Trump�s bizarre, vindictive incoherence has to be heard in full to be
believed

Excerpts from his speeches do not do justice to Trump�s smorgasbord of
vendettas, non sequiturs and comparisons to famous people

Donald Trump�s speeches on the 2024 campaign trail so far have been focused
on a laundry list of complaints, largely personal, and an increasingly
menacing tone.

He�s on the campaign trail less these days than he was in previous cycles �
and less than you�d expect from a guy with dedicated superfans who brags
about the size of his crowds every chance he gets. But when he has held
rallies, he speaks in dark, dehumanizing terms about migrants, promising to
vanquish people crossing the border. He rails about the legal battles he
faces and how they�re a sign he�s winning, actually. He tells lies and
invents fictions. He calls his opponent a threat to democracy and claims
this election could be the last one.

Trump�s tone, as many have noted, is decidedly more vengeful this time
around, as he seeks to reclaim the White House after a bruising loss that
he insists was a steal. This alone is a cause for concern, foreshadowing
what the Trump presidency redux could look like. But he�s also, quite
frequently, rambling and incoherent, running off on tangents that would
grab headlines for their oddness should any other candidate say them.

Journalists rightly chose not to broadcast Trump�s entire speeches after
2016, believing that the free coverage helped boost the former president
and spread lies unchecked. But now there�s the possibility that stories
about his speeches often make his ideas appear more cogent than they are �
making the case that, this time around, people should hear the full
speeches to understand how Trump would govern again.

Watching a Trump speech in full better shows what it�s like inside his
head: a smorgasbord of falsehoods, personal and professional vendettas,
frequent comparisons to other famous people, a couple of handfuls of simple
policy ideas, and a lot of non sequiturs that veer into barely intelligible
stories.

Curiously, Trump tucks the most tangible policy implications in at the end.
His speeches often finish with a rundown of what his second term in office
could bring, in a meditation-like recitation the New York Times recently
compared to a sermon. Since these policies could become reality, here�s a
few of those ideas:

Instituting the death penalty for drug dealers.

Creating the �Trump Reciprocal Trade Act�: �If China or any other
country makes us pay 100% or 200% tariff, which they do, we will make them
pay a reciprocal tariff of 100% or 200%. In other words, you screw us and
we�ll screw you.�

Indemnifying all police officers and law enforcement officials.

Rebuilding cities and taking over Washington DC, where, he said in a
recent speech, there are �beautiful columns� put together �through force of
will� because there were no �Caterpillar tractors� and now those columns
have graffiti on them.

Issuing an executive order to cut federal funding for any school
pushing critical race theory, transgender and other inappropriate racial,
sexual or political content.

Moving to one-day voting with paper ballots and voter ID.

This conclusion is the most straightforward part of a Trump speech and is
typically the extent of what a candidate for office would say on the
campaign trail, perhaps with some personal storytelling or mild joking
added in.

But it�s also often the shortest part.

Trump�s tangents aren�t new, nor is Trump�s penchant for elevating baseless
ideas that most other presidential candidates wouldn�t, like his promotion
of injecting bleach during the pandemic.

But in a presidential race among two old men that�s often focused on the
age of the one who�s slightly older, these campaign trail antics shed light
on Trump�s mental acuity, even if people tend to characterize them
differently than Joe Biden�s. While Biden�s gaffes elicit serious scrutiny,
as writers in the New Yorker and the New York Times recently noted, we�ve
seemingly become inured to Trump�s brand of speaking, either skimming over
it or giving him leeway because this has always been his shtick.

Trump, like Biden, has confused names of world leaders (but then claims
it�s on purpose). He has also stumbled and slurred his words. But beyond
that, Trump�s can take a different turn. Trump has described using an �iron
dome� missile defense system as �ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
They�ve only got 17 seconds to figure this whole thing out. Boom. OK.
Missile launch. Whoosh. Boom.�

These tangents can be part of a tirade, or they can be what one can only
describe as complete nonsense.

