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Trump’s North Carolina speech went predictably off the rails. Can he even spell ‘economy’?
Of course no intellectual presidential campaign speech on the economy is complete without an extended riff on immigrants and rape.
Donald Trump attacks Harris and Walz at Bozeman rally
Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over a perceived lack of press conferences and Gov. Tim Walz over his school bathroom policies in Minnesota.
Former president and self-described stable genius Donald Trump let a small crowd in a small venue in North Carolina know what was in store for them Wednesday: “We’re talking about a thing called the economy.”
Ah, yes. That thing is called the economy. I’ve heard of it.
He continued: “We’re doing this as an intellectual speech.”
Good. Many Republicans have encouraged Trump to stop babbling and hurling insults and steer his campaign onto some kind of coherent message.
Trump’s economic speech went off the rails predictably fast
“You’re all intellectuals today,” Trump said at the 2,400-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville. “Today we’re doing it and we’re doing it right now and it’s very important, they say it’s the most important subject. I think crime is right there, I think the border is right there, personally. We have a lot of important subjects because our county has become a third-world nation, we literally are a third-world nation. We’re a banana republic in so many ways, and we’re not going to let that happen because we’re starting a free fall.”
Trump’s campaign spiral continues: Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.
Hoo boy. Trump spends less time on track than a decommissioned train car. And so it was that his highly intellectual speech on a thing called the economy became, predictably, a dumb speech on a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the economy.
Like making fun of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s laugh.
Trump proves again in North Carolina that insults are all he has
“For nearly four years Kamala has crackled as the American economy has burned,” Trump said, presumably mispronouncing “cackled,” because he struggles with words. “What happened to her laugh? I haven’t heard that laugh in about a week. That’s why they keep her off the stage, that’s why she has disappeared.”
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have been barnstorming states lately, doing far more events than Trump and drawing crowds significantly larger than the one that showed up Wednesday to hear him occasionally reference the economy.
“That’s the laugh of a crazy person, I will tell you,” Trump droned on. “She’s crazy.”
Labeling Harris crazy and mocking the way she laughs is the kind of thing Republicans keep advising Trump not to do. But he couldn’t help himself, later calling Harris an “incompetent socialist lunatic.”
‘Kamabla’? Trump isn’t just losing the election, he’s losing his mind.
Trump’s understanding of how the economy works seems dodgy at best
When he did deign to talk about the economy, Trump said things like this, referencing the brief stock market drop of last week, something he had labeled the “KAMALA CRASH!!!”:
“Many people say the only reason the stock market is up is because people think I’m going to win, did you ever hear that? But there was one day a couple weeks ago when they weren’t thinking that.”
OK, first off, nobody thinks Trump has anything to do with the stock market being up. And then to think last week’s drop – from which the market quickly recovered – happened due to a brief belief that Harris might win the election? That makes me wonder if Trump can even spell “economy.”
An economic speech about … rape?
Of course, no intellectual presidential campaign speech on the economy is complete without an extended riff on immigrants and rape, so Trump said: “Rape and murder, rape and beatings, rape and something else, and sometimes just immediate killing. These people are brutal. These are people that came out to the toughest jails anywhere in the world all over the world, and we can’t take them.”
Migrants commit crimes at far lower rates than U.S. citizens, but, you know … THE ECONOMY!
Speaking of the economy, while Trump was occasionally mentioning the word – providing no concrete policy proposals other than specious claims he will singlehandedly fix everything – the U.S. inflation rate hit its lowest point in three years.
The economy is simply not the disaster Trump and the GOP claim
And that gets to the heart of one of Trump’s biggest problems. The economy is doing reasonably well. Unemployment is low, the stock market has been breaking records and inflation continues to drop. Back in April, Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi told CNBC: “The U.S. economy is leading the way for the global economy. It’s driving the global economic train.”
So, calling America a third-world country while taking childish swipes at the vice president’s laugh and fear-mongering about an immigrant crime wave that doesn’t exist? That’s not going to do much to swing voters who have been swinging in Harris’s direction since she took over the top of the Democratic ticket.
