Trump’s Weird Loyalty Pledge
Donald Trump loves rallies.
Everyone can see how they energize him, how the crowd’s applause encourages him to ditch the hackneyed prose of his speechwriters and go on wild riffs, how the music and cheering are like water to a parched man.
Tonight, at the end of a two-day rally billed as a Republican “midterm convention,” Trump was visibly exhilarated.
But he also protested too much, in the process revealing some political as well as personal fears and insecurities.
Right at the outset, Trump made a reference to the arena and how packed it was, apparently stung by images of empty seats during the first night of the festivities. (He blamed those pictures on a dishonest press that was taking pictures of seats left by people going to the bathroom.) He returned to the crowd-size issue near the end of the evening, going on at length about the packed seats and boxes.
He also made life harder for Republican candidates who might try to get some distance from him by repeatedly stressing that he, Donald Trump, really is on the ballot, even if his name isn’t listed.
A confident president does not hold a faux convention.
A man who feels in control of his political future does not promise every American a $5,000 bounty if his party wins the election.
A man who thinks he’s winning a war does not boast that America “controls the Strait of Trump” a day after news reports revealed damage to U.S. military assets in an Iranian strike.
And a leader who believes in his voters does not make them recite weird pledges in the middle of a speech.
Trump—apparently in one of his detours away from the teleprompter—was struck by the possibility that his own people wouldn’t vote.
He stopped and demanded they follow him in a pledge.
“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States,” he began , as the audience repeated his words, “that loves us so much he can’t even breathe …” I must pause here and assure you that I am not making any of this up.
Trump continued by riffing about promising to “bring friends and family” to vote, even if it involved cheating.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.theatlantic.com — the content belongs to The Atlantic.
