antics.
Get out and VOTE
413
@Mark
All of these issues you've pointed out *have* been covered in the news. What's missing is that these points are never mixed in with coverage of trump. He's allowed to say whatever he wants with no mention of the ramifications that have resulted. We need the two mixed: his inane comments and lies mixed with the verifiable results of his actions.
1
The "Resistance" continues to vilify the President, but he's supposed to sit back and surrender his policies--including calling out those who advocate unbridled immigration in practice--because it is "divisive?" I think not.
I was told by a pharmacist in a mostly Democratic community that the recent increase in prescription and non-prescription medication to treat stomach ailments, sleeplessness, depression and anxiety has been staggering. A psychologist friend mentioned a sharp rise in his client load, which many mental health professionals are also experiencing. Trump’s poison—at rallies, on social media, on TV and in the press— is searing right through our bones and into our soul. We are a nation in crisis, and it’s taking a toll on us in profoundly terrible ways.
31
@NYCtoMalibu. You are right- I am old and have had to double the dose of blood pressure medication.
1
If there is a lesson in all of this it is that our Constitution is neither a self-actuating nor a self-correcting document. It requires the constant attention and devotion of all citizens. There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.
VOTE on 11/6 to change things. It may be your last chance.
29
A good column, but my question is: how many taxpayer dollars are supporting all these Trump hatefest rallies? He and the Republican Party should be on the hook for every single penny, including the cost of his Secret Service protection.
39
Gail, you have written another gem. Thank you for what you do, and how well you do it. You (and your colleagues) are a FRIEND of the people.
10
This column does just what Trump rallies do: gives true-believers a familiar setting to rally, have a laugh, and get worked-up about the slights and injustices of the enemy. Isn't it time to move along?
3
@Mark Stansbury -- wish we could move along. We can't vote him out of office until 2020.
1
@Mark Stansbury
Right you are, Mark... ciao. Be sure to write...
2
Ms. Collins' contempt for Trump is preaching to the choir.
W. was mocked for his occasional verbal gaffes. But this president could not utter a coherent sentience if you paid him for it.
The sad reality is that the people to whom he does prate--his ''base'' --are like minded. It is time we liberals understood that and reacted accordingly.
One thing for certain; the press should limit their coverage of every word he says. Put him on the back pages of the newspapers, limit his time on tv to the issues that matter, not the constant repetition of his campaign rhetoric. In short, severely reduce the public oxygen he consumes.
21
@jhbev
The problem with the approach you're advocating is classic...
If you have a poisonous snake crawling around in your house, you ignore it at your peril.
Keeping tabs on it is the third-best solution. Catching and removing it is the second-best solution.... Amendment 25, impeachment, the 2020 elections... The best solution? Defenestration or the equivalent. (Do pigs fly?)
3
Take a look at the rally backdrops. From babies to obese seniors to girls with placards, each rally TV view has a customized composition, depending on the locality or the issue of the day. Marketing at its most disgraceful.
Thanks to the ejected "plaid shirt guy" who busted the illusion.
And the scripted shouts from the audience. Art of the claque!
11
In my opinion, the ideal rally is an empty venue and Donald standing in stunned silence.
21
@Njlatelifemom
That would be the circle of hell suitable for Him: speeding eternity without an audience, with only his own vice echoing in an empty hall.
5
"Trump is inaccurate as a matter of course". The media has no choice but to call him out and expose the truth. We know that Trump's minions do not read news and Fox News supplies nothing but gasoline for Trump's kindling.
It is difficult to be optimistic about how this is going to end. If their is no blue wave next week, the end may well be upon this once great nation.
I am beginning to understand the kind of hopelessness that forces people to consider open revolution.
We have a Nation being steered off of a cliff and Trump's unwitting mob are clueless that they are being played.
10
No doubt that we would all benefit from a day to de-stress by giving him no media coverage at all - a Trump Shunning. Then after he leaves office we can consider making it a national holiday in celebration of good mental health.
12
No matter how often I've felt so sad getting out of bed every morning since the 2016 election, I could always look forward to Gail's lighter yet pithier take on the increasingly bleak, illegitimate and dystopian country we're now living in (and under). Though our hearts have continued to break, she's continued to make us smile.
Now, with the next election less than week away, regardless of its outcome, it'll be over. Until the next one. In the meantime, we should all be thankful for the fact that columnists such as Gail are still encouraged to make us take our humor seriously.
Smile.
Vote.
Smile that you voted.
17
The first presidential candidate I voted for was Adlai Stevenson, who was considered too cerebral and too articulate. So instead we got a revered general who was fortunate to serve eight years in our most halcyon period. Fast forward to now. The cerebral Hillary Clinton was defeated by a man of whom I can come up with no positive adjectives. His greatest gift is his ability sell himself, and he has done a marvelous job of that with about forty percent of the country. He has no interest in governing. He is driven by one motive: To receive adulation from his supporters by telling them what they want to hear: We need to shut down our borders. We need to stop the "Caravan" before it infests the country. Is anyone surprised that he's not going toe-to-toe with the Democrats on health care, or on his tax legislation that has blown the national debt through the exosphere? Those are losing arguments and he's all about winning. Remember when he said we will win so much we'll get tired of winning? Well, he has made us tired of seeing him spew his white nationalism and constant stream of lies. As Gail Collins says, we deserve better, and we will get better by defeating Trump's sycophant members of the House and Senate, not by anything Trump says or does. And then Trump will blame the Republicans who lost as weak candidates; he'll blame the media; he'll blame anyone but the actual culprit: Donald Trump.
14
@nzierler "The cerebral Hillary Clinton was defeated by a man of whom I can come up with no positive adjectives."
It is because you do not look. It is true that unemployment is down. It is true that unlike George Bush, Trump has invaded no countries. It is true that the two Koreas are talking to each other.
If you do not look, you do not see. As simple as that.
@Ludwig -- how much credit does Trump deserve for current employment? How much of this is the Ryan + Republican budget with its enormous deficits?
Any fool can stuff the economy by printing money ... for awhile. If a Democrat had done this, what would you be saying? And what will you say when it is time to pay the piper?
Trump deserves credit because unlike Bush, he's invaded no countries? Really? You think that's amazing?
"The two Koreas are talking to each other." Whoop de do. I thought the point was Korea's nuclear bombs?
