Tweets from a Donald Trump meeting

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, June 17th, 2016 - 88 comments
Categories: International, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Donald Trump make America great again

Good twitter is an art form. Jared Yates Sexton, an American writer is one of the better exponents of the art.

He recently attended a Donald Trump meeting and tweeted the experience.

Here they are (H/t politicalscrapbook.net). Read them and be concerned.

88 comments on “Tweets from a Donald Trump meeting ”

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  1. vto 1
    17 June 2016 at 7:36 am

    holy shit

    as expected but still surprising and scary

    what to do?
    what to do?

    can’t sit and do nothing
    can’t sit and do nothing

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      17 June 2016 at 10:10 am

      Democrats can cure Trump easy. They can put in Bernie Sanders as candidate, and Bernie will kill Trump at the polls by double digits.

      Or they can go with the establishment status quo Clinton, and give Trump every chance at the White House.

      What will it be Democrats?

  2. linda 2
    17 June 2016 at 8:16 am

    Sounds like the last bays of empire falling apart from the inside

  3. Fustercluck 3
    17 June 2016 at 8:17 am

    I used to wonder what it was like to live in Germany in the thirties as the Nazis ascended to power. Now I know.

    • Rosie 3.1
      17 June 2016 at 11:25 am

      The tweeter himself said it was Nuremberg rally level crazy, as much as he didn’t like to use the comparison.

      It really is something that does need to be compared and studied however, by sociologist’s, if it hasn’t already.

      • BM 3.1.1
        17 June 2016 at 11:29 am

        And you believe every word do you?, don’t think he may have used a bit of artistic licence to make it a bit more exciting for his targeted audience?

        • Macro 3.1.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 12:27 pm

          Have you been to the states recently?
          I went a couple of years back and from the moment I entered I couldn’t wait to leave. There is an undercurrent of hate and fear, the like of which I have never experienced anywhere else.

          • BM 3.1.1.1.1
            17 June 2016 at 12:52 pm

            Me personally, No.

            My partner though, spent a week there about a month or so back, according to her the Americans she dealt with were some of the nicest people she’s ever met.

            She did say the people in charge of security at airports and public buildings were terrifying, lots of guns and full on “you look like a terrorist to me” faces.

            Most of the Americans she met said they were rather disheartened by the political choices on offer with many saying they had no idea who to vote for, so probably wouldn’t vote.

            • weka 3.1.1.1.1.1
              17 June 2016 at 12:55 pm

              Would she vote for Trump?

            • Macro 3.1.1.1.1.2
              17 June 2016 at 2:44 pm

              That is definitely true. I met some very good people – and my daughter who was once stranded at LA airport whilst a humungous blizzard was blowing on the eastern sea board ( she was on her way to NY) was given royal treatment by some people with whom she stood in line and shared her gum. They saw that she was accommodated (8 bed mansion and private box at the ice hockey) while the she waited for a plane to cross the continent.
              I was there when the ebola scare was in full flight – one only had to turn on tv or listen to the radio to hear “OMG! we are all going to die!” on and on it went day after day.
              My cousin whom I was visiting (now American Citizen) has a son-in-law who is one of those gun carrying “you look like a terrorist” people at the LA airport and he is a very good person too. But still he runs a check of all the kids in the neighbourhood. etc. Underneath the layer of normality there is a tension. Why do police forces around the country need armed personnel carriers?
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klgprtvi_X8
              Why do supposedly sane politicians pose for their christmas photograph toting guns?

        • Rosie 3.1.1.2
          17 June 2016 at 12:44 pm

          I’ve no reason to doubt the tweeters report BM, unbelievably shocking as it. If you didn’t know trump and his crazy supporters you’d think it was a fiction.

          This time around I’m not following the American Presidential campaign, just too tired and fed up. However what I’ve seen of Trump and his rallies just on two chanels of news and on RNZ I do believe the man is deluded and confused but has been charismatic enough to tap into a deep vein of hatred and anger in a disillusioned America, which he has used to his advantage.

          The reports of the tweeter are compatible with all other news reports in terms of the rhetoric but more personal.

          I would be feeling extremely anxious if I were living in America right now, especially if I were anything other than WASP.

          • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.2.1
            17 June 2016 at 1:16 pm

            I would be feeling extremely anxious if I were living in America right now, especially if I were anything other than WASP.

            QFT

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.3
          17 June 2016 at 1:12 pm

          No, he wasn’t using artistic license. A lot of the same deprivation applies in the US as applied in 1930s Germany that allowed Hitler to rise to power. We really are seeing the same process again.

