One often hears that there isn’t a thing Donald Trump can do that can surprise anyone anymore. But it simply isn’t true. He masterfully hides “which” Trump will appear at the podium on any given day as he did on Thursday during a speech to New York’s Economic Club. Rather than the boisterous and wild populist Trump, a “listless” former president delivered what sounded more like a very late wedding toast than a sharp fiscal policy critique. The always-necessary “X-man” Rex Chapman found another angle to describe the speech, stating that, Trump’s voice had an infant-like tone: What is that baby-voice he’s doing?? Why is he talking in a different voice? When did he turn baby??

Baby might be a bit harsh. Trump sounded more like an older person who is tired of giving speeches, perhaps because he is older and, as his light campaign schedule indicates, might very well be tired of giving speeches. This would be especially true of a speech not at a rally but given to sharp policy wonks of the type found at the NYC Economic Club. Trump did have a “sharp policy” in mind with respect to nuclear war? “Avoid it” is as close as he could get: “A couple of nukes and your bank doesn’t mean a thing.”

Yes, well – fact check? True. No argument there. A nuclear war and corresponding electro-magnetic pulse make a lot of things, especially bank accounts dependent on computers and the net, entirely irrelevant. That nuclear war thing? We should fix that! Speaking of which, the former president also helpfully stated that the national debt is a problem and his plan to bring it down? It sounds as though Trump wants the country to go into business according to Aaron Rupar, who wrote: Trump says his new sovereign wealth fund will pay down the national debt,

Okay, but where do you find the wealth to put in the wealth fund? Presumably taxes. If not, one would surely want to know how the capitalist plans on nationalizing domestic assets like oil, all to be run… Whoops. We are getting close to taking this idea seriously. It will not happen, not when the likes of Exxon, Haliburton, et. al. seek to privatize the same said assets while socializing all loss. At times even Trump didn’t seem to take himself seriously. Try making some sort of sense out of this:

“That is why OPEC and the Arab nations — we are very honored to have some of my friends here with us today from that part of the world. They are working very hard, despite being here, that I am not your president.”

As they say down here in the South, “Do what now?” It is indecipherable even without the double negative or nukes. To be sure, if one wants a sovereign wealth fund one shouldn’t bankrupt it. To that end, Trump has a solution. He is going to have Elon Musk serve in his administration, leading a new… committee, or review board, overseeing an effort to streamline the federal government:

We will try to be very fair. To be sure, the federal government needs to be streamlined and find ways to cut cost, Trump is right about that. And Musk, say what you will, is not a bad guy to have around when it comes to making a profit and avoiding losses. Left to be seen is whether the infamous “Infrastructure Week” man and “My Tesla keeps running into fire trucks” guy can actually pull it off. But there is just no way to get around the fact that Trump sounded terribly concerned about where new energy might come from (Hint: Solar, Wind, and Nuclear), he simply had no energy himself, even while promising a club steeped in old school economics that the United States would become the breadbasket of “crypto” and Bitcoin:

Maybe Trump loves the golf clap. He likely prefers rallies. But this was no rally, nor serious policy speech, it sounded more like another check on the campaign “to do” list, hopefully “doing” everything possible to collect donations from a crowd that moves money for a living. Many people jumped on “X” to comment:

McKinley is a mountain in Alaska, too – maybe that’s where he would get confused. Speaking of which, Trump seemed confused as to how Venezuela is doing.

The explanation of the Arlington Cemetery debacle wasn’t just short, it was offensive:

And on and on:

Well, given that we all have PTA meetings to attend, haircuts to be had, toast to make, kids to be picked up, all that, this is probably as good a point as any to jump off with a few parting words.

Trump’s schedule is light for a reason. He doesn’t have the energy that he once had and the result is speeches like this, canned lines resulting in canned responses. It might not have mattered as much when facing the elderly President Biden, but it surely matters now that he’s taking on an ever-increasing enthusiasm for the Harris campaign.

He will be better when he returns to his favorite habitat, big rallies in front of big supporters all while begging for even bigger contributions. He will deliver the energy in that environment. Can he do it with any clarity of mind?

See above.

Help keep the site running, consider supporting.