1
Nobody and I mean nobody dislikes Trump more than I but I feel Democrats are frozen and trapped by their implicit approval of open borders .The problem isn't this Caravan or that Caravan it's that there are Untold Millions of Desperately poor people in Latin America who are understandably eager to move to the US and receive benefits. and a much greater standard of living.. and yes many if not most of them do want to work but with their non-existent education what really can they do?
Immigration Seems to have become the third rail of the Democratic Party and until someone steps up and dares to deal with it in a realistic way I'm afraid that Trump and Trump acolytes may be in our future
2
@stuart Yes, I agree fully. I don't like the racist undercurrent to Trump's immigration talk, but Democrats have painted themselves into a corner by just being about opposing him. The most visible part of D's immigration ideas are the sanctuary cities, which many people find controversial. As you say, it's not about one caravan, but about the larger issue of displacement around the world, due to global warming and politics, and how we can reconcile America's ideals with the reality of many people wanting to come. I think most people want there to be compassionate, but orderly, immigration. The Democrats, especially if they get any Congressional power, should pursue this.
1
The ideal Trump rally will be the one in which he says farewell.
17
My ideal Trump rally is the one where the audience admits to the reporters that they're there to see a show. My ideal Trump rally is the one where they say they were so nostalgic for Vaudeville, they wouldn't miss Trumps act for the world. My ideal Trump rally is the one where the attendees stop lying and start telling the truth. They love his ratings.
7
I'm sorry Gail, it would be more of a relief if he would just shut up.
26
Two thoughts/questions:
One, who is paying for these rallies? Is it the RNC? Is it Trump personally? Is it the campaign of the candidate du jour? At the least, the taxpayer is probably on the hook for Secret Service expenses and Air Force One. I resent this.
Two, why do we need a President at all? Clearly, Trump can do nothing, which is pretty much all he's doing, and the government churns on. Twitter might suffer since he spends most of the hours he should be sleeping poking bears, but governing? Not happening.
For that matter, why do we need Congress? They haven't done anything either for the last six years.
86
@Karen K Oh, no. He is inciting violence and when he does not do that, he is blowing hot air.
Sad to admit, but I am beginning to believe the media is 'the enemy of the people' - but in a slightly different way. What?
As a 70-something retired person, I have the time to read two paper newspapers daily; watch TV [both cable and mainstream covering all angles]; and volunteer where I get to interact with all sorts of people coming from different political persuasions. One central theme seems to be what Trump Tweeted or said at one of his red-meat rallies, or on his go to network, or how he changes the narrative when he does not like the way the wind is blowing. And then all media, including op-ed writers, seem to wax endlessly on it until the next one - repeating the process.
Meanwhile, events that were the talk of the day fade rapidly into history - which by the way seems to have morphed into a matter of days if not hours. All gone because it does not sell papers or ad revenue or attract audiences I suspect.
Maybe Trump is right, but not for his reason(s) - assuming he does have them beyond the catchy phrase. Maybe the media is not doing its job, and is therefore the enemy of the people.
20
@Retired Gardener
I think the media does spend too much time on the tweets. But he’s the President and the tweets are communications from the President. How can journalists not report communication from a President? It’s a conundrum I bet many in the media face.
14
@Retired Gardener - I'm 70, semi-retired, and I just looked at the front page of the Times. There are plenty of stories about topics other than the President to occupy a reader's time.
Some stories are brand new, like the article about finding the black box of a downed plane and some stories continued to cover familiar topics, like the article that covers evangelicals and politics.
What a President does, though, especially this rogue president, is of paramount to everyone, not just in New York, and so deserves major attention from the news media.
6
@Retired Gardener: dangerous talk, this enemy-of-the-people vitriol — and false.
Trump talks about the big crowds and people waiting outside. Trump knew how to draw a crowd outside while he held his rally inside the Rochester Civic Center. Our local Republicans were busy handing out tickets throughout the Minnesota First Congressional District -- about four or five tickets for every seat. That insured a big crowd standing outside. Most melted away but the hard-core hung on and listened to the loudspeakers.
19
@OldBoatMan
Why not? If their presence were required anywhere, they wouldn't be Trump supporters, would they?
2
Does the size of a crowd at a political event really mean that much? For many people it's free entertainment and a sense of belonging to a group that shares your ideology. But there may be a significant number of people in attendance who are simply there out of curiosity. Bernie Sanders devotees (I call them "Berniacs") insist that he should have been the Democratic nominee because he had such great attendance at his political events. In particular, he had huge crowds in New York and California. But he lost the primaries in both those states by a huge margin. If most of the people who attend are committed to the candidate already, what difference does it make regarding the size of the crowd?
8
My thanks as always, Gail, and my condolences, but your question that he might "just avoid" what he does is raising a moot point. It's not so much that he can't avoid doing what he does. It's that he doesn't know how to do anything else.
35
The ideal Trump rally would occur in a media blackout, thereby ensuring that the rest of us remain blissfully unaware of the event. Imagine, the headliner and crowd spend a couple of hours feeding off each other’s toxic energy for reasons that no sane person could possibly understand, and no one is the wiser. Kind of like a Kid Rock concert.
93
Trump has one trick: dangling shiny objects. People keep looking at them, one way or another, forgetting the basic stuff.
How to manipulate the masses is old but grown ups avoid doing it. The Japanese could produce cartoons that give children seizure. They don't do that anymore. The Americans know doing drugs, watching Faux News and following Trump are bad for their long term health; yet, they keep doing them. So, we don't need the ideal Trump; we just need America comes to her senses
62
@Bos This requires an "intervention". It can happen next Tuesday. Vote blue.
1
@Bos - Hear Hear !
1
The ideal Trump rally would be devoted solely to enlisting volunteers for America's new Space Force. There is no better place to find Space Cadets than at Trump rallies.
Trump supporters make ideal Space Cadets. They don't even need space suits as they have already adapted to an absence of oxygen. Don't ask how that's possible; just consider what happens to clear thinking when one is oxygen deprived. Also consider: Trump supporters make ideal Space Cadets as, the fact is, they have long been space cadets.
Trump's ideal rally would rally all space cadets to America's new Space Force. Trumps supports don't even need training as the Trump rallies have prepared them to withstand a lack of gravity, they are already ungrounded, they are adapted to a topsy-turvy environment.
America's Space Force: Trump rallies. “So important. That’s where it’s at.” And that's where it should stay.
62
To Pittsburgh, unwelcome, Trump came,
To him a political game,
Though a bigot at heart
And not very smart,
Unwelcome, he came all the same.
