His Lardship in Montana

Thanks, again to Daniel Dale.



Some excerpts:

"I love these hangars. I love a hangar. There's nothing like a hangar," Trump begins. He is in a hangar.

Trump on how Montana values the Second Amendment: "I wouldn't want to be the one that walks into your house, says 'gimme that gun.' Nobody has the courage to do that."

Trump: "We watch Montana. And two years ago, you watched over me. Because we won this state by a lot. That was one of those quickies."

Trump: "This will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense...it's going to be an election of those things." Trump repeats Matt Gaetz's unfounded theory that the caravan migrants are being given money to get to the U.S. "by election day." Trump continuing with his hugely-misleading-at-best claim about Democrats and the migrants: "They also figure everybody coming in's going to vote Democrat...they're not so stupid when you think about it. But they are crazy."

Common sense got left behind on that one.  How are those migrants going to be able to vote by election day?  Or maybe ever?

Trump on illegal immigrants: "We have hardened criminals coming in. You think those people are perfect? They're not perfect. You have some hardened, bad people coming in." Trump to the "fake news" on immigration: "I have caused the problem. I'm taking full blame. You know why? Everyone's like in shock...it's my problem, I caused it: because I have created such an incredible economy, I have created so many jobs...that everybody wants to come in."

Combo Tears Alert and Sir Alert: Trump says that when he was walking in, "a big strong guy grabbed me, and he was almost crying, and it happens every time, and many times. And he said: 'Sir, Mr. President, thank you so much for saving our country.'"

Combo Tears Alert and Sir Alert: Trump says that when he was walking in, "a big strong guy grabbed me, and he was almost crying, and it happens every time, and many times. And he said: 'Sir, Mr. President, thank you so much for saving our country.'"

Trump: "We're 1 for 1. We're gonna soon be 2 for 2, and that's going to be it. Although a lot of the fake news said that 'he's not gonna stop at 8 years, he's going longer, we'll never take it away from him.'"

Is that a hint?  And I guess he's dispensed with the pretense that he's stumping for the mid-terms, not 2020.

Trump says Make America Great Again is "maybe the greatest slogan in the history of runs." He makes fun of Clinton's "I'm with her" slogan, then mockingly says, "Crooked Hillary is a great unifier." There is a "lock her up" chant. Trump, ranting about Clinton's emails, tells people to forget everything other than that, then says: "You can never forget about Benghazi, ever. You can forget about everything else. Never forget Benghazi. But forget about all the other things -- 33,000 emails." Trump is back to his lie that Clinton "acid washed" her emails. He calls this a "very expensive process, never used...because it costs so much." Her team used a free deletion program called BleachBit, which he turned into "bleaching," and then "acid washing."

Of course, we can surely understand how it still sticks in his craw that Hillary is president and not him.

Trump is wayyy off script tonight, just ranting.

Trump dismissing the possibility that he asked Russia for help: "Can you believe the stupidity of this? 'Let's call the Russians.' If I ever called the Russians, the first one to know about it would be the state of Montana. And they wouldn't be too happy."

Huh?  Why would Montana be the first to know.  Was he in Montana when he said directly to the camera on national TV, "Russia, if you're listening..."

Trump on Clinton and the Democrats: "These were not great competitors. But they were fun. Actually they were more effective, in my opinion, after the election than before the election. Does that make any sense? To me it makes a lot of sense. Wiseguys."

None of this shit show makes any sense, dude.

Trump says that people no longer say he wears a hairpiece because they've seen his hair blown around in every kind of wind...and then he segues to the recent hurricanes...and then back to his hair. "So that's one good thing, nobody ever says that anymore."

This is one of the very weirdest speeches I've ever heard Trump give.

Trump: "Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs." A few seconds later, he says, "By the way, this is the most beautiful sky. Well, Big Sky -- I guess there's a reason for everything, right...someday, one of you will explain exactly why."

Trump on his Montana performance in 2016: "I won by a fortune of votes."