11 COMMENTS

  2. Given the makeup of that audience consider this: they are big money people and make LOTS of political donations. Sure, some of them will donate to Trump and the GOP but business wants stability in addition to lower taxes and regulations. Seeing Trump up close and personal, and after they think about it realizing how afraid the GOP is of him I wonder how many wallets wind up being closed. This is NOT someone they want in charge, and given the enabling of the modern Trump/MAGA GOP much as they hate the idea I suspect the bulk of them would rather deal with a Harris administration. Yes, it will cost and there will be legislation and policy they hate but it won’t take them long to realize something important. They have an ARMY of lobbyists entrenched in DC and spending money on THAT instead of Trump and so many GOPers is a better use of said money. Like some of what’s left of the old-school Republicans they might well decide after this it’s time to FINALLY do what that infamous GOP autopsy after the 2012 election suggested. Such it up for a Presidential cycle or two and rebuild the Republican Party into one where “Christian” crazies, racist asshat goober and the like don’t call the shots anymore.

    Maybe I’m lost in some fantasyland but what they saw should scare the hell out of them. Given the August fundraising from both sides that was reported today I really think it’s possible that these people will start pulling back from Trump and the GOP. The end of this month will tell us a lot. A month from now when not just the September but third quarter fundraising totals are announced if our side again brings in three times as much as Trump it will be clear the GOP is going down in November. Hard enough that if the money folks tell GOP leadership it’s time to do what you should have done ten years ago they will finally take their effing medicine and purge their Party of the crazies, or at least make them irrelevant. Let em have a couple of shit-bomb throwers but that’s it. And when that nonsense is done sit down and hammer stuff out like in the old days.

    18

  3. “Musk, say what you will, is not a bad guy to have around when it comes to making a profit and avoiding losses. ”

    Not so sure about that …
    “Tesla’s boss Elon Musk is biggest billionaire loser in 2024 … ”

    “Elon Musk becomes the biggest billionaire loser in the first six months of 2024.(AP) ….
    The net worth of Tesla’s Elon Musk has fallen more than any billionaire in the world in the first six months of the year, despite a stock market boom, according to Forbes’ estimates. ”
    https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/teslas-boss-elon-musk-is-biggest-billionaire-loser-in-2024-remains-the-richest-in-the-world-with-net-worth-of-11720161676533.html

    15

  4. Yeah Denis…we’re about to find out just how much they truly love their money. Some will cut their losses; that being said, there are gambling addicts who will use the kid’s college money on a game of blackjack. Good thing so many of these rich assholes inherited their money instead of relying on their critical thinking skills. Not all of us wake up owning emerald mines in South Africa…right muskrat? I wonder how many poor black miners died to make him rich?

    15

  5. Just a note, but “McKinley” is no longer a “mountain in Alaska.” At least, officially not since 2015 when it became “Denali” (and the good folks in Alaska changed it in 1975).

    13

  6. “they want to privatize assets and socialize losses” — this is well said. and this is because all risk has been shifted by private equity to the public, and because private equity now drives the cost of public necessities: housing, healthcare, education.

    8

  7. It MUST be hell for Trump now, appearing in court for his worthless pleas for reducing his monetary responsibility in the first criminal court case … No funds available for his HUGE fines, and NO open check books in the hands of the 1%, he is good as toast NOW and with Kabala coming for him Tuesday, he will HAVE to decide which things left undone out there, scare him the worst, going to prison to save face from a debate or going to prison to be unable to participate … In the failing attempt to screw our country once again …

    His view of prison time is clouded by all the horror stories he has heard, the lack of the spotlight he adores and the huge transformation he will have to make personally, NO hairspray, 2-hour delays on his day start time, NO cell phone or outside communications except with his own lawyer, supervised phone calls, ( all calls placed collect to a hallway pay phone ), getting in line can be brutal …

    NO MORE FAST FOOD, just whatever the prison has on the menu every day … Because of large demands in larger prisons, he will have to learn to eat more things based on soups, our prison here just remodeled their kitchen, installing 3 new soup cookers about 60 gallons each, our prison’s kitchen has to produce 3600 meals a day, (1000 prisoners), so, if Trumpty thinks he can get someone to deliver meals from a nearby fast food Joint, he will be WRONG !!

    This might be the only way to avoid being wasted by Kamala Tuesday, time will tell how well he stands up with a white-knuckle grip on his podium …

    1

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here