It turns out that many people at a rally in Ohio on Saturday took former President Donald Trump's warning out of context that if he lost in November, there would be “disaster for the country”. did. He was talking hyperbolically about the potential impact of imported cars on American jobs, not political violence. Indeed, given Mr. Trump's track record, it's understandable that some people would jump to conclusions. Still, the uproar had unfortunate unintended consequences. It was a distraction from the many other false, bizarre, vulgar and threatening statements Trump made Saturday at an airfield outside Dayton.
If I devoted an editorial to all these rants by former presidents, I would write little else. But never paying attention to them will contribute to the normalization of his words, because by being repeated in rally after rally they lose their power to shock. So here's the rest of what Trump told the audience.
Trump began by praising those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling them “incredible patriots,” before the “bloodshed” line came 32 minutes into his hour-and-a-half speech. Ta. He saluted as a video of POWs singing the national anthem on January 6 was played on a large screen. “I see the souls of the hostages,” he said. These are some of the most violent mobs of the day.
It was Trump's first rally since winning enough delegates to win the 2024 Republican nomination. He told the audience that he urged “highly paid advisers” to stop attacking other Republicans now that the primary is effectively over. “I don't give any credit,” Trump said. He recalled bashing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had supported him, two months earlier, saying, “I hit him the same way I did against ISIS.”
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Trump, who is facing multiple criminal charges, said he was “persecuted” worse than Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. “Nobody comes close to Mr. Trump,” he said. He attacked prosecutors in every criminal case against him. “It's spelled Fani, just like your a-,” he said, referring to Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis.
He called President Biden a “Manchurian candidate” under Chinese control, adding baselessly that “they know things about President Biden that they will never know unless they want to reveal them.” Ta. Trump fat-shamed Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for eating five hamburgers. By contrast, he spoke passionately about the supposed toughness of Hungary's autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Trump said “very good Wall Street analysts” agree that stocks are rising because investors expect Trump to win in November, and that the market is If he started thinking that he would lose, he argued, “we will end up in a crash.'' I haven't seen it since 1929. He claimed that if he were president, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine and Hamas would not have attacked Israel. He claimed that crime in Venezuela had decreased by 66 percent because the Venezuelan government sent gang members, drug traffickers and murderers to the United States (he did not specify how long). “In some cases, they're not even human,” he says. “These are animals.”
Mr. Trump almost brazenly fanned the flames of racism and tried to pit racial groups against each other. “Biden has repeatedly stabbed African American voters in the back, including by giving away millions of work permits.” [to migrants], taking away their jobs,” he said. He then said it was “very bad” that the United States had renamed a military base that once honored a Confederate officer and attacked the renamed Cleveland MLB team. “They're Indians,” he said.
Mr. Trump understandably received quite a negative response on Monday when he said in a radio interview that “Jews who vote for Democrats hate their religion'' and “Israel should be ashamed because it will be destroyed.'' caused news coverage. But we should also pay attention to Trump's assertion on Saturday that “Catholics are under siege” by Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history. “Catholics who vote for this numb skull are crazy because they are being persecuted,” he said. (The day after the Ohio rally, he posted on Truth Social that former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and other members of the task force that investigated January 6th “should go to jail.”) did.)
Political rhetoric is inherently heated and hyperbolic. Trump's fans say he is simply counterpunch to Democrats' overreach. But as the examples above demonstrate, Trump's stump speech falls into a completely different category: incitement. And again, these are just a few excerpts. Keeping track of his constant rants can be psychologically taxing. But not doing so could be politically costly.