He even re-enacted his walk
Richard Wolffe at the Guardian observes the humiliation.
…nothing truly comes close to the embarrassment of his so-called comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.
It was so toe-curlingly cringeworthy, such a crushing humiliation. There are 80s pop bands who have enjoyed greater comebacks than Donald Trump.
Ok the smaller than expected crowd was humiliating but at least the rally itself was good, right? Trump on top form? Feeding off the energy of the [smaller than expected] crowd?
Trump told the crowd at great length why he couldn’t possibly walk down a ramp unaided. He even re-enacted his walk down the deadly incline. He also treated them to a long excuse about why he couldn’t hold a glass of water with one hand. It apparently has something to do with protecting his expensive silk tie.
So if you lift a small glass of water with only one hand you can’t help dumping most of it down your front?
Have a sample – a crazed digression on getting a fancy new plane for himself. He even admits that people pushed back and said it was a luxury.
Pretty shouty and screechy, compare that to the West Point speech, what a contrast. I think someone’s messing with his medications, or he’s become an alcoholic or something. He’s very angry and erratic and if he thinks he’s funny, then he is obviously doing humor wrong. The irony of him calling anyone a “dumb son of a bitch” was the only laughable thing he said, and that wasn’t funny either, the arrogant, condescending bastard. I want him gone.
By the way, he was not humiliated, people like that are impervious to humiliation. He’ll twist everything and put his spin on it until it becomes a ‘win’. That’s what delusional toxic narcissists do. Not to mention the influence of all the lapdogs telling him exactly what he wants to hear.
The shouty and screechy is what I mean when I point out the difference between written speeches (not written by him, obviously) and these impromptu performances. He hates reading the speeches and does it horrendously badly, and he loves pretending to be a standup comic, and does it not better but with far more energy and enthusiasm. He thinks, mistakenly, that he’s good at it.
Mind you, millions of people would say he is good at it, as we can tell from the applause and cheering. They’re wrong though.
I’m not quite sure about the humiliation though. He admitted a kind of humiliation in that rant, where he said he was all bent over in the ramp clip, and “I didn’t like that.” He actually made fun of his bent-over walk, by doing an even more bent-over version…which kind of surprises me. Normal people do that, but I wouldn’t have guessed he would.
In his Air Force One routine, he also talked about trying to wriggle out of the cancellation fee in the contract with Boeing. He brags about cheating, and they love him for it. Honesty is for suckers. Greatest nation on earth.
I watched the whole 12 minute bit on the ramp and drinking water. He’s not pretending to be a stand up comic. He’s got talent. I LOLed. It goes a long way to explaining his appeal
Also it’s plausible. As a young fit, mobile, man I had a fall (and a few near misses) when I got my first leather-soled boots. Saluting 600 times under a hot sun would take it out of one.
Just saying. Know your enemy and all that.
How hard would it be to replace a plain red tie? I’ve had ties that would be difficult to replace, but a plain red one?
@#4 It looked to me like he’s being defensive because of all the criticism he took, and then trying to play it off as self deprecating, but I don’t buy it. A bully being defensive is not the same thing as humility (not in my book anyway), and judging by a lot of his other behaviors, I doubt he has an ounce of humility, I mean absolutely none, whether he pretends to or not.
@#6 Yeah, slippery leather soles, I know that one. Took him a few days to find (or be handed) that excuse though. Also, if the shoes are dry and broken in (the shiny finish worn off), and the surface is also dry, leather soles are fairly predictable. Then again he’s created a huge credibility problem over the years, and I don’t believe much of what he says. As for fatigue, yes of course, that I believe, but he never admits to it.
Also @#3 Agreed, the “Trump doing Trump” is quite a big difference, also we saw how he did this back and forth chaotic routine, between scripted and ad libbed during the White House Covid briefings. That was a stomach turning spectacle also, and I’m glad he quit doing it on the one hand, and sorry he quit on the other. What better way to show his supporters just how unstable he is, if they’re paying any attention at all…
@2 I’d agree with you, but that clip of him getting off the helicopter looked like humiliation to me.
Nah, probably more pissed off and exhausted. He’ll twist it into a ‘win’ somehow, humility is not in his nature. If he discloses any sense of disappointment at the low turnout, I’ll eat your hat.
Agree that ‘humiliation’ and ‘humility’ are not the same thing…but yeah I expect you’re right, that was a momentary aberration and he’ll be back to his belligerent self soon enough.
(Just as an aside, I met the archaeologist who discovered Richard III’s skeleton in the car park in Leicester, and he actually said that if they found him he’d eat his hat–there’s a picture floating around of him eating a little marzipan hard hat.)
I’ll eat MY hat is the proper usage, but I’ve always heard it the other way, so I’ll get a chocolate hat just in case. Also, I think a certain amount of humiliation leads to a certain amount of humility, in which I think Trump doesn’t have the capacity for either.
All this talk of Trump and humility reminds me of an interview that him and Pence gave while campaigning in 2016. I know I’ve mentioned it before but it’s worth another outing.
The interviewer told Trump that a lot of potential voters were saying that they were put off to some extent by what they percieved to be his lack of humility, then asked something like ‘So, Mr. Trump, what would you say to the claims that you don’t seem at all humble?’ Trump replied ‘Oh, I’m humble. I’m the most humble person you’ll ever meet. There’s nobody more humble than Donald J. Trump.’
The look on Pence’s face was priceless. I honestly thought that he was on the verge of saying a big ‘fuck this for a game of soldiers’ and walking, but no, Mr. Goddy [sic] Two-Shoes clearly values power and status over self-respect and those supposed Christian values he never shuts up about.the
AoS – See, people always say Trump doesn’t read, but how else would he have perfected his impression of Uriah Heep?
From the Guardian article linked in the OP:
“Trump told Xi Jinping he was the greatest leader in Chinese history, which is quite a long time, according to the Secret Service.”
It’s quite a long time according to anybody, not just the Secret Service. Shrdlu for the win.