new Quinnipiac Florida poll as President Trump announces his 2020 re-election campaign at Orlando rally: Biden 50%, Trump 41% also, Sanders 48%, Trump 42%Warren 47%, Trump 43%Harris 45%, Trump 44%O’Rourke 45%, Trump 44%Buttigieg 44%, Trump 43% — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 18, 2019 MSNBC is not carrying the Trump re-election event live. — Kyle Griffin …
Dark Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Trump Rallies His (Extremely) BasePost + Comments (36)
The abrupt closing of the gates left supporters in ponchos debating whether to run for cover or lose their place in line. Thunderstorms were in the forecast all evening, threatening to dampen the excitement of what the Trump campaign predicted would be a gathering of thousands outside the arena…
By the time Trump took the stage, less than 200 people were gathered outside, many of them choosing against entering the arena, which was still allowing entrants until just before the speech….
After about an hour, a stream of people began to head out of the arena. A few meandered back to the field, hunting for their folding chairs and coolers by the light of the big screen. President Trump had not finished yet.
Folks are rocking in the pre-rally area to “Sweet Home Alabama,” with the lyric, “Watergate does not bother me. Does your conscience bother you?”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 18, 2019
This should be the lead story out of Orlando no matter what Trump says tonight. https://t.co/9YWkvgdaqx
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) June 18, 2019
Reminder: They are saying Pinochet because too many normal people know who Hitler is. https://t.co/X0YBI3Zcsm
— ?? (@leftkist) June 18, 2019
The Proud Boys white supremacist group has been stopped by bicycle police in Orlando. pic.twitter.com/ivjCsmaShx
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 18, 2019
Eric Trump just said there are 100,000 people here in Orlando for Trump’s rally. The 20,000 seat arena is currently not full.
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 18, 2019
Not cultish at all https://t.co/5LqhEcK8m7
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 19, 2019
The NYTimes is beginning to doubt the glamour:
President Trump delivered a fierce denunciation of the news media, the political establishment and what he called his radical opponents on Tuesday as he opened his re-election campaign in front of a huge crowd of raucous supporters by evoking the dark messaging and personal grievances that animated his 2016 victory…
He extolled his record as president — the growing economy, the tax cuts and deregulation — but did not offer any new policies or a cohesive agenda for a second term that might expand his political appeal. As he formally declared his intention to run again, he told the audience that his new slogan would be “Keep America Great,” pledging to wage a relentless battle on behalf of his supporters…
Mr. Trump had relentlessly hyped Tuesday’s event as a dramatic moment in his journey to a second term. But in the end, it was not so different from the dozens of rallies he has held during the past two years.
Standing in front of a sea of people wearing his signature red “Make America Great Again” hats, Mr. Trump unleashed a torrent of attacks, falsehoods, exaggerations and resentments that were the trademark of his first campaign and have been on almost daily display during his time in the White House. His warning for his voters: The establishment will stop at nothing to rob you of another four years…
For Mr. Trump, the rally was the beginning of what polls suggest will be a difficult 18 months as he seeks another four years in the White House. Already trailing Democrats in many voter surveys and having never cracked 50 percent in approval ratings since taking office, Mr. Trump has turned himself into one of the most polarizing presidents in American history…
To win re-election, Mr. Trump must convince those supporters that he has not forgotten them despite having failed to make good on some of his most important campaign promises: The wall he promised along the border with Mexico is still not built. Obamacare has not been fully repealed. The nation’s infrastructure is still aging and crumbling. The economy is booming, but many people still feel the sting of financial uncertainty…
Without a new message or a clear agenda for a second term, Mr. Trump’s advisers are banking on the belief that the same basic playbook — Mr. Trump’s preternatural ability to shock and entertain — will again animate his core voters and retain the swing voters who gambled on him in 2016…
Former Bernie supporter says she switched to Trump after opening her own business and realizing that raising the minimum wage would hurt her ability to hire. https://t.co/kXS1K2XaoP
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) June 18, 2019
Rather than reinterviewing more white working-class Trump voters, I would love for the Times and other newspapers to check in with people like James Baker, who also constitute Trump’s base. We let elites and the GOP establishment off the hook when we focus only on that group. https://t.co/F98NU2BAgB
— Lawrence Glickman (@LarryGlickman) June 19, 2019
These Trump supporters have been to more than FOUR DOZEN rallies: A guy who fears Buttigieg, a woman who makes solo cross-country drives to see Trump, and a man who named his Alaskan malamute after the president only to have the pup shot dead by a neighborhttps://t.co/AYZ8KrBdGu
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) June 18, 2019
Most of the protesters cleared out after the last speaker. Baby Trump balloon still stands. #TrumpRally #TrumpInOrlando pic.twitter.com/D02pjvTx6C
— Karina Elwood (@karina_elwood) June 19, 2019
High Priest in the Church of the Savvy Jack Schafer, in Politico:
… This evening’s announcement is designed to make the public and the news media forget, if only for a few days, the two dozen Democrats running against him who have been robbing him of mindshare, or as he calls it, his “ratings.” Next week’s Democratic debates sufficiently threaten his status as the top newsmaker that he has made tentative plans to live-tweet the event, reports the Wall Street Journal, to make sure the debates end up being about Trump.
The president’s advisers have warned Trump that he should lay off Twitter lest his running commentaries on the Democrats turn some also-ran contestants into real contenders. But he cares not so long as he grabs a major share of the headlines that editors had reserved for Joe Biden and friends. Like the gulls in Finding Nemo chanting, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” when they see a scrap of edible garbage floating in the sea, Trump’s ego shouts “Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!” whenever he spies some other politician flapping his wings for the press…
From the debates to the caucuses to the primaries to the Democratic National Convention, Trump will be there, posturing as the unofficial 25th Democratic candidate. He will not go away. He will not be silent. He will not stop tweeting. Unless you pay him attention he does not exist.