"Some of the most uncontrolled moments in Donald Trump’s rallies come, for one reason or another, when he, with a piece of paper in hand, recites his own past statements. That was the case in December, 2015, when he read aloud his call for a complete and total ban on Muslims entering the United States, punctuating it with phrases like “What the hell is going on!” And it was the case at the Phoenix Convention Center on Tuesday night, in a performance that was, by turns, ranting, rambling, whining, bitter, and—given that the speaker is the President of the United States—frightening. Trump read excerpts from various remarks that he had made about the “Unite the Right” gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the violence that it had sparked. Perhaps reading his own turns of phrase just excites him—“The words are perfect!” he said at one point in Phoenix, with an expression of dazed appreciation. Or perhaps it serves him to regard himself in the third person, as a character for whom he can script any line—and any reality. (In Phoenix he said, of himself, “I don’t believe that any President has accomplished as much as this President.”) But recitation also seems to make it easier for him to summon up hate, particularly against other people who tell different stories about who Trump is and what he does.
In Phoenix, Trump Lets the Real World Go Away | The New Yorker: ""
No comments:
Post a Comment