Those of us who keep an eye on Donald Trump’s public appearances expect certain rhetorical elements at the former president’s rallies. For example, we know that the Republican will lie about a lot of things. We know he’s going to complain about journalists covering the event. We know that virtually all of his comments will be filtered through a lens of resentment, self-pity, and self-aggrandizement.
But every now and then Trump will say something so strange that it’s hard to know not only what he’s talking about, but why he said it in the first place.
Take yesterday for example.
At a rally in Nevada, the presumptive GOP nominee told his followers that “they” have a policy requiring boat manufacturers to use electric motors. Trump, who has long shown a habit of sharing the details of conversations that took place only in his head, told the local audience that he spoke with a boat company official in South Carolina who told him: “It’s a problem, sir. They want us to make fully electric boats.”
The former president added that the South Carolinian, who probably doesn’t exist, then told him, “The problem is the boat is so heavy it can’t float.” Moreover, it cannot go fast because of the weight.” Trump went on to share a variety of details about the practical limitations of requiring boat manufacturers to rely solely on battery motors.
Before we go any further, let’s note for the record that (a) this conversation probably never actually happened; and (b) there is no policy requiring ‘all-electric boats’.
If we were to stop here, this would simply be a story about Trump telling an incredibly powerful story on energy policy. Unfortunately, we can’t stop here.
It’s a difficult quote to summarize, so I’ll just go ahead and quote the former president directly:
At this point, Trump apparently decided to pursue this tangent seriously. “By the way, there have been a lot of shark attacks lately, have you noticed, a lot of sharks?” he asked. “I saw a few guys justify it today. ‘Well, they weren’t really that angry. They bit off the young lady’s leg because they weren’t hungry, but they didn’t understand who she was.” These people are crazy. He said there is no problem with sharks. “They just didn’t really understand that a young woman was swimming right now.” It’s really been decimated and other people are doing a lot of shark attacks.”
And then he returned to his original story.
Author Steven King noted last night, “This is like sitting at the dinner table listening to your senile uncle after he’s had that third drink.” (I was also reminded of a classic Grandpa Simpson speech.)
In terms of commentary and analysis, I don’t even know where to start, although it’s worth pointing out that Trump first started worrying about electrocuted boaters several months ago during a speech in Michigan. However, those comments did not refer to sharks.
We could also talk about the fact that Trump doesn’t really have a “relationship” with MIT, other than the fact that he had a relative who taught there many years ago. We can note that Nevada is landlocked, which makes this an odd campaign message. While we’re at it, we could also spend some time explaining that boaters do not, in fact, get electrocuted if their battery-powered boat sinks.
I’m also tempted to call the Trump campaign and ask if the candidate also believes the shark would be electrocuted in the same way if his scenario were real, but I suspect I wouldn’t get an answer.
But there’s one overriding detail that came to my mind after watching the clip. They were the last six words: “So we’re going to put an end to that.”
It struck me that if voters return Trump to the White House, he would likely deploy a group of officials to work on the boat/battery/shark issue and expect them to report on their progress.
Three months into Trump’s presidency, Politico ran a report on the internal turmoil in the White House. “If you’re an advisor to him, your job is to help him on the margins,” a confidante said at the time. “To keep him from doing crazy things.” Four months later, Axios ran a related piece citing half a dozen “appalled” senior government officials irritated by the then-president’s dangerous instincts. “You have no idea how many crazy things we kill,” someone said.
This would almost certainly be worse in a second term.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
