A Rally Bad Speech

​I had something else I was planning to write today, but Trump’s rally in Atlanta yesterday is something I can’t put aside.  And that doesn’t even take into consideration that it was in the same arena that Kamala Harris had packed days before, while there appeared to be noticeably empty seats for Trump.  That’s interesting and anecdotal, but not important.

What’s important and stood out are three things.

The first is that he praised Russian president Vladimir Putin for helping bring the American hostages back.  “I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin,” Trump said, “for having made yet another great deal.”  Just to be clear, the reason there was an exchange is because Putin grabbed Americans as hostages. This wasn't exchanging criminals for each other, but getting innocent Americans back that Putin took!  While it’s understandable that Trump, being Trump, in the middle of a presidential race didn’t want to even mention President Biden for negotiating the release of American hostages, to instead “congratulate” the despotic Putin is something else entirely – shameless, sick and unpatriotic is a good starting point.  But worse, to “congratulate” Putin who actually, literally caused the problem by arresting innocent American citizens and ensuring they were imprisoned in order to be used as pawns to get back convicted murderers is sociopathic and fascist.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Trump has praised Putin.  It’s an ongoing thing with him, especially the help he got from Putin in 2020 that the Mueller Report described as colluding with the Trump campaign.  And there was Trump standing next to Putin at a press conference saying that he believed Putin, the leader of perhaps America’s biggest enemy, rather than all the U.S. intel services.  But this is at another level – this is, in essence, “congratulating” Vladimir Putin for arresting innocent American citizens so that he can use them as bargaining chip hostages in order to get back Russian killers ordered by Putin himself.

The second thing that leaped out was Trump, in Atlanta, slamming very popular Republican Georgia governor Brian Kemp.  Not only slamming him, but repeatedly and at length, going into detail how weak and incompetent “Little Brian” is, to the degree of him not even really being a Republican.  Again, keep in mind that Kemp is not only a Republican governor in a Battleground State that Trump has to win, but is extremely popular in the state – even more popular than Trump.  And he also slammed Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – both who won re-election despite Trump endorsing their opponents.

Now, yes, Trump hates Brian Kemp (and Raffensperger, who wouldn’t give Trump the 11,780 non-existent votes he begged for), and has slammed Kemp in the past.  But as we know, Trump has a long history of loving people who earlier criticized him.  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Trump a ‘disgrace,’ ‘nut job,’ ‘one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever seen’, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Trump was a “serial philander” and “pathological liar” – and Trump later embraced them back into his most loyal circle.  For goodness sake, “JD Vance” called Trump “America’s Hitler” and said “I’m a Never Trump guy.  I never liked him” – and Trump made him his vice presidential running mate!!  So, Trump hating someone who hasn’t supported him is meaningless if he feels he needs them later and can use them to his benefit.  And Trump really, badly needs Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia.  It is likely that Kemp would have campaigned with Trump, as the race in the state has tightened since VP Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.  But Kemp campaigning for Trump now seems questionable, if not unlikely.  Indeed, if he was even induced to, it would come across as ludicrous given what Trump just said about him at length in Atlanta.  As some analysts said, this rant by Trump not only could lose him Georgia, but that losing Georgia could lose him the election.

And the third is that Trump’s paraphasia seemed to kick in more pronounced than even in recent weeks.  That’s the medical conditions psychologists and psychiatrists have written about in regards to Trump where a person makes up words because they can’t think of the word they are trying to say.  It’s considered one of the signs of early dementia.  So, being “more pronounced than even in recent weeks” isn’t terribly surprising for a degenerative disease.

Among the many examples:

'Together we will stop Kamala Harris’s nation reckting— “

"She was endorsing ‘defund the place’…”

“She said violent marbs.”

 "We will stop the Biden-Harris war on American energy --"

If he wins, “the econarmy will be roaring back."

(We'll also throw in a bonus here.  In the speech, Trump insisted that he has "so much fertility" in his brain.  However, by his standards that is not for him to say but should be left up to the states.)

And all of that – from congratulating Vladimir Putin for kidnapping Americans as hostages to slamming Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to exhibiting more degenerating paraphasia – came from just one speech.  And a speech in the capital city of a state he desperately needs to win.

But that’s Trump being Trump.  An expression Republican officials use more and more when trying to explain awful the awful things and huge mistakes Trump makes – like bizarrely trying to claim that Kamala Harris isn’t Black.  “Trump being Trump” is not the Good Thing that they want people to think.

The race Trump was leading is now neck-and-neck at best, and he might be behind.  He’s running against a Black woman, perhaps his worst nightmare.  He’s trying to get out of debating.  He has a vice presidential running mate who within the first week has thrown the campaign back on its heels and become a drag on the ticket.  He’s recovering from being shot at – and either hit by shrapnel or broken material, which doctors says tends to cause some level of trauma.  He has been convicted of 34 felonies, been found liable of rape, found guilty of fraud, owes $484 in penalty and is about be sentenced for his felonies.  And has three other trials still ahead.  And his best issues to increase support – the Republican convention and naming his running mate – are behind him, not to mention as is immediate sympathy from the shooting attack. Psychologists say Trump has early dementia, a degenerative disease which isn’t going to get better.  And he’s showing clear signs of panic and fear on a range of levels, the pressure of which can only exacerbate his condition.

It is still a tight race.  But it is not a good place for Trump and the MAGOP to be.

And those recent disasters – and they were disastrous – were just from one speech.