Trump plans to claim victimhood and beg everybody for money for his legal
fees. It's a good place to see white trash in their native element.

The Tired Monotony of a Trump Rally in 2024

Everyone�s just going through the motions.
A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wears a Trump
mask and eats a burger before hearing him speak at a campaign event at SNHU
Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump eats a burger
before hearing him speak at a campaign event at SNHU Arena in Manchester,
New Hampshire, on Jan. 20, 2024. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

By Ian Ward

01/24/2024 10:01 AM EST

Ian Ward is a reporter at POLITICO.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/24/trump-rally-speeches-
maga-vibes-00137364

ATKINSON, New Hampshire � The line snaked along the driveway, hundreds of
people long. The weather was dreadful in southern New Hampshire � ice and
the slush and the subfreezing temperatures � but Donald Trump�s faithful
didn�t care. They were willing to wait two hours in the freezing cold, and
three more in an airless ballroom, to witness what promised to be a
triumphal occasion: The day before, their besieged champion had won a
resounding victory in Iowa, and tonight�s rally would be his victory lap.
The night held forth the possibility of Vintage Trump � punchy, emboldened,
zany � and they were willing to wait for it.

Just after 7 p.m., Trump took the stage, two hours late. �If you think that
it was easy to get here, you are wrong,� said Trump, who arrived in a
militarized motorcade driven by combat-trained drivers. His audience � who
had navigated their SUVs and pickup trucks across slick highways and frozen
back roads � chuckled awkwardly. It was clear Trump did not want to be
here.

Trump�s rallies, once the primary attraction in the MAGA universe, have
become awkward sideshows in his grander political drama, which is now
unfolding primarily in closed courtrooms and six-page legal orders. (Just
that morning, Trump had appeared in court in New York.)
Top: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to his supporters
in SNHU Arena at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. Bottom:
Supporters say the pledge of allegiance before listening to Trump speak at
the rally.

The stilted tone of Trump's rallies may not matter for Trump�s electoral
chances, but it certainly matters for how the country prepares for his
possible return to the White House. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

But something deeper than distraction or fatigue plagued the former
president�s appearances in New Hampshire. Trump�s speeches have always been
rambling and directionless, but in 2024, they have the additional drawback
of being inescapably monotonous.

His rallies aren�t fundamentally different than they have been in past
elections, but therein lies the problem: There�s little new substance or
material in this year�s revival of the Trump Show. His core grievances �
against the �radical left Democrats,� the deep state, the RINOs, the
globalists, the media � are little changed since he first started running
for president in 2015, and his schticks � spinning out new nicknames for
his rivals, goading the crowd to boo the press � are all retreads. Trump
may still be full of venom and fury, but his laugh lines feel wooden and
rehearsed, his digressions lacking color and zing.

And his fans � though, on the whole, as enthusiastic as ever � seem to be
taking note. Last Saturday evening in Manchester, Trump spoke to a crowd of
5,000 inside a frigid minor league ice hockey stadium. Toward the end of
his nearly two-hour speech, a soaring orchestral soundtrack came on over
the PA system, and an American flag began billowing on the screen behind
him. This was supposed to be the climactic culmination of his speech, but
as Trump droned on � for five, 10, 15 minutes longer � even the supporters
standing behind him on the stage started to look a little bored. Out in the
stands, a steady stream of attendees trickled toward the exits.

The stilted tone of the rallies may not matter for Trump�s electoral
chances � he has romped through primary challenges so far in Iowa and New
Hampshire, and polls show him with a slight edge over President Joe Biden
in a general election matchup � but it certainly matters for how the
country prepares for his possible return to the White House.

Last week, ahead of the Iowa caucuses, The Atlantic�s McKay Coppins urged
readers to show up to a Trump rally � �not as a supporter or as protester,
necessarily, but as an observer.� In 2016 and 2020, Coppins argued, Trump
watchers scrutinized every one of his rallies, dissecting them for clues
into Trump�s erratic psyche. But in 2024, Coppins contended, an
overcorrection has occurred: Now, the country isn�t paying enough attention
to Trump. He has been rendered �an abstraction� � a �hazy silhouette �
formed by preconceived notions and outdated impressions.�

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump don't pay
attention as Trump speaks at a campaign stop in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Toward the end of Trump's nearly two-hour speech in Manchester on Saturday,
even the supporters standing behind him on the stage started to look a
little bored. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

Trump is, no doubt, less omnipresent than he once was. His Truth Social
posts no longer drive entire news cycles, and the major networks rarely
broadcast his full speeches. But, based on his recent swing through New
Hampshire, Trump�s speeches don�t teach us much about Trump or his plans
for a second term that we don�t already know. I arrived at Trump�s rallies
as a prime target for Coppins� advice � a Brooklyn journalist who has
followed Trump closely but, until last week, had never been to a rally in
person � and I came away thinking this: The reason to ignore the rallies is
not merely to avoid �amplifying [Trump�s] lies,� as Coppins put it, but
also because they have little to offer anyone but Trump�s most loyal fans,
either in the way of education or entertainment.

Reflecting on his own experience of a Trump rally, Coppins took note of a
�rote quality� in Trump�s speeches, adding that the former president seems
to have �lost the instinct for entertainment that once made him so
interesting to audiences.� But this perhaps understates the case. Trump�s
speeches aren�t boring merely because they�re rote, but also because so
much of his material is inherently incoherent and uninteresting.

In speech after speech in New Hampshire, Trump mentioned, in no particular
order: Joe Biden�s inability to pick up a beach chair; his uncle Dr. John
Trump�s career at MIT; Al Capone and Scarface; the difference between
prison and jails; Hannibal Lecter; a real estate deal with Ted Kennedy; and
the weather in Iowa. Trying to discern a clear picture of Trump or his
plans for a second term from these remarks is like trying to find patterns
in a Pollock painting.
Three photos of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dancing as
he finishes his remarks during a campaign stop.

Trump�s speeches have always been rambling and directionless, but in 2024,
they have the additional drawback of being inescapably monotonous. | Jamie
Kelter Davis for POLITICO

The rallies provide only limited insight into the movement that Trump
leads. Off the campaign trail, Trump and his allies in Washington have not
been shy about touting their policy prescriptions for a possible second
term, which include a sweeping crackdown on immigration, an overhaul of the
federal bureaucracy, an expansion of protectionist trade policies, a
retreat from multilateral alliances and a campaign of political retribution
against his enemies. At think tanks and in the right-leaning press,
conservatives are still hashing out the debates � about the political
economy, foreign policy, philosophy, conservative history and even art and
culture � that Trump�s election in 2016 sparked. Yet none of these
substantive issues received more than passing mention at Trump�s campaign
events. Coming away from a Trump rally, a neutral observer could be
forgiven for thinking that Trumpism � as opposed to Trump himself � is less
complex and contradictory than it actually is.

Nor do hasty interviews with Trump�s supporters � now a well-worn clich� of
the liberal-goes-to-a-Trump rally genre � supply much of a novel window
into the Trumpian zeitgeist. In Atkinson, a woman in a MAGA hat and scarf
(�Let�s go with �Paula,�� she said when I asked for her name) told me that
her top issue was the economy, although her own company � a construction
outfit that builds on government contracts � was booming. A pair of elderly
brothers, George and Larry Phillis, said their top issue was immigration �
but they confessed that they didn�t see much evidence of the immigration
crisis in northern New England. One hears variations of these concerns over
and over again, punctuated with darker musings about Democrats� efforts to
rig elections and the inevitability of immigrant-led terrorist attacks.