And nobody wanted him there
Hypocrite with plane-disordered hair
White nationalist friend
On whom they depend
Whose two years have brought us despair.
Friend of Bibi but not of the Jews,
Pro-Netanyahu in his views,
Two peas in a pod
Disloyal to God,
Whose reign every sane person rues.
184
Larry thats so good as usual.
7
@Larry Eisenberg
One of your best, Larry
8
@Larry Eisenberg As usual you summarize it all in a brilliant, limerick nutshell.
1
Gail ignored the series of hurricanes here, as much as Trump has done.
In fact, since Puerto Rico's destruction, he's been rivaling Dubya's behavior about the destruction of New Orleans, but he's done it four or five times now.
58
@Mark Thomason
Yes she did, but in fairness to her, trump has given such a choice of bad behavior, such a wide selection, that it is really hard to choose. Yesterday, I was trying to think of a recent trump lie (9/11 Stock Market opened the next day) and I couldn't because there had been so many lies since that one. So much to choose from.
8
@Mark Thomason
California didn't grovel so he has either ignored or made asinine tweets about their natural disasters, too.
"California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean …….."
-Donald Trump
They're called rivers, Donald.
8
Honestly, it'd be such a relief for a Congressional Committee on Ethics to act on Mr. trump's violations against the Constitution,
by profiting on his occupation of the Oval Office bathroom.
44
In putting on a show for his base, even they get tired of the same old lines, leaving the arena early to escape traffic and know exactly what Trump will say if they had stayed.
Trump always said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” But it can be bad if people become bored with the candidate and stay home from voting.
It’s a far cry from 2015-16 when he was such a novelty that cable news would break away to show a rally. Today, they are mostly ignored even on Fox.Being boring is a cardinal sin for any politician. For Trump, it’s a nightmare.
64
@JT FLORIDA
"In putting on a show for his base, even they get tired of the same old lines, leaving the arena early to escape traffic and know exactly what Trump will say if they had stayed."
Bingo. Nail on the head accurate. Here's an anecdote backing this up. A friend of mine offered to get a rally ticket for a Trump supporting friend who lived some distance from the rally location. This Trump supporting friend declined saying " I know what he's going to say anyway."
31
@JT
The press is the mirror on the wall and no longer responds to who is the fairest of them all. Much of the mirror now is but black and this scares the questioner. - hence the the massive uptick in divisive and hateful rhetoric.
ignore it all and get to the polls friend.
2
@JT FLORIDA
I saw a news item yesterday that Steven Bannon gave a talk and about 25 people showed up. In Bannon, I see trump's future.
3
It has been said that in a Democracy people get the government they deserve. Come 11/6 we will see that the saying is true.
Do we deserve Trump and his fawning, frightened lackeys in Congress or do we the people deserve better?
I have been voting since 1956 and this will be the most important election of my life.
The choices are not blurred at the edges but stark.
The Founding Fathers trusted us to do the right thing and govern ourselves. I hope we fulfill their faith in a Government Of the People and For the People and by The People.
143
@Edward Blau
Voting since 1956? There were 2 fine candidates for President on the ballot that year. One was the incumbent D.D. Eisenhower and the other Adlai E. Stevenson. Both were upstanding, accomplished candidates, either of whom would make a good President. (Ike won and he was a good President).
It didn't matter who you voted for in 1956. Your choice would have been a thousand times better than the current would be dictator that we have now.
12
@tom boyd Growing up in a Democratic family I voted for Adlai. KY for all of its faults allowed 18 year olds to vote back in the day.
It will be as always a straight Democratic ticket come 11/6.
7
Ever get the feeling that Trump loves the sound of his own voice. It’s so jarring that even Fox News has stopped carrying his rallies live. But we shouldn’t expect much relief – after the midterms are over, Trump will probably play a few rounds of golf from Thanksgiving through Christmas – he will resume campaigning in the New Year for his 2020 reelection. He is going to go on like a broken record for another two years, unless the Mueller investigation turns up something that saves us all from going deaf.
209
There is nothing more to say. All real journalists must have hit the saturation point about 18 months ago (I am being generous about how much energy I think they have. They are just ordinary people like ourselves, albeit that they seem to like their jobs).
Maybe they don't like those jobs anymore, but most people do need their jobs to pay their bills.
I am so sick of All Trump All The Time.
There is a lot more to report Gail. I know your beat is Trump.
Could you switch? How about that fracking and methane release in Wyoming that lights up the night sky with the burning, and uses up all the water that the cattle ranchers need to grow feed and water the cows?
Maybe you could talk about how it might be better to be vegan? Those Wyoming people could wait for climate change to come to them, and maybe lettuce would be a viable crop.
Just kidding. There are lots of topics. I know you are a political reporter. You sound tired. Can you take a bit of a sabbatical?
If things don't go well next week, and your country does not get back to some sort of quasi-sane order, I think you all need to have a big meeting, and decide if you and your readers need to make an alternative plan.
Maybe it will have to be All Trump All The Time. Maybe inane tweets will/will not need to be reported as actual news and policy. Maybe America will have a spectacular fail. Maybe there will be a military coup.
Best wishes to you all.
107
@Jean
You talk about things like you're not a part of it. The United States is right next door. You are part of it, whether you like it or not.
Two years after 2016, we are just beginning to have a conversation about how Hillary and Bill should ride off into the sunset and how HRC should not try to run for president again. Two years later.
It will be interesting to see what happens after the election, when Democrats do not retake the Senate and retake the House by a slim margin. Maybe we will begin to better discuss how to confront the Trump "phenomenon" head-on. Fighting the lies by calling them the lies that they are, fighting that way in the mainstream media. Fighting fire with fire, because the genie is out of the bottle and is not going to be stuffed back in anytime soon.
Maybe we will start talking about that ... sometime over the next two years?
9
@Jean I certainly get your point about the majority of the world being sick of Trump managing to manipulate all media, mostly to his advantage, but what you obviously don’t get is that Gail Collins provides a service to her fellow Americans, who, like it or not, are in the critical phase of a gut wrenching, violent, psychodrama of an election and she is one of the very very few kind, moderate, learned (oh yes, she actually is an expert in American political history...she’s no fluff pundit) opinion writers that people turn to in order to loosen the knot of anxiety before it escalates to full panic and despair. She is one messenger that never deserves to be blamed. Thank you Gail Collins for your work, every single piece of it!
