Donald Trump addresses rally in Doral, FL (Reuters)
Donald Trump gave a campaign speech this week that was so jumbled and fact-free many observers must have wondered if HE was mentally fit to serve as president. That charge, so far, has been directed mostly at Trump's opponent, President Joe Biden. But the writers and editors at The New Republic (TNR) seemed to be leaning in that direction regarding Trump's brain wattage after labeling his speech in Florida "incoherent." That came less than three weeks after the magazine reported that another Trump speech provided signs of his "alarming cognitive decline."
How strange and twisted was Trump's speech this week in Doral, FL? Let's turn to TNR's coverage of that one, which comes under the headline "Trump Fumbles Repeatedly in Terrifying Speech at Florida Rally; Try to make any sense of what Donald Trump said. Edith Olmsted writes:
Donald Trump gave a particularly incoherent speech during a recent rally, as he rattled through a lengthy list of odd grievances that didn’t quite ring true, devoid of some very necessary segues.
In front of a crowd of about 700 people (although Trump claimed it was 45,000) in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday, the former president hit all of the normal beats of his campaign-trail speeches, and then some.
Trump attacked President Joe Biden for his weak performance in the presidential debate last month, and for many of his policies. He dropped Kamala Harris’s name more than a few times, arguing that it doesn’t matter who the Democrats’ candidate is, he will beat anyone in a “thundering landslide.”
Over sweeping music, Trump went for a tear-jerking moment, only to suddenly veer into complaining about something else. It’s included in full because it’s just that wild. (Video from Trump's speech in Doral, FL, can be viewed at the following link.)
“We will institute the powerful death penalty for drug dealers, where each dealer is responsible for the death, during their lives, of 500 people or more,” he said. (Note: Historically, death-penalty matters have fallen to state governments and federal courts. It's hard to see how Trump, if elected, would have much say on the issue -- unless, of course, he tries to institute a dictatorship, which is a distinct possibility. As for the "500 people" figure, I have no idea where Trump came up with that -- and I doubt that he does, either. )
As it turns out, Trump was just getting warmed up with the strangeness, Olmsted reports, quoting Trump:
“Mothers will never again be forced to watch their children overdosing in hosp … and we will never allow mothers to watch their child hopelessly dying in their arms screaming, ‘What can I do, what can I do? Help me God, what can I do?’ We are a nation whose once revered airports are a crowded mess,” Trump continued, pivoting suddenly.
“You sit and wait for hours and then are notified that the plane won’t leave, that they have no idea when they will. Where ticket prices have tripled. They don’t have the pilots to fly the planes, they don’t seek qualified air traffic controllers, and they just don’t know what the hell they are doing.”
From the death penalty to crying mothers and crappy airports, if Trump was hoping for an emotional moment, he seems to have missed it by a mile. His breakneck pace and awkward delivery suggests that the presumptive Republican nominee doesn’t actually care about a single one of his randomly assembled points. How can anyone take him seriously when he speeds from his often-repeated, baseless claims about immigrants to whining that as a country, “We don’t eat bacon anymore”?
What kind of demented brain comes up with this stuff? Olmsted seems to be wondering about that:
Trump continued to rely on blatant fearmongering to excite his supporters, who grew sleepy and disinterested as the former president rattled on through his 75-minute speech, according to The Guardian.
“We will take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up, renovate it, and rebuild our capital city, so that it is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime. But rather it will become the most beautiful capital anywhere in the world,” Trump said.
“Right now, if you leave Florida, ‘Oh, let’s go, darling, let’s look at the Jefferson Memorial, let’s look at the Washington Monument, let’s go and look at some of the beautiful scenes,’ and you end up getting shot, mugged, raped,” he warned, promising that he’d run the city “tough and smart.” (Note; Trump thinks the U.S. president has a role in governing the District of Columbia? Methinks he will be surprised at how little the U.S. president is involved with D.C. Is this another sign that he plans to be a dictator? Probably.)
It also is a glaring sign that Trump is ignorant of how American government works. For all of his flaws, this should be the No. 1 reason that Americans do not want him anywhere near the White House. Arrogance might be the No. 2 reason. Trump seems to think he can do anything, when he proved in his first term -- thanks largely to a deadly botch job on the COVID pandemic -- that he is incompetent.
Does Trump have a problem with facts? Olmsted addresses this question, particularly about Trump's tendency to get it wrong on crime in America:
The violent crime rate in D.C. has dropped 30 percent since 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. But of course, Trump is unconcerned with actual crime statistics. Instead, he’s interested in keeping his base in red states ignorant, fearful, and angry about life in blue states.
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