Given rambling speeches and personal attacks over policy talk, supporters wonder if events do more harm than good

Given rambling speeches and personal attacks over policy talk, supporters wonder if events do more harm than good

As Donald Trump emerged to a thunderous roar of approval in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Rust belt, he was back in his comfort zone among the people who once put him in power.

But by the time he stepped off the stage nearly two hours later, even some of the former US president’s supporters were wondering whether his rallies are doing his re-election campaign more harm than good.

…

“He reminded me why I’m not going to vote for him this time,” said Jenny, a local businesswoman who did not want to give her full name because she didn’t want to alienate customers.

“I voted for him in 2016 and had a Trump flag in the front yard. I voted for him again in 2020 but didn’t put the flag out that time. I’ve been thinking of voting for him again because Biden’s been so bad for the economy and Kamala won’t be any better. But after listening to that, I’m actually afraid of Trump being president again. I don’t know what he was talking about half the time. Perhaps he was always like that but he seems worse, more unstable.”

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
    1172·
    2 months ago

    Perhaps he was always like that but he seems worse, more unstable.

    He was always like that, you’re just becoming a better person.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      39·
      2 months ago

      Nah, he’s clearly worse. Saw an article on here where they broke his speech patterns down, looked at repetition, vocabulary, continuity of thought, etc. Trump seems to be going down scary fast.

      It’s always been easier to listen to his speech than read it. At least with listening and watching, you can slip your own meanings into the vague patter. Reading forces you to try and parse meaning, and while there has never been much in his speeches, at least his Tweets were understandable. Now even those seem scrambled.

      • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        2 months ago

        I agree. I guess his decline is hard to catch because it’s not as if he started from a place of formidable intellect and vocabulary anyway but he’s slipped far enough that even some MAGA types are starting to notice.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      12·
      2 months ago

      Nah, they’re also still as awful as they have always been. Just rats starting to notice the ship is sinking.

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
    63·
    2 months ago

    I’ve been thinking of voting for him again because Biden’s been so bad for the economy and Kamala won’t be any better.

    So if this person understood Trump was worse for the economy, would they vote change?

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      35·
      2 months ago

      If you asked “How will Harris be worse for the economy?” I doubt you’d get a coherent argument in response. Most Trump supporters repeat what they’ve been told.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
      9·
      2 months ago

      When these idiots say “the economy” the don’t even mean the economy, and they don’t even mean the health of their business, they just mean one extremely specific line on their tax forms.

  • edric@lemm.ee
    44·
    2 months ago

    Come election day, I bet Jenny will end up writing Trump on her ballot. It’s always like that especially for the type of people to attend a 2-hour ramble of nonesense. They’ll say this and that but will vote for him in the end anyway.

    • Lupus@feddit.org
      11·
      2 months ago

      Seeing him ramble in a video is bad already, but to write his nonsense out makes it so much worse, it’s hilarious.

      I heard the other day – And this isn’t anything, I’m just saying. They’ll say ‘he was rambling.’ I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy. You know, I’m really smart. I don’t ramble. But the other day – any time I hit too hard, they say he was rambling. Rambling?

      You know, I get up, and I make a speech, I go for sometimes two hours, two and half hours because, you know, people are waiting outside for three days, four days. You guys were waiting out there for a long time! Front Row Joes are waiting, I don’t know how you guys do it.

And I feel I have an obligation to speak, and speak in a certain way, and speak a little bit longer. You know, how would you like it, a guy’s waiting with his family for three and a half, four days. They have a tent and the tent is set up. They have hundreds of them, and they wait. And then I walk in, speak for 15 minutes and leave. I don’t know somehow, would that be okay, North Carolina? I don’t think so. Right.

They want me to speak all day. You know, when I leave – I did one, two hours and 15 minutes and I’m leaving and they’re screaming, no, sir. More. We want to hear more. I can’t, I can’t speak more. What the hell else am I going to say? Our country is going to hell. That’s all I can say. We’re a nation in decline.

You know, we were talking about that before. My phrases are copied so much, right? I use I use the term, often times in closing, we are a nation in decline. We are a failed nation. And I think it’s a beautiful phrase. Although I don’t like the topic very much, I don’t like what it represents. But there’s a certain beauty. All of a sudden all of these candidates, including Republicans, are saying we are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation. And I say, you know, what the hell do they have to copy me for? Right?

But they have a lot of words that they copy. Many of our words. We were in the plane before coming in, and our people said we went through a list. I think we’re going to release a list, let’s release it. But so many of our phrases they copy. I should be really, that should be a nice thing, not an insult. But crazy Bernie Sanders has said a lot of things…
      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        Just posted much the same, but you’ve given me an epiphany. In forums like this we cannot imagine how Trump has any support. I mean FFS, have these people not read any of what he… Oh.

      • Iapar@feddit.org
        61·
        2 months ago

        “Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.”

      • gothic_lemons@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        Yo I kinda really want to start a trump “volunteer” group where we go door to door and pass out flyers. But the flyers are just quotes of trump like this.

  • mhague@lemmy.world
    28·
    2 months ago

    “perhaps he was always like that”

    I don’t know what to think of that. “This guy is crazy, the idea of him winning scares me. Maybe he was always like this.”

    Wouldn’t you know, though!? How is someone absolutely nuts and unstable to the point it kinda freaks you out, and you’re hedging that shit?

    Are they trying to say they’re still about the shittiness and Trump just isn’t fetch anymore? Or now that the ride is over its going to be a “That wasn’t me” kind of thing? Because both sound like biding their time.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    20·
    2 months ago

    Are Trump’s campaign rallies energizing his base – or sowing doubt?

    Is anyone confused as to whether it matters or not? His only goal in life is to be lauded by cheering audiences for whatever the fuck he thinks he’s saying.

    He’s a demented narcissist. He’ll hold rallies as long as he has the cash or influence to do so. Even if every single one turns the entirety of the crowd against him.

    Remember the “loyalty oaths” first implemented by Gee Dubz and the Chainy? After Tulsa’s humiliation they started that up again. He’ll just do that. You have to swear on camera as to how great he is before you’re allowed in. Roving gangs of Pinkertons will wander the arenas throwing out anyone not sufficiently cheering.

  • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Why not both? His (racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, liberal-hating) base is definitely energized by his rhetoric. But he may also be alienating the less radicalized people he needs to actually win.

  • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    1110·
    2 months ago

    Both. I think they sow doubt in anyone who isn’t in the MAGA camp. Everyone else thinks he needs to change his tactics.

    Trump thinks that Kamala being such a terrible candidate herself means that he can just do whatever and still win, which might technically be true but is a terrible perspective to have.