7
@Jean,
Perhaps Ms. Collins might be kind enough to keep us in the loop about Hunter's jet rabbit. In Watership Down, we tend to worry about our relations.
3
Imagining the ideal Trump rally is this: playing on loudspeakers at full volume ala Manuel Noriega style Trump's own rants and ravings for him and his followers to hear without pause. No media coverage. That would be his ideal punishment in Guantanamo, Narcissist that he is.
68
@Ichabod Aikem
Great idea ! And for a final touch, 'tween rants and ravings a bunch of people read his tweets aloud; Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr, Eric, Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne, Ryan Zinke ... George Bush ... lotta good ol' fashion fun ! ....
1
Call me vindictive, but I can not think of a better way to make it through a once-again horrible, horrible week than having a chuckle at Mr. Trump's "expense." Now THAT is "money" Trump has for the first time in his life honestly made, spent, and deserved. His rallies are replays of the same vitriol, the same thuggery, the same downright cruelty. His adoring fans unfortunately are reflections of what spews out of his vociferous mouth. What is frightening to me is that his supporters vote, making next week's election a fight between good and evil. Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King could not have written a scarier piece of fiction than this present reality.
So now it is time to dream of what would be an ideal Trump rally. Hmmm....emoji-thinking..... For some reason, all I could think of is a circus. We can let him be the ring-leader; his Congress the acrobats, doing their spins and somersaults; the clowns, his Cabinet... Well, you get the message. And maybe he will even hand out free pop-corn and cotton candy. He can afford it, can't he?
20
I voted two weeks ago. At that time, I stopped watching all TV news. I am a happier man. I will check back in on November 6th, when the vote tallies start rolling in. Meanwhile, Donald Trump does not exist. You still have a few days to quit him. I recommend that the left-wing media stop showing up at his events. It's just for five days. Walk away from the Trump Show for five days and I guarantee every left-wing pundit will have a fresh story to tell.
137
@poodlefree
Excellent comment and positive in sentiment. I have been saying the same thing for awhile. They are the minority and people that follow the President are but a sliver of that now. (especially due to demographics)
Time to take back the country friend. Vote.
99
Compare himself to Thucydides? Ask him about that and if he answers at all, Trump will say the guy is doing a great job, just like Frederick Douglass.
78
Trump’s nonsense about the caravan may be easy to rebut but it isn't being rebutted. If nature abhors a vacuum then politics won't tolerate it. When true leadership is missing, into the vacuum someone will rush to take control. Trump is filling the void by default because Democrats in another example of self sabotage refuse to talk about it. The caravan is an humanitarian crisis with possible economic & border security implications that we can't begin to contemplate. It's a visual that reminder our immigration system isn't working. If you say Trump is using scare tactics to exploit the situation so be it. That's what politicians do. The caravan is real. The threat & fears voters are feeling are real. Because if we accept these 7000 more will come possibly replicating the Syrian migrant crisis. Democrats are demagoguing this issue too...they say it isn't a problem. It is. Pelosi & Schumer are actively undermining their party by instructing their members to NOT talk about this crisis...that is unforgivable. So it's come down to who do you trust more. Democrats who refuse to talk about it. Or Trump who won't stop talking about it. The caravan issue has to be addressed. Trump got elected because of immigration. Voters are going along with him because they have no where to go. Being anti Trump isn't an agenda which will persuade independent swing voters. The Dems have allowed Trump to have a free pass on this issue. Their silence is alienating voters. Incredibly short sighted.
25
@Bill Brown Democrats ARE talking about it. They just aren't getting any airtime on most network channels, or are never asked the questions, while Rush etc. have so totally dominated our radio airwaves, that our voices just aren't heard.
They are being heard locally by the citizens, who still hear Democrats saying the truth about the "caravan", and many other lies Trump tells daily.
2
@Bill Brown
If we give those 7,000 caravan travelers rides to Alaska -- or maybe Wyoming -- no one would even notice the wee addition to the population.
Such a fuss about nothing. As usual with empty minds.
2
"...he could talk about the things the Republican majority did over the last two years. O.K., that definitely wouldn't fill up and hour."
The legislative and executive branches have, in fact, done much.
How many Americans will die unnecessarily in the next decade due to weakened and voided regulation? The numbers were available when the regs were put in place, but journalists are not looking them up and splashing them across the front page as they should be...'cause they are obsessed with investigating corruption. Corruption investigation would be great if it weren't monopolizing all resources and further influencing absolutely no one's opinion.
20
Gail Collins thinks, and so do we all, that the country needs a rest from the hate-spewing, frenzy-whipping, lying invective of Trump’s nonstop rallies to promote himself, allay his fear that he will lose (even though he is not personally on the ballot), and feed his continuous need for attention. But what I think is that instead of a rest the day after the election, we will be assaulted by more lies, threats, and attacks on the press and the Democrats if the Republicans lose the House. And maybe photos of the 15,000 troops amassed on the southern border, guns at the ready, waiting for a ragtag band of poor women and babies seeking sanctuary from the violence of a banana republic. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
52
My ideal Trump rally? At some point in his standard anti-immigrant jeremiad, he begins to visibly foam at the mouth, tears at his lemon chiffon comb over until it hangs in tatters about his pink skull, his arms semaphoring ever more wildly, as if he were operated by a Muppeteer on meth. He then begins raving about the Blood Libel, tears off his clothes, and flings himself from the stage to crowd surf, crushing ten supporters to death.
45
Hahahahaha! That certainly gave me a coffee-spewing belly laugh!
1
Remember, too, that Trump mentioned the scourge of anti-Semitism at the behest of Ivanka and Jared. Trump's initial reaction - plugging the insane idea that more guns make us more safe - was his authentic one. He should not be applauded for briefly hiding his true colors.
36
Can the Dems have some rallies where we show off President Obama, an eloquent, intellectual, compassionate and empathetic man who knows how to move a crowd and remind them of their better angels? Can we remind ourselves that it is these better angels that made us, for many in the world, that shining city on a hill? My 12th grade IB students are currently reading Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches and letters. They watched video of his Nobel Peace Prize winning acceptance speech today. You could hear a pin drop in my classroom. One of my students said with reverence in her voice, " I hear so much more than his words when he speaks." Precisely. Our words and our tone and our intent matters. Dr. King was an intellectual, a pastor, a prophet, an activist and an American icon. This brilliant man's words show us what a real leader cares about, thinks about and how his/her words make an impact. Nonviolence drove us toward a moral reckoning in this country--an incredible feat. Pres.Obama sang "Amazing Grace" when innocent Americans were killed by racial violence. What does Trump do? Tweet about himself and blame innocent people and institutions like the free press for violence he may have incited. This is a new low in America. This is a new kind of reckoning. And we need to be very careful, because we are veering frighteningly close to an utterly amoral abyss. Can we go back to those better angels? Let's be the people Dr. King thought we could be, not Trumpian bigots.
