Our Golden Age

TAKING HIM LITERALLY

Excerpted, March 2024 Trump MAGA campaign rally in Ohio. From “The.Ink,” at Substack by Anand Giridharadas

The Victim King

"Because I'm being indicted for you and never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom.

I'm being persecuted. I think more than anybody, but who the hell knows? You know, all my life … you've heard of Andrew Jackson. He was actually a great general and a very good president. They say that he was persecuted as president more than anybody else. Second was Abraham Lincoln. This is just what they said. This is in the history books. They were brutal. Andrew Jackson's wife actually died over it, they say, died of a broken heart, but she died over it. He was never quite the same.

But they say Andrew Jackson, they say Abraham Lincoln was second, but he had a, you know, in all fairness, he did have a civil war. So you would think that would cause a problem, right? So you could understand it. But nobody comes close to Trump."

The Horst Wessel song

"And you see the spirit from the hostages, and that's what they are, is hostages. They've been treated terribly and very unfairly. And you know that. And everybody knows that. And we're going to be working on that soon. The first day we get into office, we're going to save our country, and we're going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots, and they were unbelievable patriots and are. You see the spirit, this cheering. They're cheering while they're doing that. And they did that in prison. And it's a disgrace, in my opinion."

The Big Lie

"I happen to think we won most of the country. You want to know the truth. If the voting…if the voting were real, I actually think we won most of the country.

I was asking Jim Jordan about it because he was commenting that we have the largest crowds in the history of politics. Nobody comes close. If Ronald Reagan came to a place called Dayton, Ohio — have you heard of it? If he came to Dayton, Ohio, honestly, J.D., if he had three or 400 people in a ballroom, that would be great. We get 25-30,000 people for a small rally…We had 88,000 people show up in South.Carolina."

Not even people

"They're very smart, very streetwise. And I would do the same thing. If I had prisons that were teeming with MS-13 and all sorts of people that they've got to take care of for the next 50 years, right? Young people, they're in jail for years. If you call them people, I don't know if you call them people. In some cases, they're not people, in my opinion. But I'm not allowed to say that because the radical left says that's a terrible thing to say…

We have so many people being hurt so badly and being killed. They're sending their prisoners to see us. They're sending and they're bringing them right to the border and they're dropping them off and we're allowing them to come in. And these are tougher than anybody we've got in the country. These are hardened criminals. And we've got hundreds of thousands of them."

Migrant crime

"These are the roughest people you've ever seen. You know, now we have a new form of crime. I call it Biden migrant crime, but it's too long. So let's just call it migrant crime. We have a new category. You know, you have vicious crimes. You have violent crimes. You have all these. Now we have migrant crimes, and they're rough. They're rough. And it's going to double up. And you see what's happening.

You know, throughout the world right now, I don't know if you know this. Crime is way, way down. You know why? Because they sent us their criminals. That's why. It's true. It's true. They sent, you know, Venezuela is down 66 percent because they sent us their gang members and their gangsters. They sent us their drug dealers and their murderers. They're all coming into our country. And Venezuela now, their crime is down 66 percent."

Bloodbath

"Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us. No, we're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those cars. If I get elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole…that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it."

MAGAnomics

"With your vote, we will throw out the Bidenomics and we will reinstate a thing called MAGAnomics.

Crooked Joe Biden and his socialist thugs are looting trillions and trillions of dollars from the American people and giving it to radical left lunatics and friends. But Biden's reign of plunder and terror stops the day I take the oath of office. The hardworking American taxpayer will once again have a friend and a fighter and a champion in the White House.

Biden's socialist spending…his socialist spending is really what's happening, is your Social Security is going to be gone. You know, they don't say it. They never say it. They will not you will not be able to have Social Security with this guy in office because he's destroying the economics of our country. And that includes Medicare, by the way. And American seniors are going to be in big trouble. I made a promise that I will always keep Social Security, Medicare. We always will keep it. We won't be cutting it.

We have liquid gold under the ground. We'll be drilling like a son of a gun, but we're leaving your Social Security around. They won't. And they can't make that pledge because their economic theory is no good because they're taking in millions and millions of people in this country and they're spending, you know."

I know you are, but what am I?

