Trump’s Rare Attempt to Stay on Message Ends in Disaster

Donald Trump delivered a strangely low-energy speech on Monday at a factory in York, Pennsylvania.

While the crowd at Precision Custom Components started off cheering at the former president’s compliments about Pennsylvania and promises to bolster American manufacturing, any initial enthusiasm appeared to wane as Trump proceeded through his remarks in a monotone reading voice.

“Kamala puts America last, I put America first,” Trump said, sounding completely dejected. He frowned as the crowd cheered.

For once, the former president was actually able to stay more or less on topic (although his talking points were still devoid of facts or actual policy ideas). He just seemed to hate every second of it, and the crowd responded in kind.

Trump’s claim that “caravans” of immigrants coming to the U.S. for free healthcare was met only by the echoes of his own remarks. Laments over “reckless spending” on healthcare, complaints that the supposed electric vehicle mandate is “absolutely so crazy,” and promises to clean up a supposedly graffiti-covered Washington, D.C., were met with total silence. Even promises to “liberate our workers with the largest regulatory cuts” did not evoke a single clap.

While his dulled speaking style didn’t prevent him from flying through topics, it did prevent him from getting any responses from the crowd for several minutes at a time. His awkward delivery made it unclear when the audience, or the people standing behind him, should clap, and pauses didn’t come easily or often in the Republican nominee’s speech.

In one particularly outrageous moment, Trump said, “The union—the United Auto Workers, I think the people in that union are going to vote for me overwhelmingly because I’m going to bring car industry back.”

Just last week Trump said he would fire striking workers during a conversation with billionaire technocrat Elon Musk. The next day, the United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk, accusing them of “illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.”

Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, is scheduled to speak Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. “He doesn’t have a clue, it’s sad,” Trump said about Fain, blaming him for a decline in U.S. car manufacturing. As he started to compliment military industrial manufacturers, such as the factory where he stood, he took off on another tangent.

“What would happen if we had a war? We won’t, with me. But you will have World War III, I believe, without me. But we won’t have—but what would happen if we did? And let’s say it was with China, but they give us all of our steel. So we’ll have to call China for steel so we can fight a war with them. How stupid are these people?” Trump rambled.

After stewing in Tim Walz’s “weird” label for several weeks, Donald Trump has finally cooked up a comeback: No, you.

“You know, he said we’re weird,” Trump told a small crowd in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday during an event that was supposed to focus on the economy. “That J.D. and I are weird. I think we’re extremely normal people.”

“We’re like you, we’re exactly like you,” the Epstein-socializing, family-separating, woman-hating, millionaire former reality TV star and convicted felon said about himself and his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, who became the target of an online joke that he had screwed a couch.

“He is weird,” Trump continued, referring to Walz. “Did you ever see him go on the stage and go, like, crazy? Between his movement and her laugh, there’s a lot of crazy. I’d say a step further than weird, weird is a nice word by comparison.”

But just moments earlier, Trump had failed to demonstrate how not weird he is by refusing, once again, to admit that he lost the 2020 presidential election and, later, choosing to refer to himself in the third person.

“Everyone was better off when you had a gentleman named President Donald J. Trump at the helm. Does anybody know him? Whoever he may be,” he said to muted applause.

Former Representative George Santos pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and identity theft on Monday afternoon.

The con artist and serial liar will avoid being tried on more than 23 charges, which include employment fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds, but still faces anywhere from two to 20 years in prison.

In court Monday, Santos finally spoke truthfully and sounded contrite, a departure from his normal record of dishonesty in which he lied about his biography, his resume, and even his wardrobe.

“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” he said to the judge. “I understand my actions have betrayed the trust of my supporters and my constituents.”

As part of his plea agreement, Santos agreed to pay $373,749.97 in restitution for his crimes, and his sentencing has been postponed until February 7.

Santos’s blatant crimes led to him being expelled from Congress in December, despite Republicans controlling the House of Representatives with a narrow majority. He was ultimately replaced by Democrat Tom Suozzi in a special election in February, and briefly tried to return to Congress in a futile campaign against one of his biggest Republican detractors, Long Island Representative Nick LaLota. He has spent his time post-Congress earning money on the celebrity personalized message platform Cameo, even bringing back his drag alter ego “Kitara Ravache.”

After his guilty plea, Santos spoke to the press, telling his ex-constituents “I failed you,” seemingly choking up.

“I hope that by facing these consequences head on, I hope that I can demonstrate my commitment to change and to earning your forgiveness,” Santos said. “I do not ask for your forgiveness, as I know that must be earned through actions, not words.”

This story has been updated.

An evangelical group has come out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, and its ads are aggressively looking to peel more members of the conservative Christian sect away from Donald Trump.

A new media spot by Evangelicals For Harris turns to the fourth verse of the first book of John for guidance on the upcoming election, pairing the “false prophet” Bible passage with several caustic clips of Trump.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God,” the advertisement opens.

The clips include the time in 2016 when Trump claimed he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and not lose any votes, as well as recent instances in which the Republican nominee channeled the language of Adolf Hitler, arguing that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” while elevating some of his icons, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

“Read 1 John 4. Choose Christ’s Love,” the advertisement ends.

It’s the second such ad by the group in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Evangelicals For Harris stitched a clip of the late Billy Graham urging parishioners to atone for their sins with a 2015 interview of Trump, in which the former real estate mogul said he was “not sure” he had ever asked God for forgiveness.

“That’s a tough question. I’m not sure I have,” Trump said at the time. “I just, I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”

The clip was not taken well by Graham’s son and institutional successor, who wrote on Twitter that “the liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris.”

“They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image,” Franklin Graham said in response. “They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”

But clearly, the pro-Trump sentiment is not shared throughout the religious dynasty: Billy Graham’s granddaughter, Jerushah Duford, endorsed Harris days later. Speaking during an Evangelicals For Harris Zoom call on Friday, Duford lamented how her denomination’s ongoing support of Trump has turned young people away from religion.

“In 2016, when a man bragged about assaulting women, various leaders of my faith then propped up this man as a poster boy for godly manhood and leadership,” Duford told the group. “This broke my heart as I have watched—quite frankly, for the last eight years—people who were curious about Jesus and His teachings [have] done a 180 and walked in the other direction from my faith.”

On Monday night, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will address the Democratic National Convention at 9 p.m. E.T.

Giving Ocasio-Cortez a prime-time speaking slot on the convention’s first day appears to signal an acknowledgement of the party’s left-wing contingent. The theme of Monday’s programming is “for the people.” The New York representative has not yet indicated what her speech will be about or if she will address the calls from protesters for a cease-fire and an arms embargo on Israel.

Still, the speech is a big shift in the Democratic Party. In 2020, Ocasio-Cortez virtually addressed the Democratic National Convention with a brief 90 second speech to symbolically endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for the presidential nomination.

Other speakers Monday night will include President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Representative Jamie Raskin, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Representative Jasmine Crockett, and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, among others.

You can watch a livestream of the convention, including Ocasio-Cortez’s speech, here: https://demconvention.com/watch/