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@Eva lockhart
Your post brought tears to my eyes as I thought about witnessing Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech when I was young. I have held his truths close to my heart for many years, and now my heart cries for what all we will lose as a country if the divisions continue. I am truly afraid for all citizens in this country for the first time in my life!
Please vote like you life depends on it!
Thank you for your post.
2
What are the expenses for all these - what do you call them, "rallies?" And who's paying for them? That's what I thought.
These would-be-funny-if-they-weren't-so-scary Trump rants that Gail has been sharing verbatim lately are a Jumble - try to arrange the random words into complete sentences, fun for the whole family.
64
There is absolutely zero chance that Trump knows who Thucydides was. He *might* know about Winston Churchill. Maybe.
44
For Trump draining the swamp means getting rid of anybody who takes attention away from him. And, as the past several weeks have demonstrated, he calls domestic terrorism "hateful" not because of the lives lost, but because he's forced to make awkward pivots to keep the fake media's klieg lights pointed at him.
25
Trump is the quintessential demagogue who plays on the fears of his followers. The big question is why are they so afraid?
Rather than red, maybe their hats should be yellow.
52
In many ways, I think the nation is experience something more dreadful than a night of broken glass, but at the other end, there is plenty of room for optimism. (if the election goes according to the general winds)
I disregard the President and republicans in general, because they are irrelevant and part of a shrinking minority. They are in the last throws of white male privilege. and in six days there is going to be a strong rebuke to every single thing that the President says in his ''rallies'' over and over.
There is no Liberal bogeyman or Socialist monster coming to get you. There is only people (Americans) wanting a decent life for themselves and their kids, but also want a fair system to do it in.
In six days, they are all going to show the world that there is no great lurch to the extreme right, but rather a massive movement to the center (which is wildly to the left, since the political spectrum has been pulled so far to the extreme right for decades)
Get off your duffs people. Your country depends on you.
101
@FunkyIrishman
I can’t feel optimistic about the midterm results. I believe if the voting was conducted fairly, Democrats would sweep, but with gerrymandering, voting barriers, and god only knows what subversions of voting machines I don’t have any confidence that the majority of the electorate will prevail.
14
@Nancy,
This American just received a voting performance evaluation from my county, where the score is high on General Elections, and mediocre on the Midterms in 2014. November 6, will be a first time for this voter, and vote we must, with heads held high, and a spring in our step.
3
@FunkyIrishman: ", because they are irrelevant and part of a shrinking minority." Not on the SCOTUS.
4
Trump just doesn’t have it in him to be magnanimous. Never has. Never will.
24
@JM
But wait, he is always thankful for mentions of his name. Take a look, and count the mentions. He gets a nickel for each one, and a little tingle too. That I can tell you. Believe me!
1
"His rhetorical high point came when he went to the synagogue where 11 people were murdered and didn’t say anything."
In fairness to Trump, he also remembered to wash the blood off of his hands before he showed up to honor those murdered by someone inspired by his lies and conspiracy theories and George Soros dog whistles.
He also waited almost an entire day before he doubled down on those same lies and conspiracy theories. And called out the army to stop the "invasion". More inspiration.
Finally the pivot many have been expecting:
From Execrable to Evil.
25
Trump has nothing else to offer the public than his same tired old bragging about himself and insulting other people. He does not understand domestic or international issues well enough to talk about them. He claims an "instinct" for science, but in two years we have heard nothing from him to suggest he has either interest or knowledge of how evidence based research works in the real world. It's time to admit that everything about him is fake, except for the resentments and fears that he shares with his voters.
17
"Then there’s the Republican candidates."
Right but that's an easy putdown. And guess what? A lot of them, especially in the Senate will get elected or reelected, while close to 100 million will watch from the sidelines.
Something is very sick in America and it's not only the Donald and his accomplices.
I'm not a Doctor but I think money in politics is a leading cause of what ails America. It's a cancer eating away at Democracy. Just imagine what the US Government would look like and what it would accomplish if they really were elected by the people and not the rich donors that own most of them (and all Repubs since John McCain's death).
26
Trump’s presidency is like a poorly scripted and acted soap opera. The caravan of misery that is seeking a better life, is more than a month away from any US border, yet Trump continues to exploit this group of sad, desperate people. Instead of 500 troops to secure the border, Trump has decided he need a bigger number, so he plucks 5000 out of his targeted spite, to appease his base.
We know documented and undocumented immigrants commit less crime than native born Americans, but Trump cherry picks the rare few, to demonise all immigrants.
Not much Trump condemnation for the pipe bomber, who chose Democrats for his target. Cesar Sayoc and his bizarre car as a shrine to Trump, is never mentioned, yet he was a clear threat, compared to a few thousand potential immigrants.
We have heard how Trump would have saved many at a school shooting, as he would have ran in unarmed, against a shooter with an AR-15. You cannot get more of a fictional hero, than Trump describing Trump’s potential heroism.
Maybe Trump should wait at the border, as his presence would be a deterrence. It would be cheaper than sending over 5,000 troops, but there would need to be an 18 hole golf resort within easy access, for our hero Commander in Chief, to unwind after completing his duty as a presidential scarecrow at the border.
32
I have a deep appreciation for President Trump. He truly stands alone in his inability to emotionally, morally and intellectually connect to any circumstance around him that isn't about him. How many other presidents would continue to show the electorate how deeply loathsome they are so close to a crucial election? If this election is a referendum on Trump then I say, stay the course, Donald! Don't ever change! We who oppose you and everything you stand for appreciate it!
25
Those clips of Trump's speeches on TV remind me of a fifth grader rabble-rousing a giddy crowd of second graders who regard him as their favorite superhero. The Trump supporters who are interviewed by journalists around those venues are so misguided and unaware of reality that I have to admire the reporters' self-discipline--I would find it all but impossible to let them ramble on with no correction of the lies he's embedded in their brains. Do none of them look back and recall that we had a Democratic president for eight years and the country came through pretty well, allowing a good start for Trump not just with the growing economy and rising employment but with immigration and healthcare improvements? Or is all that twisted into a false memory of the terrible situation that Trump claims he inherited? Words do matter, and Trump knows all the worst words.
