Trump Train

First, please listen to this song.

Hey all. Now I know I haven’t established enough of a consistent audience to assume those reading are familiar with my opinion on the candidate I have chosen to write about. To put it simply: it is not a favorable one. However, I think it’s time to take a step back. I don’t like the guy, but I think on this assignment I’m gonna give him a fair shot. I could have chosen a speech where he made offensive remarks, or gave a poor oral performance, but instead I will review what critics deemed Trump’s best speech. 

The speech:

Trump opens with his usual buoyancy. He exudes confidence and probably a harsh odor.

Play fair

He’s posted at the podium ready to give a prepared and polished speech. After greeting the crowd, he immediately points out his female audience located close to the stage. Women cheer, and the mood and charisma of the rally is promising.

Early on enough in the speech for it to make a difference, Trump’s teleprompter is on the fritz. The carefully planned speech he had prepared so hard for could all collapse with one slip of the tongue comment. But what’s this? There is none? Trump gets through an hour long un-scripted speech without saying anything astoundingly controversial or offensive?

Rein it in.

Yes, it appears Trump delivered a speech without teleprompters that didn’t anger his PR team. He did a lot of things well in this speech, as well as use the tech malfunction to his advantage to build on the narrative that he’s not like other politicians. This proved especially convenient, given that many times in this speech, Trump hits on the point that he’s not privy to big donors and lobby groups, “My only interest is the American people”, again distancing himself from establishment candidates, namely Hillary Clinton. This is another thing that plays well for Trump in this speech. This subtler Trump comes off as softer and more mature. 

He states:

“I will never put personal profit before national security. I will never leave our border open to appease donors and special interests. I will never support a trade deal that kills American jobs. I will never put the special interests before the national interest. I will never put a donor before a voter, or a lobbyist before a citizen.”

All of this is in direct opposition to Clinton, but he never says the name.

             When he finally does bring up her name, he makes a strategic choice to frame Hillary’s political correctness and scandals as a problem with the establishment, associating it with lies and secrecy, while he, Trump, who may be offensive and misguided at times, is only being “honest”. Though I disagree with this on all ethical and logical grounds, I think it was a smart move to put his own criticisms on the back burner to Hillary’s.

A final thought on the successful aspects of this speech again goes back to subtlety. We’re all pretty aware of the choice words Trump has had about Mexicans. A main point of his speech was his stance on immigration, as one would expect, it’s one of his trademarks. But this time, his anti-immigration rhetoric is different than usual. He does not speak about Mexicans as aggressors, but rather appeals to the victims of “immigrant crime” (is “immigrant crime” on US civilians a thing?). This was clever of Trump's team because it steered clear of alienating voters that may be anti-immigration, but also have less rigid a stance.

I love this picture.

Now,

my biggest no-no about this speech is Trump’s blame game.

“They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said.”

Here he is bad-mouthing the media again. He goes on about this for a while, and in summation, takes zero responsibility for the words that come out of his mouth. The single biggest problem I see in Trump’s campaign strategy is his unrelenting denial of being wrong. Trump has a very difficult time acknowledging his mistakes without making excuses. See: Locker room talk. I believe many Americans would have more sympathy for Trump’s wrongdoings if he were to own up to them honestly, but he does not.

In his North Carolina rally, Trump was successful in proving to voters that he’s truly unlike any candidate before him. He goes off-book and delivers an understated, yet powerful speech that is now being called the best Trump speech to date. I’m proud of this boy. He has shown that he is capable of being a professional in a political environment, and that is a glimmer of hope. I would like to see more of THIS version of Trump in office.