Unlike pontificating career politicians pandering to the radical left, Trump doesn't talk at his supporters. He talks to them. //
One attendee after the next echoed similar sentiments. When asked what they consider to be the most important issue in 2020, voters didn’t reply with typical red-meat conservative talking points, such as abortion or the Second Amendment. They used big-picture words like “freedom,” “safety,” “law and order,” and “the future of the country” — big concerns on the minds of everyday citizens who truly believe America is great and want to keep it that way. //
Watching Trump at one of his rallies rounds out the profile of the enigma in the Oval and solves any remaining mysteries about how a reality TV star with little decorum became the commander in chief.
When Trump uses MAGA verbiage or tells unpresidential jokes, he isn’t “playing to his base.” He’s just talking to them in their language. When Trump jokes about the Wisconsin weather and how many TVs are on Air Force One — “I said, ‘How about giving me a coat?’ They have everything on Air Force One, that’s the great thing, got more televisions than any plane in history. They’ve got televisions in closets, on floors, on ceilings” — the people laugh and joke along because those are just the sorts of comments they would make around the dinner table about the presidential plane. //
“I made one mistake. I should have said, ‘We will not build a wall!’ Then they would have insisted that we build it. I could have saved two years of litigation,” the president declared. “‘We will not build a wall under any circumstances,’” Trump continued, imitating himself. “Then Pelosi would say, ‘We demand that you build a wall!’ These people are terrible.