Trump praises Rep. Greg Gianforte at length for assaulting reporter . "Never wrestle him. You understand that. Never. Any guy that can do a bodyslam, he's my kind of" -- crowd cheers -- "he's my guy. I shouldn't say this. I had heard that he bodyslammed a reporter. And he was way up...and I said...I said oh this is terrible he's gonna lose...then I said wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did." The president is gleefully applauding violence against a journalist...amid an international controversy over the apparent murder of another journalist who lived in the U.S. He did a veiled reference to Gianforte's assault at a September Montana rally, saying the congressman is a fighter in more ways than one. This time, just came out with it.

Trump likes to be as outrageous as possible to show everybody what he can get away with.  I won't be surprised if at some point he actually does shoot someone on 5th avenue.

Trump is doing his regular criticism of a red-state Democrat, Tester in this case, saying he talks like a Montana guy but votes like a Pelosi liberal.

Trump, in Montana, is telling his usual lies about California Democratic governor candidate Gavin Newsom, falsely saying "he wants open borders," which will allow "everybody in the world" to enter California.

Trump refers to Montana Senate candidate Matt Rosendale as a "high-end" guy. It's always fun when he lapses into real estate promoter lingo.

"THESE people are starting to think of it as a mob," Trump says, bizarrely, of reporters' views on Democrats, pointing at the media pen.

Trump lies that Kavanaugh was first in his class at Yale, then decries all the "lies that were made up" about Kavanaugh. Trump is doing an extended monologue about Kavanaugh's opponents. As usual, he very inaccurately recounts Dianne Feinstein's response when John Cornyn asked her if she leaked Christine Blasey Ford's letter. Trump is doing an impression of Jon Lovitz's SNL character Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar, complete with a voice. He says of Feinstein: "That was like a female version of Jon Lovitz. And then you had Spartacus, right. That's not Spartacus."

Mocking Biden for saying he wants to fight Trump, Trump again alludes to Gianforte's assault on Jacobs: "He'd be down faster than Greg would take him down. He'd be down so fast. Remember?...Faster than Greg. I'd have to go very fast. I'd have to immediately connect."

Jesus Christ. Could he sound more like a banana republic dictator?  Let's just put those two in a ring and get it over with.

Trump is attacking Tester for his criticism of VA nominee and White House physician Ronny Jackson. He says of Jackson: "He's a handsome, wonderful father." Trump, while attacking Tester for criticizing Ronny Jackson, says of Jackson, "He didn't really want it. And he might not have been qualified."

What the actual fuck?

So, at great length, Trump is castigating Tester for his attacks on a nominee Trump just said "might not have been qualified." The crowd has gotten extremely quiet.

THEY don't even know what he's on about.

Trump on Warren: "I used to say I have more Indian blood than she does, and I have none. And I was right." Trump says Warren probably disqualified herself with her DNA test, by making a fool out of herself. He then says a few times that he can't call her Pocahontas anymore. He then concludes without explanation: "But if you don't mind, I'll continue. Do you mind?"

Trump's concluding framing: "A vote for Republicans is a vote to reject the Democrat politics of hatred and anger and division and to celebrate the greatness and the glory of being American."

He says this to a crowd he's enmeshed with in showing hatred, anger and division.

Well, abandon hope on that last count, John.

Marty Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post:

Downing Street has indirectly criticised Donald Trump after he praised a Republican congressman for attacking a Guardian reporter, saying any violence or intimidation against journalists was “completely unacceptable”.

The response came after the US president drew cheers from the crowd at a rally by hailing Greg Gianforte, a Congress member for Montana, for having assaulted Ben Jacobs, the Guardian’s political correspondent, in May last year.

[...]

While oblique, the criticism is relatively strong by the standards of Downing Street, which generally tries to play down condemnation of Trump’s often erratic behaviour, mindful of wider UK-US ties as well as the president’s promises about a post-Brexit trade deal.

[...]

While Trump has previously incited crowds to jeer at the media, and has described the press as the “enemy of the people”, it was the first time he had openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil.

[...]

Gianforte’s attack on Jacobs came during a special congressional election in Montana when the candidate responded to a question about Republican healthcare plans by slamming Jacobs to the floor, breaking his glasses, while shouting: “Get the hell out of here.”

  The Guardian

Not nearly enough.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.