"We're the only ones, and they know this, that can stop them. We're the only ones. There's nobody else around. If this election isn't won, I'm not sure that you'll ever have another election in this country. Does that make sense? I don't think you're going to have another election in this country.

If we don't win this election, I don't think you're going to have another election or certainly not an election that's meaningful. And we better get out or we better…I actually say that the date…remember this: November 5th. I believe it's going to be the most important date in the history of our country. I believe that. This country is weaponizing law enforcement for high-level election interference against Biden's top political opponent."

Resurrecting Operation Wetback

"When I'm president of the United States, we will demand justice for Laken. On day one, my administration will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration. We'll begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Larger than that, by far, of Dwight Eisenhower."

Blood and honor

"One week ago, I met with a family of 22-year-old nursing student. Incredible person, Laken Riley, who was brutally murdered in Georgia last month while out on a morning run. She was so badly beaten up, unrecognizable. Can you believe it? Laken’s killer was set loose into the United States through Joe Biden's program of releasing military-age males into our communities after they've illegally crossed our southern border. And that's what happened. And this animal came in.

Laken Riley would be alive today if Biden had not unleashed a savage attack on America. And that's what he's done. But instead of apologizing to Laken’s family, Joe Biden apologized to the killer for calling him illegal. “I shouldn't have done that. Oh, oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have called him illegal. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'd like to apologize to the killer.” He's more concerned with the killer. He couldn't even pronounce her name right."

Keeping the border in play

"I was saying the other day that, in 2016, one of the biggest issues was the border.

And I sort of won on the border, I guess, maybe. And we fixed the border. We fixed it so good that I couldn't even use it in 2020, even though we got millions and millions more votes in 2020. But we couldn't even talk about it. I'd say, “I want to talk about the border. Tell them what a good job.” They said, “Sir, you fixed it. Nobody cares.”

That border was a tiny fraction of what this border is. This is the worst border in the history of the world. There's never been anything... Millions and millions of people are pouring into our country. Probably 15 or 16 million people. That's almost larger than any state we have in the union. And they're coming in from places you don't want to know about."

The party of the working class

"With his open border policy, Joe Biden has repeatedly stabbed African-American voters in the back, including by granting millions and millions of work permits taking their jobs. The African-American community, the Hispanic community, are going to be the ones that suffer the most. And you know who else? Unions. Because unions are getting good, solid, high pay. And guess what's going to happen?

The unions are going to go out. The Teamsters are in trouble. I'm dealing with the Teamsters. They should endorse me. I don't know if they will or not. I know the Teamsters are going to vote for me. The Teamsters, the real… the Teamsters that do the work. The head Teamsters, Sean and everybody. They're good men.

They're good people. And I hope they're going to endorse Trump. I think it would be nice. It's been many decades before that's happened. But if you look at the United Auto Workers, what they've done to their people is horrible. They want to do this all-electric nonsense where the cars don't go far. They cost too much, and they're all made in…they're all made in China. And the head of the United Auto Workers never probably shook hands with a Republican before."

Insults

"Gavin Newscum. Does anyone ever…Gavin Newscum? S-C-U-M is his last. No, Gavin Newscum. This guy, he's always talking about, “Oh, California, it's great.” They're losing a fortune. People are moving out. I have property there. I love California. One of the most beautiful places. They're destroying it. They're destroying California.

My father's looking down and my mother was such a beautiful woman. And she's looking down with my father. And she's saying, “How the hell did our boy get four indictments?” And not only that, all these local cases like Fanny. Funny. It's spelled “fanny.” It's spelled “fanny” like your ass, right? Fanny.

And how about this guy? He may end up being a United States senator, right? Shifty Adam Schiff. Think of it. Can you believe it? He may end up being a senator. This is one of the most dishonest human beings.
MSDNC, MSNBC, a bunch of fakes.

And Nancy Pelosi, who’s a major sleaze, by the way, a major sleaze."

Birtherism at the root

"Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? Barack Hussein Obama. Or as Rush Limbaugh would say, Barack Hussein Obama. He used to scream out the name Hussein. But he…he was…think of this. Just think of this. Every swing state, Biden beat Obama, but every other state he got killed. You think that's an honest election? I could give you 100 different things."

As always, Trump’s reading is…selective at best

"I only read polls when they're good, by the way."

Less than eight months now.

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