51
Ms. Collins, How much better we'd all feel if he would simply lose his voice. .. it's hard to believe, and yet each day Trump continues to tear and further rend the national fabric by opening and closing every twenty=four hour news cycle with another verbal outrage or two. He certainly knows how to inflame those among us who know the limits of appropriate decorum and off scripted remarks by the leader of the free world, and yet he is intentionally dividing the country in every way he knows how.
19
@James
The key to combating the hateful rhetoric and lies is within your comment: '' opening and closing the 24 hour news cycle'' - and there you have it.
The press has very much to atone for in the prominence of this President. They made him in so many ways. There was the incredibly slow uptick to even use the word ''lie''. Even now, they use such soft terms for the 5000+ (verified and counting) lies that the President utters. There is no cognizance.
Having said that, people can simply turn off the noise and believe their own senses. (especially their eyes) Look around and see the division. Look around and see that the supposed tax cut is but merely theft for the rich and corporations. Look around and see that the country, your community and the world are coming apart at the seams.
Look around for your polling booth and take action friend.
7
Gail Collins suggests that Trump should stop talking about immigration since it stirs up intemperate people. Is that the correct approach to public policy issues - do not talk about sensitive issues and hope that they will disappear on their own while we deliberately ignore them? It seems a bad approach to discussions of public policy.
A more long-term reliable approach is to face up to difficult policy issues and try to find a democratic solution after open discussion. Finding a democratic consensus on sensitive issues around immigration requires open debate, not well-meaning censorship.
2
@Peter Johnson: Of course, the Trumpian way of meeting with the public ("lock her up", "body slamming reporters is OK") is not exactly condusive to any sort of open debate. Also claiming - without the slightest truth - that the democrats are funding the caravan and that middle eastern terrorists are hidden in it will not lead to any sort of mature discussion about immigration.
If you want an open debate, you will have to vote out the republican leadership in the White House.
42
I think you've confused dehumanizing hate speech with "open discussion."
I also don't know if you heard over there in London, but we had two incidents of domestic terrorism this past week that had a lot to do with immigration and ethnicity.
3
We cannot give into this madness, we cannot become numb, we cannot forget that this president is really terrible.
Today he actually released a video of his time in Pittsburgh.
He also tweeted the following information for We, the people:
Even though it’s a sad time for the country, he was treated “so warmly.”
He definitely didn’t see the thousands of protesters who massed in opposition to his visit on Tuesday.
F A K E N E W S
Was he dropped on his head as a child?
Is it dementia?
What in the world is wrong with this man and his total lack of humanity.
Please, my fellow citizens, do not give into this insanity.
Hold this terrible man accountable and send him a message.
Vote only for Democrats on November 6th and bring back some decency to our country.
221
@V just voting for Democrats doesn’t solve the problems we are facing we need progressive moderates to take up the mantle of leadership. Extreme left is just as bad as extreme right. There are independent voices of reason that never get listened to because they are drowned out by the crazies on the far extremes. The Democrats will keep losing against the far right if it’s the far left voice that is the loudest of the party ideas. I think this is because Liberals have no answers on how to solve the real problems or pay for them and conservatives just say government can’t do it and they’re probably right.
The "ideal Trump rally" is one that would be taking place in the Empire of the White People that has its capital in Moscow and which would be attended by every Trump fanatic presently despoiling our own nation.
44
Does anyone really think Dishonest Donald the Mad thought up those words about this act of murder? Did they fit his normal tone of speech, does anyone really think he cared about it. He is an anthropoid of the lowest order, no emotion, no sense of right or wrong, only what he thinks people want to hear is what he says. As has been said, give him an enema and you could bury him in a matchbox.
I feel sorry for that Rabbi,he had to let a Philistine desecrate his Temple, it will have to be cleansed to remove the stain.
We see crowds turn out at his rally's, we hear what many of them have to say about him, they say they like him, he makes them feel important, they believe all the negative things about him have been made up by some nefarious gang of media people, just because they do not like him, can you describe this mentality, is it even understandable,?
As for those Republican candidates, he had better get the majority of them elected. If the Democrats take the house, his culture of corruption will be the scene hearings, his tax returns, his income, and along with them, the actions of his agency secretaries, who is getting what from who. It will make the Harding administration look like amateurs, they will look more like Willie Sutton.
The ideal rally would be when we could watch him being taken to Ft. Leavenworth, to bad we do not have an Elba.
132
How about one of those uninhabited islands off Alaska, David? Failing that, I'm sure M Trudeau would be happy to lend one of Canada's to the US for the duration.
Even better, they're sinking as the permafrost melts and the sea rises.
p.
9
@David Underwood - The Rabbi could have told Trump not to come. It would have been the right thing to do.
4
@David Underwood
"to bad we do not have an Elba". We do have Gitmo. One can only hope!
6
I can't laugh yet about Trump's attempt to reinterpret Birthright Citizenship. He officially has five Justices on the Republican Team now, and Kavanaugh owes him. I am not going to be surprised if , even after the election, he keeps pushing this button, his base loves it and purging those potential voters from the voting roles is something the Republicans would love to do.
This is an new untested era of a conservative Supreme Court and I expect conservative politicians and their financial backers will not hesitate to take advantage of this new power they hold.
57
@Redfish It's in the Constitution, our bedrock document that lays out the design for creating a nation of "We the People". The Constitution also has a clear process for amending it -- 2/3 vote in both houses of congress, followed by ratification in 3/4 of states.
Not gonna happen.
1
@Entera , I hope you are right. Not gonna happen is what I said about Trump being elected.
Ten rallies in five days? Hold on, doesn't he have a job to do? I shudder to think what would happen if a major crisis broke out. (Not that I don't shudder at these rallies too.)
On the other hand, I suppose receiving the adoring acclaim of a live crowd is more fun, and feeds his ego better, than just watching television five hours a day and hearing himself praised by Fox and Friends. That can probably get a bit monotonous after a while.
237
@Ellen Valle And it probably keeps him away from his phone for a few hours, so he's not spilling classified information to the Chinese and Russians.
48
@Ellen Valle But there are major crises. Storms have decimated the continental US, and a major one has decimated one of your 'territories'. Don't remember that?
Not surprising, the Dotard is a master of deflection.
