Montana, Tennessee, Alaska. As an election approaches, a Republican president typically would not campaign in these traditionally red states.
However, these are not normal times and Donald Trump, an unpopular president leading an unpopular party, held rallies in these states last week, seeking support. But a series of eccentric performances by the president means his behavior has been the center of attention, rather than that of the candidates he supports.
Trump, 80, used his appearances to reflect on animals’ opposition to the Second Amendment, to call a Republican candidate “nerdy” and to demonstrate a previously unexpressed fascination with “donkeys,” particularly men and babies.
Along the way, Trump repeated his lie that 2020 was a rigged election, falsely claimed he had secured $21 trillion in foreign investment in the United States, and issued dark warnings about Democrats. Let’s take a look.
Trump was supposed to be in Syracuse to support Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, whom he introduced to the crowd in a confusing manner. Trump told Blakeman’s crowd: “I’ve only known him for a second. I’ve known him for a long time, years.”
Beyond his utterly contradictory explanation of his relationship with Blakeman, Trump went on to assert that in New York: “You can’t say, ‘Mother – hi, mom’ anymore. It’s, ‘Hi gestation – hi, gestation. I love you so much, gestation.'” People are still allowed to say mother in New York.
Trump went on to talk about one of the things he cares about most, spending 15 minutes complaining about how he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, despite having “settled eight wars.”
“Pakistan and India. I called them and I said, ‘If you guys don’t stop killing each other, I’m going to charge you 250 percent tariff and we’re not going to trade with you. They said no, no, no, you can’t do that. I said yes, I can,” Trump said. India has repeatedly denied that a ceasefire was reached through intervention by Trump.
A day later, Trump appeared in Clarksville. There, he adopted a strange method of speaking to the audience, saying there was “such love”, before adding: “I mean, it’s incredible. When you stand up here, it’s like… love. I could say the stupidest things and you applaud, ‘Oh, I love you so much…’.”
Trump continued: “That’s true. But we don’t say the stupidest things. We say things that are common sense. We say things that make sense, and we’re probably mostly conservative, but it’s not really conservative. These are things that are common sense.”
Speaking in Ohio, Trump said he recently learned that Jon Husted, the Republican senator running for re-election in the state, played football in college.
Trump continued: “I don’t do this very often with men. I started looking at (Husted’s) body, because I didn’t know he was a great athlete. And I looked and I looked up and down. I looked at his butt and I looked at the whole thing – and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He has these kind of claws.”
Trump later praised Husted, 59, for his beautiful jawline, before turning his attention to insults toward immigrants from Somalia. Trump claimed that these people “come from a part of the world that only knows how to kill each other” and said that in Somalia, people had “low IQs” and “didn’t have pants to wear.”
Trump was in Alaska to rally support for Dan Sullivan, the Republican senator. It was telling that it was there: this should be deep red territory. Yet Democratic nominee Mary Peltola is neck and neck with Sullivan, prompting Trump to call Peltola, a former Native American tribal judge, a “moron.”
During a meandering speech, Trump also granted pardons, on stage, to two Alaska auto repair shop owners who had previously pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act.
“When you grant a pardon to someone, they say it means — and I don’t know how this works and why it’s a phrase, but it’s used well, it means you’re as clean as a newborn’s ass,” Trump said.
He added of that phrase: “I never understood that. Why is it so clean? But they – they – they thought that was the definition of clean.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
After praising Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, calling him “young” and “handsome” (Sheikh Tamim is 46), Trump turned his attention to the Arizona Republicans he was in Bullhead City to support, including Alex Kolodin, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives who is seeking higher office.
“Everyone should also get out and vote for Alex Kolodin, an election integrity warrior, as our next secretary of state,” Trump said.
“Alex, good luck. You look good. Central casting, actually. You want a Secretary of State to look exactly like that, a little nerdy, and that’s fine.”
This is reminiscent of Trump’s repeated complaints about Ken Paxton, his hand-picked candidate for the US Senate in Texas. Trump has repeatedly said he doesn’t like the way Paxton speaks, dresses or looks.
During his speech, Trump also managed to add questions about his health, insult another person he knows, And let the crowd know that their lives were less important than his.
“I travel with more doctors than any human being. If people get sick in the public, they don’t do it, they leave them alone,” Trump said.
“You know what they’re called? Collateral damage. If that person over there, a friend of mine – he looks like shit, actually, he looks – he looks like he’s ready to have a heart attack. If he actually had a heart attack, you know what my doctors would do to track the president, all the presidents?”
“They would leave him alone. I would say please help him. No, sir, we can’t leave you. I said but he is dying of a heart attack. Sir, this is collateral damage. Can you believe it? They have about six ambulances and they won’t use one for anyone else. Whatever it is, but let’s hope we never have this problem.”
Trump made a pretty desperate appeal to voters, invoking long-standing Republican fear-mongering that Democrats would ban guns — which is entirely not a position of the Democratic Party.
“You know who would like to see that happen? Some of the wild animals that you have here like – like to eat you,” Trump said.
“We talked about it with Tim (Sheehy, Montana’s U.S. senator) and Steve (Daines, Montana’s other U.S. senator) on the plane. That was my first question, I said, ‘When you walk in the woods here, do you always have a gun, Tim?’ He replied: “Actually – actually, yes. » I said, “And you, Steve?” He replied: “Yes, we are intelligent people. »
“You know, the animals would be very, very happy to see you unarmed. They would gain a lot of weight. And leave law-abiding Americans defenseless while they unleash the wild criminals into your communities.”
Even for a president known for his eccentricities, Trump’s fascination with behinds, the appearance of his friends and animals, has raised eyebrows. And two weeks before the midterm elections, more appearances will be coming.
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