Late last night Donald Trump spoke publicly for the first time since Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her Vice Presidential partner. Trump for some reason spoke in non-battleground state Montana. This morning I listened to the full hour and half speech. I wanted to see what Trump was like after his many days off the campaign trail while Harris and Walz spoke to massive and joyous rally after rally, continuing the momentum since Biden stepped down that now has them slightly ahead in many national polls.
Here are my main take-aways from watching Trump’s speech:
-Trump has decided to go back to being the same kind of public speaker that he was in 2016 and 2020. He barely used the teleprompter. It was demagogue, dishonest, blowhard Trump, and it was high energy. If you are an uncritical MAGA/Trump supporter, his repeated vicious attacks with literally no regard for the truth had to be energizing and impactful.
-The Republican Party’s huge problem, however, is that it is very difficult to see how this maniacal, ultra-right-wing messaging is going to appeal to the non-MAGA Republicans and centrist Independents who they need if Trump is going to win and they are to retain the House and take back the Senate.
-The big issue that Trump repeatedly spoke about was immigration. I would estimate that about 1/6th of his speaking time was on this issue, and it was the issue with the biggest of his scores of lies: that if Harris/Walz win, “50 million illegal aliens will enter the US over the next four years.” Racist, lying Trump lumped them all into the category of “criminals and rapists.” He got big applause when he talked about his plan for mass deportation of many millions of currently undocumented immigrants.
-On the other hand, as far as big issues, there was literally no mention of abortion/women’s reproductive rights. Nothing, nada, zilch. I wonder how the “right to life” conservatives are feeling about that.
Other points made by Trump included these:
-Harris is a “bumbling communist lunatic.”
-MAGA is “the greatest movement in the history of the country,” with the support of 90–95% of the country (maybe he confusedly and astoundingly meant this as a future thing).
-He spoke about “endless wars” and how he was “anti-war,” with the implication being that it was his closeness to people like Putin and Netanyahu that would lead to that result, one not to the benefit of either Palestinians or Ukrainians.
-“Four years ago [when Covid was ravaging the US and much of the world] the United States was blazing bright.” Then Biden/Harris took over and “destroyed everything.”
-“Biden/the Democrats put good people in jail” [the only allusion to January 6th].
-In reference to what he described as all the wonderful people who have made Montana such a model state, every single category of people that he listed — like frontiersmen, settlers, homesteaders — was white people. There was not even a nod to the substantial Indigenous population in the state.
-He was explicitly anti-transgender people.
-And finally, of course, he was explicitly anti-windmills and electric cars, a big supporter of “liquid gold [oil], pro-“US energy dominance,” anti-Green New Deal, a his major slogan was “drill, baby, drill.”
Trump and his committed followers are every bit a neo-fascist threat. There is no more important work over the next 87 days for those who believe in democracy and progressive change than to work to defeat them as decisively and strongly as possible.
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.