A years after, American citizens still do not have basic infrastructure up and running,. Remember Puerto Rico? I know, that is so last year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/09/19/puerto-rico-has-a-long-history-with-tropical-storms-none-of-them-were-like-hurricane-maria/?utm_term=.e3ec2c5b6c07
There is a major climate change crisis. You didn't hear about that? The Dotard is a master of deflection.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/migrant-caravan-causes-climate-change-central-america
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report
He isn't doing his job, and neither are his supporters in the house or the senate.
A major crisis? How about the crisis in democracy and unity that you all face?
Best wishes, and your northern neighbour hopes you fix this next week.
45
I have been wondering why there are so many conservatives in America, especially in middle and southern states. Could it be that an unrecognized virus is the cause of this serious disorder? It runs in the families, generation after generation. As in leprosy, a prolonged intimate contact is required to transfer this disease from one person to another. There are entire states with high percentage of conservatives. These states have low rate of emigration. So the virus stays contained in this stable host population. Emigration to New York or California leads to rapid recovery from this condition.
What about tornados and hurricanes which cause a lot of destruction of property? Do high winds and deluges stunt progressive thinking? What about excessive churchiness? That could take an additional toll on clear thinking.
I think all the above mentioned causes are worthy of serious investigation.
93
Excessive churchiness! That gave me a chuckle. Thanks.
5
@ALM
Additional causes could be the pied piper in the Whitehouse and mega bullhorns at Fox and Talk Radio.
4
"Imagining the Ideal Trump Rally"
That would be no rally at all. Even the worst previous occupants of the pretender's office went through the motions of doing their job and gave up the image of the partisan politician once they were inaugurated.
When trump visited Pittsburgh was the only day he didn't have a rally scheduled, so he conveniently imagined himslef a substitute.
51
He hasn't used the word, "huge" in a huge span of time. That's huge step forward. I do have a question. Are all ten rallies in the same place?
His blaming the synagogue for not having an armed guard posted at the entrance, is just further evidence of his social intelligence deficits. But, somehow he still has a larger than reasonable level of support, and that's a problem more HUGE than him!
179
@Texan
In my opinion, Trump's comments are not evidence of social intelligence deficits. After all, he has used his knowledge of human nature to become president. In fact, he knew dark truths about American voters that other candidates and pundits had no idea of.
In my opinion, the comments about the lack of armed guards at the synagogue is Trump playing to his white nationalist base. When white nationalists hear Trump in effect blame the synagogue for the damage done, rather than blaming them, they are emboldened. Also, in my opinion, Trump thinks he cannot survive a thorough investigation by Robert Mueller and perhaps state attorneys general followed by a normal criminal and/or impeachment process. There's too much dirt to cover it all up. His approach is two-pronged. One: put "his" judge into place on the Supreme Court, which has been done. (Trump has also appointed many judges at lower levels, thanks to historic obstruction of Obama's judicial nominees. ) Two, use his tweets, his news conferences, and his rallies, helped by Fox News and other right-wing media, to convince a critical mass of violent white nationalists that he alone speaks for them and can make their wishes come true, that he is being attacked unfairly, and that no action against him is legitimate. An armed angry mob, willing and able to physically threaten prosecutors and Congress, combined with friendly or fearful Republican leadership and friendly courts, would make it difficult to remove Trump.
20
@ACounter: 110% spot on, which is why I believe that one way or another Trump will try to nullify or negate the election results and that will result in armed conflict, possibly becoming our next civil war.
8
@ACounter
Thanks for responding. Are school bullies intelligent? Some gamblers here and there make it big. Are dictators social geniuses when they gain control of small or large nations through intimidation and violence?
Stop at nothing, strongmen may live in splendor as their fellow citizens: civil minded medical doctors, engineers, journalists et al. live in poverty and fear.
My comment was made with certain assumptions.
6
Past presidents have been accused of "politicizing the White House", and have gone to great lengths to avoid the appearance of violating the Hatch Act, which forbids using "government resources", employees or office hours for the purposes of political campaigning.
The current occupant of the White House seems to do nothing but political campaigning 24/7. What happened to the Hatch Act?
643
@Reed Erskine
It does not apply to elected officials.
The President and Veep can campaign; the cabinet secretaries cannot.
20
@gc-But surely we taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for Trump's rallies. His golf junkets have already cost $80 million!
92
Good point. Could the ACLU take action on this? @Reed Erskine
4
The next to the bottom low point, after blaming the victims for being shot, was when he went to speak before the FFA a few hours after the massacre and said, "I almost canceled because I was having a bad hair day." He didn't almost cancel because an anti-Semitic act killed 11 people and wounded 6 more, he almost canceled because he didn't like the way his hair looked. It's always about him.
I did enjoy your direct quote from Trump, Ms. Collins. I didn't understand a word of it but it was fun to read.
548
@Linda: I haven't heard much about the "bad hair day" quote in the media since it was said. It's so awful and inappropriate a sentiment that it may have been consciously censored. Thanks for bringing it up again here. And I agree with you about the other quote. At least the "bad hair day" made some semantic sense. His more intelligent supporters acknowledge his terrible oratory but always defend "his" policies.
6
I just left Trump’s rally in Estero, Florida. I guess the press attended a rally on some alternate universe because the rally I attended was positive and uplifting. The speakers urged respect for the 1st Amendment, and celebrated Americans’ right to express their opinions without fear of governmental oppression. The attendees were encouraged to respect any protesters and under no circumstances physically confront those who might try to disrupt the rally. The speakers repeatedly praised the Constitution and asked attendees to defend it at all costs. President Trump did point out the lunacy of “Birthright Citizenship”, which as a lawyer, I also find unsupported by contextual understanding. Unlike NYT commentators, rally speakers expressed no animosity toward anyone based upon race, gender, national origin or sexual preferences. It was a pleasure to see equality under the law and equal treatment of all people upheld as a traditional American value.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, good people expressing their love of country and their fellow citizens.
9
"The speakers repeatedly praised the Constitution and asked attendees to defend it at all costs. President Trump did point out the lunacy of “Birthright Citizenship”, which as a lawyer, I also find unsupported by contextual understanding."
So much for defending the Constitution huh. Only so long as you get to interpret it to mean whatever you like.
If anybody is looking for a lawyer I would suggest they keep looking.
230
@Educated American
Video of his rally in Estero doesn't show him beating anyone up, physically, although in the clips i skimmed through he does say the democrats will ruin the economy that he is solely responsible for (not true) and a long list of other hyped "achievements."