          It’s what happens under capitalism when the rich and powerful take and take and take.

  4. Kelly-Ned 4
    17 June 2016 at 8:18 am

    Unbelievable.
    I am speechless.
    How can a large group of people be so mindless?

  5. Ad 5
    17 June 2016 at 8:19 am

    Politics is the entertainment industry for ugly people.

    When is ugly right?
    When is it on balance better to be ugly for the renewal of democracy?
    Did we want these kind of people to finally wake up?
    Is the left just jealous that they don’t have their own populist Lenin-scale demagogue?

    Or is the polis burning civility away deep into the molten core of irrational id too much for us?

    Seeing this set of texts on the same day as a British MP is shot dead tells us at least that politics is no mere exchange of arguments on a stage or tv interview set. It’s life and death.

    And the last thing we should do is to be tempted to form counter-militias, counter-demagogues, and dive swan-like backwards into that same molten core. Down that path, we may as well become ISIS.

    This is not a left-right contest anymore. This is a contest against rage.

    • weka 5.1
      17 June 2016 at 8:25 am

      These kind of people? What do you mean?

      • Ad 5.1.1
        17 June 2016 at 8:57 am

        The kind of people identified by the tweets in the Trump rally.

        • weka 5.1.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 9:14 am

          Such as? I don’t see the tweets identifying certain kind of people, I see it identifying behaviours. Making people who vote Trump ‘other’ is part of the problem I think.

          • Ad 5.1.1.1.1
            17 June 2016 at 9:39 am

            Sexton’s quotes were quite specific to specific people, and from the crowd generally, making specific comments. Which as you could see clearly was what I was referring to. And yes, those kind of people are generating a whole bunch of ‘otherness’.

            • weka 5.1.1.1.1.1
              17 June 2016 at 10:14 am

              Specific people are individuals, not ‘kinds of people’. Despite you believing that who you were referring to is clear, you still won’t say what you meant so I will assume you are referring to conservative working class people.

              Trump supporters are creating ‘otherness’. And if we other them as well, what happens next?

              • Ad …
                17 June 2016 at 11:52 am

                What I was referring to, very precisely, was what was identified in the tweets, which was what I named clearly in 5.1.1.

                You’d best direct your incomprehensible question to Jared Yates Sexton.

                • weka …
                  17 June 2016 at 12:26 pm

                  Yeah but you won’t say what you perceived was identified in the tweets. I saw a bunch of behaviours being named. You saw ‘kinds of people’ but won’t way what you mean by that.

                  If by ‘kinds of people’ you are saying you mean people who wear Trump t-shirts, I’m not sure that that has any meaning.

                  • Lanthanide …
                    17 June 2016 at 12:53 pm

                    The kinds of people who exhibit those behaviours.

                    Clearly there are two sets of people: those that exhibit the behaviours, and those that don’t.

                    Trying to boil it down to “working class people” is stupid, because the working class set of people are orthogonal to those two sets: some of them will fall into the “don’t exhibit” set, and others will fall into the “do exhibit set”.

                    So don’t try and boil it down any further than what was already said – the people who exhibit those behaviours – because it doesn’t make any sense to try to break it down further.

                    • weka …
                      17 June 2016 at 12:54 pm

                      In this case, conservative working class people then, right?

                    • Lanthanide …
                      17 June 2016 at 1:06 pm

                      @weka:
                      No.

                    • weka …
                      17 June 2016 at 1:34 pm

                      Did you edit your previous comment? It helps if you state that you have edited, because I didn’t see the bits about working class when I replied.

                      I think calling ‘those kinds of people’ the ones exhibiting certain behaviours is a cop out. It’s still an othering.

                    • Lanthanide …
                      17 June 2016 at 2:29 pm

                      Yes, it is an othering, if you are in the set of people who don’t exhibit those kinds of behaviours, and the people you are talking about are in the set of people who exhibit those kinds of behaviours.

                      Just like saying “black people” is othering if you’re a white person.

                    • weka …
                      17 June 2016 at 3:57 pm

                      that’s not what othering means Lanth.

                    • Lanthanide …
                      17 June 2016 at 4:36 pm

                      @weka,
                      Then I don’t believe this is othering, it’s simply stating a fact.

                      There exist people in the world that exhibit a certain set of behaviours, call this set A. There exist people in the world that don’t exhibit those behaviours, call that set B.

                      I don’t think it’s ‘othering’ to make a statement of fact – set A exists. If you are a member of set B, that might be ‘othering’. You’re saying it’s not.

