“It was just so powerful.” I’m waiting in line for a greasy burrito at Taco Bell after leaving the Donald Trump rally in Salem, Virginia, and the positive reviews from his ardent supporters are inescapable.
I overhear a group bonding over their support for the former – and perhaps future – president, who just delivered a barnstorming speech promising to usher in “America’s new golden age”.
Their calm conversation while waiting for fast food is in stark contrast to the frenzied atmosphere in the auditorium hours earlier, where the crowd erupted into thunderous applause as Trump arrived on stage to a blaring wrestling theme tune.
There was no denying that the bullish election candidate is a skilled orator. He attacked key topics including the economy, migration and transgender issues in a simple, direct manner, with a heavy dose of patriotism and frequent promises to “fix” the country and take it back from dangerous liberals.
Migration is “the single greatest threat to our nation”, above even economic challenges, because “you’re killing the fabric of our country”, the Republican said. He repeatedly warned of the murderers, drug dealers, criminals and “people from mental institutions” flooding the country.
And let’s not forget a mention of the illegal aliens who are getting taxpayer-funded sex changes – ticking off two boxes on the Trump bingo card in one breath.
The crowd lapped it up, erupting into a chorus of boos at every mention of illegal aliens and Kamala Harris, whose name Trump frequently mispronounced.
His unscripted moments earned big laughs too, including a quip about having a bad hair day after catching sight of himself on a big screen, and a bizarre tangent about Elon Musk’s mother (“By the way, how beautiful is his mother? What’s going on?”).
But despite the clear appeal of his communication style, I couldn’t help but find much of it lazy, laden with buzz words without getting to the heart of issues that he claims to have solutions to.
In his nastiest moments, Trump described Harris as having an “extremely low IQ” and “crazy”, and branded California state representative Nancy Pelosi “crazy as a bedbug”. You may not like her politics but Harris is law graduate with vast experience as an attorney and politician. It was like listening to a schoolyard bully blindly launching vague insults.
Meanwhile, Trump rebranded his own rambling speech-making style as “weaving”. In contrast to sleepy Joe Biden, his weaving is a deliberate and artful technique, he suggested.
Then came the familiar moment when the Republican sought to cast doubt on the election’s outcome with warnings about corruption around mail-in ballots. If God Himself were to descend from the heavens and oversee voting in California then he would easily win, Trump said. Modest, as always.
This pre-emptive allegation of voter fraud is an idea that has firmly taken hold among his supporters, many of whom told the Express that if their candidate did not win it would only prove the election was rigged.
Perhaps I’m simply used to boredom of UK political campaigns which are far less aggressive and personal and see candidates take part in small events rather than appearing in vast arenas in front of thousands, but I found his repetitive attack lines juvenile – pantomime politics.
The lack of sophistication left me wondering whether Trump has a clear plan for anything. “Nothing is more dangerous than to give immense power to a very weak and incompetent person with an extremely low IQ,” he told the crowd in another attack on Harris. I couldn’t agree with those words more, Donald.