Republicans have been frustrated with the Trump campaign, and they know he needs to show voters something that will help him regain footing. His intellectual speech on that thing called the economy didn’t show anyone anything.
It was just another stumble from an aging candidate who can’t see that his schtick has gotten old.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
The museums, designed by conservative nonprofits and Trump appointees, tell the story of early America, from colonization to revolution. The one exhibition looking beyond the early years is the “Wall of American Heroes.” It is a list of 51 people, chosen to illustrate 250 years of American history.
A White House spokesman said they were “individuals who shaped this nation’s history, culture and spirit across generations.”
The people pictured on this national honor roll — and the people left out — help illustrate what this administration sees as the highlights of American history.
Amid the administration’s efforts to reshape the nation’s relationship with its past, Trump appointees heavily weighted the list toward a single era of American history — and a few specific kinds of hero.
The other exhibitions in the Freedom Trucks were crafted by a pair of conservative nonprofits, PragerU and Hillsdale College. But the “Wall of American Heroes” was created by Freedom 250, a nonprofit effort whose leaders were chosen by President Trump and that was created to lead the planning of celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday, overshadowing a bipartisan congressional commission.
A spokeswoman for Freedom 250 said Mr. Trump was not directly involved in the selection of those featured.
But the list clearly tracks Mr. Trump’s own lifetime and the heroes of the conservative political movement.
The wall’s tilt toward heroes of the baby boomer generation, for instance, extends beyond Hollywood stars and musicians. Of the four religious leaders on the list, two — Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the Rev. Billy Graham — also appeared on TV regularly in the 1950s and 1960s. The only painter on the list is Norman Rockwell, known for his idealized depictions of American life in that period.
By contrast, there is only a handful of figures from the first decades of American independence.
“That’s a disservice, if your intention is to present the last 250 years,” said Sarah Weicksel, the executive director of the American Historical Association. “Because all of the people on this list are building on the work and struggles and progress that was made by the people in the 150 years prior.”
The “Wall of American Heroes” was inspired by a similar display in a traveling museum created by the State of Virginia. But Virginia’s display celebrates little-known historical figures.
Mr. Trump’s, by and large, celebrates people who are already well-known — and, often, people who were famous in their own time. For example, it praises P.T. Barnum, a circus impresario who used hoaxes and freak shows to draw crowds. The wall calls him an “icon of American sensationalism.”
The spokeswoman for Freedom 250 said that many of the names on the wall were drawn from a list of 250 people that Mr. Trump wants to include in a “Garden of American Heroes” in Washington.
The spokeswoman declined to say what criteria were used to narrow down the list.
The only president whose name appears on the wall — not on the list of heroes, but alongside his quotation — is Mr. Trump himself.
Explore the Wall of Heroes
Navigate the display by dragging from side to side.
Washington — Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey will return to Congress on June 30, his spokesperson said, after being away since March in an unexplained absence that has confounded Capitol Hill.
“Congressman Kean is eager to return to in person work on June 30 and resume a full schedule,” Kean’s spokesperson, Harrison Neely, told CBS News on Thursday. The New Jersey Globe first reported on his return date.
Kean’s whereabouts since he last voted on March 5 have not been disclosed. When he first made a statement about the absence in late April, the New Jersey Republican said he was addressing a “personal medical issue.”
Kean said earlier this month that he would return to Washington within a matter of weeks, at which point he would provide more details about his health.
“Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals, I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks. At that time I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition,” Kean said in a June 2 statement released by his campaign.
The statement came hours before polls closed in New Jersey’s GOP primary for his seat, in which he ran unopposed.
He has missed more than 130 votes during his absence.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters earlier this month that he had recently spoken with Kean. Johnson said he was aware of the health issue, but would not disclose the details.
“What he’s dealing with is not very common and not a big thing,” Johnson said.
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