  6. weka 6
    17 June 2016 at 8:22 am

    I’m not surprised, this is why some of us have been saying that despite Clinton being evil, Trump being president is worse. Trump could change the US in ways that would take generations to recover from. And bear in mind what he and that would be like in the coming decade of global instability, increasing extreme weather emergencies and resource depletion.

    That second to last tweet is the stand out for me. Yes, disenfranchisement is a big part of the picture, but so is the worst of humanness being actively encouraged. He’s fanning the flames of every bullying, racist, misogynist, homophobic etc sentiment he can find and then he is encouraging violence and repression. Intentionally.

    • Anne 6.1
      17 June 2016 at 11:11 am

      Spot on weka!

    • Lanthanide 6.2
      17 June 2016 at 1:01 pm

      But you can also look at it from the other angle – desperate times call for desperate measures. Hitler was popular because of Germany’s diminished presence in the world.

      I don’t think America is really in “desperate times” – yet. But if we’re right about the coming global instability, then America could be in desperate times in the mid 20’s. So Trump, or someone like him, could sweep to power then, even if he loses in 2016.

      But, if we elect Trump now in 2016, and it’s a disaster (as we suspect it would be), then that might prevent an even bigger disaster occurring in 2024 when Trump-lite runs and wins, after 2 terms of Hillary.

      Or to boil it down, a demagogue president like Trump may be an inevitability for America in the next 2 decades. It is probably better that we have such a president sooner, so Americans can “get it out of their system” and learn from their mistakes, rather than later, when the demagogue would be likely to do more damage.

      Purely fantasy conjecture of course.

      • BM 6.2.1
        17 June 2016 at 1:06 pm

        Donald Trump is currently 70, can’t see him being too much of a force in the mid 20’s.

        • Lanthanide 6.2.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 1:07 pm

          I did say “someone like Trump” or “Trump-lite”.

          The other point for a future Trumpian president, is that should Trump fail to win now, it won’t because he didn’t energise a lot of American voters – it will be because he didn’t get a majority of the votes.

          So a future candidate can look at this campaign, dissect the entrails and work out what it was that Trump did wrong, and what things he did well, and use that information to make a better run for the presidency.

          One thing fivethirtyeight has already highlighted is that Trump seems to be very disparaging of data-mining and on the ground get-out-the-vote organising. So that’s a fairly easy thing for a future candidate to understand, and correct.

        • Grant 6.2.1.2
          17 June 2016 at 1:24 pm

          How old was Reagan when he left office? How old is Mugabe?

      • weka 6.2.2
        17 June 2016 at 1:14 pm

        That’s based on Clinton not doing anything to address white working class issues in her first term right?

        I get the argument. I suppose mine would be that if Trump wins now he could do so much damage in 4 years that the idea of a democractic election (such as they have in the US) would no longer be real.

      • Psycho Milt 6.2.3
        17 June 2016 at 1:23 pm

        Hitler was popular because of Germany’s diminished presence in the world.

        I’m not someone with a third of the vote can be called “popular.” He only got in because the communists decided they’d rather have a fellow totalitarian ideologue running things than those contemptible democracy-loving “social fascists” of the Social Democratic Party. Trump isn’t going to have that kind of gift served up to him on a plate, thank Christ.

        • Foreign waka 6.2.3.1
          17 June 2016 at 9:10 pm

          Hitler was popular because after the WWI, when the Monarchy was ended (as in most Euro Nations), the Treaty of Versaills has put quite an onus on Germany and albeit the Waimarer Republic, established at the time was able to reform the system, it was the great depression and deflation policies that prepared the road for his success in the 1930 (12 years after WWI). Not that it is ever excusable what Hitler did but everything has context. The first great war,the economic strangulation of the newly established republic and in close succession the great depression, the allied forces blockade that led to around 900 000 of people starving to dead (literally) was what made people cry out for someone to change their plight – and Hitler was the man of the hour. It could have been anybody if the promise would have fit the cry for help.
          As for the Russians involvement, they certainly were – together with the allies, Britain, France and USA.
          http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/starvation1919.html

          There is no such situation in the USA today.

          The only similarity I can see is that each individual has the same capacity to be extremely brutal or a humanitarian – upbringing will play a role, but put someone under enough stress and it will be the inner strength that decides the outcome. Fear is a bad adviser.

    • Pat 6.3
      17 June 2016 at 1:27 pm

      “I’m not surprised, this is why some of us have been saying that despite Clinton being evil, Trump being president is worse. Trump could change the US in ways that would take generations to recover from”

      ….and when Hilary is elected all these people and their views will magically disappear?