Hey, it is a campaign rally, I don't expect much, and I'm glad the president has so much spare time in these calm days of the world to do all this. My biggest issue with him is this is the way he talks all the time, every day, to everyone, including heads of other nations: Bluster, bragging and hyperbole.
I'm glad you left feeling good about yourself and America. Those of us who expect more from leadership than cheerleading are feeling differently. Thank goodness that's still legal, at least until someone decides that, "in context" the first amendment doesn't protect it any more.
189
@Educated American--Is not birthright citizenship an explicit part of the Constitution?
126
Not saying anything suits the president. It reflects what’s in his mind. It’s uncharacteristically eloquent. It makes a great deal of sense.
But his motto seems to be, if you can’t say anything nice about someone, say it a lot. And why wouldn’t he? His audience laps it up and pumps their fists in approval. When someone spews venom, hatred and lies you can see why he persists in such abhorrent behavior just by watching the crowd. They want it. They love it. They need it.
In trying to diagnose the body politic I’ve come to think that the president is merely a symptom, and that the crowd is the disease. Without a swarm of fake news watchers, science deniers, hypocritical evangelicals, white nationalists, resentful underachievers and conspiracy buffs, the president would be a bad joke. That there are people hanging onto his every word turns him into a unifying force for the loss of our principles.
That’s why he can spew outrageous lies, engage in narcissistic crowd inflation and say inappropriate things at inappropriate times. Or, he’ll say nothing when a kind or empathetic word would ease suffering.
Kindness and empathy are qualities possessed by good, decent people, like Barack Obama. But the people in our president’s rallies are proud that he pointed out Obama’s Muslim heritage and lack of academic qualifications.
This president has shown us that you can be rich and still be worthless. That’s something, I guess.
866
@gemli
A guy who is gifted by birth over $400 million, and yet goes belly up over $7 billion in a succession of bankruptcies is not, in my opinion rich. He is absurdly reckless and, absent abuse of the system and under the table bailouts from the Dark Lords he is beholden too, would be deeply mired in debt, actually negative worth.
In fact, in earlier times, he'd likely be in debtor's prison.
86
The man lacks a moral compass -- an essential tool for a fully functioning human being. To call him a psychopath might be hyperbole, but I am tempted at times. @gemli
49
@gemli
Oh, Goddess.
You know, I am quite accustomed, at this sad point, to bearing up under, if not quite expecting, horrible dross from our 'president.' But your spot on appraisal of so many of our compatriots has just about broken me.
"In trying to diagnose the body politic I’ve come to think that the president is merely a symptom, and that the crowd is the disease. Without a swarm of fake news watchers, science deniers, hypocritical evangelicals, white nationalists, resentful underachievers and conspiracy buffs, the president would be a bad joke. That there are people hanging onto his every word turns him into a unifying force for the loss of our principles."
I weep.
49
"His rhetorical high point probably came when he went to the synagogue where 11 people were murdered and didn’t say anything."
Yes, I'd say that would be the most honest speech of his life. He'd probably be cheered even if he stood there and grinned for 60 minutes.
Or he could pantomime. That should be easy on things like "build that wall,"etc. The caravan might be difficult.
In fact, just turn each of the remaining rallies playing charades. You know, audience participation. Invite up two groups of two for a team, and have the rest of the audience send in sayings, OK, maybe just DT sayings and slogans.
Trump of course could be the MC and judge. he gets to time the contestants.
You know, I think the crowd might have more fun and it might be entertaining, up to a point.
And at least we wouldn't have to hear him, or the crowd for that matter.
Yes the ideal Trump rally: fun, entertaining, and somewhat quiet, and, for once, no lies.
65
They could pretend they're at an ancient Roman coliseum, and watch a live gladiator contest or some other gorey spectacle. That would probably be mesmerizing and invigorating for them. @ChristineMcM
12
@ChristineMcM: It's said that life imitates art, but does it imitate game shows? You're onto something here, this would be the perfect format, but it needs to have something more at stake, say bloody injuries, loss of a limb, etc. Maybe they could have to opposing teams do a tag team wrestling match wearing the logos of various news organizations?
6
And remember Gail, all these 'rallies' started after Pres. stubby fingers got dissed on the size of his inauguration crowd, so he started up a 're-election' campaign scam to raise cash/counter the mainstream media with Fake rallying.
Too, November 7 will dawn next week, and Pres. Mayhem will set about acting on whatever plans he's been waiting to execute after the mid-terms pass. These rallies have always been bad, but they stepped up after Labor Day because Mueller has been in quiet mode, and His Weaselness 45* has filled the vacuum drumming up support for whatever he plans on doing with Sessions (and Rosenstein ?) after next Tuesday. After all, Giuliani told us this is what they wanted to do.
(Ever wonder if Bill Shine calls up Faux Noise to coordinate, or is Faux Noise calling up Shine to get their talking points; which party calls up the other ?)
At any rate, if Dems win next Tuesday, GOP'ers will litigate litigate litigate in scorched earth fashion - same as they did when Al Franken was elected - ultimately keeping Franken from being sworn in for 6 months into 2009 to deprive Obama of the critical 60th vote Senate majority through the first 180 days of his 1st term.
But keep in mind, no matter how bleak things are, they can always get worse, with His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness is in 1600 Penn.
P.S. - Sending troops to the border has the dual purpose of intimidating voters who might not be GOP'ers; everyone knows the 'caravan' is too far away to be a 'threat'.
338
@R. Law-Regarding Fox: Journalist Sees 'Almost No Daylight' Between Fox News And White House Agendas: Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman says the president and Fox News host Sean Hannity "speak almost daily, after Hannity's show, sometimes before, and sometimes for up to an hour a day." Guess Bill Shine is earning his keeper.
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/12/628250994/journalist-sees-almost-no-daylight-between-fox-news-and-white-house-agendas
20
@R. Law: Great comment, but let me take exception with one item: Mueller has NOT been in quiet mode. Try reading Nelson Cunningham's article in Politico: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/31/has-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-222060
He makes a strong, informed case that president pig-weasel has been fighting a subpoena and has lost that fight at every turn, in every courtroom. This is the essence of super double top secret, which is how these things ought to work. Otherwise, great analysis.
14
@R. Law The "caravan" is not only NOT a threat because they are still weeks away from our border, they are simply refugees, from violent countries, unarmed, seeking asylum to save their lives.
17