MBD–I take the praise for Secret Service *agents* to be compatible with questions and criticism for their *leaders*.
Trump giving a kiss to the fire uniform of Corey Comperatore is the sort of thing only Trump does. And it works.
Trump calls his fans “Trumpsters,” which is bad news for Hulk. His preferred moniker, “Trumpites,” may not catch on after all.
“Fight… Fight… Fight”
This was the moment everyone in the convention was waiting for – and Trump actually cut it short. He’s somehow using this story without “milking” it.
This speech has one factor guaranteed to generate a lot more interest than usual: This is the first time – and he says, the last time – we’ve heard Trump described what the assassination attempt felt like, and it’s riveting. It’s not the usual Trump. He’s vulnerable. He says “I shouldn’t be here.” I think Trump is, like probably all of us would be, still trying to make sense of it all.
“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” Trump says amid a pensive moment describing his luck and the “providential” sequence of events that saved his life.
“I felt serene… I’m not supposed to be here tonight”
Honestly, this Trump is coming across with a very different mood and timbre than I’ve ever seen in him before.
Where this really works for Trump is not that it makes him sound brave, but that it conveys how much his supporters have come to mean to him emotionally.
Trump is quite correct and I suspect genuine in his thanks to the Secret Service agents who rushed to protect him on the stage, and who did put their bodies and their own heads into extreme danger.
But I have a lot of questions about how this disaster unfolded, and am quite hesitant to give Secret Service such unqualified praise. I hope Republicans on the hill absolutely grill the agency, because the answers they’ve given so far are provocatively inadequate.
Trump narrating the story of the assassination attempt is the most sincere and personal thing we’ve ever heard from him, and largely shorn of his usual bluster and hyperbole – this story doesn’t need it.
Is it self-serving? It’s a political speech, everything’s self-serving. But even coming from Trump, it’s hard to doubt that he is telling this as it really felt to him.