Ends in Disaster

Trump’s Rare Attempt to Stay on Message Ends in Disaster

Donald Trump gave a low-energy speech that elicited few cheers from the audience.

Edith Olmsted

Donald Trump delivered a strangely low-energy speech on Monday at a factory in York, Pennsylvania.

While the crowd at Precision Custom Components started off cheering at the former president’s compliments about Pennsylvania and promises to bolster American manufacturing, any initial enthusiasm appeared to wane as Trump proceeded through his remarks in a monotone reading voice.

“Kamala puts America last, I put America first,” Trump said, sounding completely dejected. He frowned as the crowd cheered.

For once, the former president was actually able to stay more or less on topic (although his talking points were still devoid of facts or actual policy ideas). He just seemed to hate every second of it, and the crowd responded in kind.

Trump’s claim that “caravans” of immigrants coming to the U.S. for free healthcare was met only by the echoes of his own remarks. Laments over “reckless spending” on healthcare, complaints that the supposed electric vehicle mandate is “absolutely so crazy,” and promises to clean up a supposedly graffiti-covered Washington, D.C., were met with total silence. Even promises to “liberate our workers with the largest regulatory cuts” did not evoke a single clap.

While his dulled speaking style didn’t prevent him from flying through topics, it did prevent him from getting any responses from the crowd for several minutes at a time. His awkward delivery made it unclear when the audience, or the people standing behind him, should clap, and pauses didn’t come easily or often in the Republican nominee’s speech.

In one particularly outrageous moment, Trump said, “The union—the United Auto Workers, I think the people in that union are going to vote for me overwhelmingly because I’m going to bring car industry back.”

Just last week Trump said he would fire striking workers during a conversation with billionaire technocrat Elon Musk. The next day, the United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk, accusing them of “illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.”

Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, is scheduled to speak Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. “He doesn’t have a clue, it’s sad,” Trump said about Fain, blaming him for a decline in U.S. car manufacturing. As he started to compliment military industrial manufacturers, such as the factory where he stood, he took off on another tangent.

“What would happen if we had a war? We won’t, with me. But you will have World War III, I believe, without me. But we won’t have—but what would happen if we did? And let’s say it was with China, but they give us all of our steel. So we’ll have to call China for steel so we can fight a war with them. How stupid are these people?” Trump rambled.