During this week�s Wisconsin speech, which was more coherent than usual,
Trump pulled out a few frequent refrains: comparing himself, incorrectly,
to Al Capone, saying he was indicted more than the notorious gangster;
making fun of the Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis�s first name (�It�s
spelled fanny like your ass, right? Fanny. But when she became DA, she
decided to add a little French, a little fancy�).
Trump attends a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on 2 April.
Trump attends a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on 2 April, at
which he mocked the name of the Fulton county district attorney.
Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

He made fun of Biden�s golfing game, miming how Biden golfs, perhaps a ding
back at Biden for poking Trump about his golf game. Later, he called Biden
a �lost soul� and lamented that he gets to sit at the president�s desk.
�Can you imagine him sitting at the Resolute Desk? What a great desk,�
Trump said.

One muddled addition in Wisconsin involved squatters� rights, a hot topic
related to immigration now: �If you have illegal aliens invading your home,
we will deport you,� presumably meaning the migrant would be deported
instead of the homeowner. He wanted to create a federal taskforce to end
squatting, he said.

�Sounds like a little bit of a weird topic but it�s not, it�s a very bad
thing,� he said.

These half-cocked remarks aren�t new; they are a feature of who Trump is
and how he communicates that to the public, and that�s key to understanding
how he is as a leader.

The New York Times opinion writer Jamelle Bouie described it as �something
akin to the soft bigotry of low expectations�, whereby no one expected him
to behave in an orderly fashion or communicate well.

Some of these bizarre asides are best seen in full, like this one about
Biden at the beach in Trump�s Georgia response to the State of the Union:

�Somebody said he looks great in a bathing suit, right? And you know, when
he was in the sand and he was having a hard time lifting his feet through
the sand, because you know sand is heavy, they figured three solid ounces
per foot, but sand is a little heavy, and he�s sitting in a bathing suit.
Look, at 81, do you remember Cary Grant? How good was Cary Grant, right? I
don�t think Cary Grant, he was good. I don�t know what happened to movie
stars today. We used to have Cary Grant and Clark Gable and all these
people. Today we have, I won�t say names, because I don�t need enemies. I
don�t need enemies. I got enough enemies. But Cary Grant was, like �
Michael Jackson once told me, �The most handsome man, Trump, in the
world.� �Who?� �Cary Grant.� Well, we don�t have that any more, but Cary
Grant at 81 or 82, going on 100. This guy, he�s 81, going on 100. Cary
Grant wouldn�t look too good in a bathing suit, either. And he was pretty
good-looking, right?�

Or another Hollywood-related bop, inspired by a rant about Willis and
special prosecutor Nathan Wade�s romantic relationship:

�It�s a magnificent love story, like Gone With the Wind. You know Gone With
the Wind, you�re not allowed to watch it any more. You know that, right?
It�s politically incorrect to watch Gone With the Wind. They have a list.
What were the greatest movies ever made? Well, Gone With the Wind is
usually number one or two or three. And then they have another list you�re
not allowed to watch any more, Gone With the Wind. You tell me, is our
country screwed up?�

He still claims to have �done more for Black people than any president
other than Abraham Lincoln� and also now says he�s being persecuted more
than Lincoln and Andrew Jackson:

�All my life you�ve heard of Andrew Jackson, he was actually a great
general and a very good president. They say that he was persecuted as
president more than anybody else, second was Abraham Lincoln. This is just
what they said. This is in the history books. They were brutal, Andrew
Jackson�s wife actually died over it.�

You not only see the truly bizarre nature of Trump�s speeches when viewing
them in full, but you see the sheer breadth of his menace and animus toward
those who disagree with him.

His comments especially toward migrants have grown more dehumanizing. He
has said they are �poisoning the blood� of the US � a nod at Great
Replacement Theory, the far-right conspiracy that the left is orchestrating
migration to replace white people. Trump claimed the people coming in were
�prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the
worst they have�. He has repeatedly called migrants �animals�.
Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay,
Wisconsin.
Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay,
Wisconsin. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images