      • weka 6.3.1
        17 June 2016 at 1:29 pm

        Of course not, why would you ask that?

        • Pat 6.3.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 1:34 pm

          why would I say that?….because Trump is Trump BECAUSE of the support not the other way round.

          Clinton is not change

          Change is what is being incoherently demanded, so Clinton or Trump the problem remains and grows.

          • weka 6.3.1.1.1
            17 June 2016 at 1:52 pm

            Yes, I’m just not sure why you are saying that in response to me or my comments. It doesn’t really appear related (and is a given anyway).

            • Pat 6.3.1.1.1.1
              17 June 2016 at 2:02 pm

              maybe because your strenuous objection to ‘othering’ of Trump supporters inferred that they were simply misled individuals who would somehow see sense if they were led by the right kind of person.

              • weka …
                17 June 2016 at 3:26 pm

                Fuck that, I don’t believe that at all. I thought the fanning the flames analogy was clear enough (you can’t fan flames that aren’t already there, therefore the bigotry already exists). Instead of making assumption about something I say why not check it out? The comments you replied to aren’t even in that subthread, they’re about something else.

  7. Pat 7
    17 June 2016 at 8:40 am

    Trump rally,Yazidi genocide and MP shot…..just another day?

    • vto 7.1
      17 June 2016 at 8:44 am

      well put pat

      clearly not just another day

      clearly signs of particular times

      ignore at peril

      • Pat 7.1.1
        17 June 2016 at 10:04 am

        this is the same world that is going to co-operate on climate change?

        • b waghorn 7.1.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 12:47 pm

          Holy shit that is exactly the conclusion I’ve come too in the the last week or so. No they can’t cooperate.

          • Pat 7.1.1.1.1
            17 June 2016 at 12:51 pm

            not a hope in hell

          • weka 7.1.1.1.2
            17 June 2016 at 3:59 pm

            Remember how the Cold War ended? The fall of the Berlin Wall? The end of apartheid in South Africa?

            Don’t give up hope yet.

            • Pat 7.1.1.1.2.1
              17 June 2016 at 9:21 pm

              you think the cold war ended?….former Yugoslavia ,Crimea and Syria

            • b waghorn 7.1.1.1.2.2
              17 June 2016 at 9:33 pm

              I’ll always hope us humans can evolve past being silly tribal apes. And I’ll keep voting for a positive government.

              • Pat …
                17 June 2016 at 9:38 pm

                evolution is a slow process….if we haven’t got there now we arnt likely to anytime soon.

  8. Greg 8
    17 June 2016 at 9:24 am

    Its a circus for sure, and this is just only the nomination race, the Presidential election is going to be crazier.
    America’s has had its share of fascism, we should’nt be surprised how polarized their politics now is, generational War on Terror, and economic instability.
    NZs political polarization is when Maori get used as a divisive political football,
    Labour and National being as guilty. Helen Clarks Trump moment was in the seabed and foreshore act, and her UN approval CV in the 2007 Tuhoe terrorist camp raids, and police actions against political dissenters and protest groups.

  9. save nz 9
    17 June 2016 at 9:38 am

    That’s 25 years of charter schools in action.

    That’s 35 years of neoliberalism in action.

    That’s 2 trillion dollars spent on the middle east war that did not get spent on ‘making American great’ i.e. domestic spending.

  10. joe90 10
    17 June 2016 at 9:56 am

    Clearing out of Greensboro. Thanks for the retweets and comments. Trump’s candidacy is a virus that needs cured.

    Obligatory.

  11. BM 11
    17 June 2016 at 10:08 am

    Reads like fiction to me.

    Known for our tabloid, muckraking style, stories broken here have featured across the print and broadcast media:

    http://politicalscrapbook.net/about/

  12. Lanthanide 12
    17 June 2016 at 10:12 am

    Only a matter of time until someone does some under cover filming of one of these rallies and it gets global airplay?

    Only a matter of time until someone is seriously injured or killed at one of these rallies?

  13. Colonial Viper 13
    17 June 2016 at 10:12 am

    Thanks to the power elite who have led America down this dead end path. Well done. Now they’re going to try and take the entire planet with them.

    • weka 13.1
      17 June 2016 at 10:35 am

      Yep, and Trump is one of them. The bigots are equally responsible.

      • Colonial Viper 13.1.1
        17 June 2016 at 1:04 pm

        Perhaps but Trump isn’t the power elite. He is the next step down – very wealthy but (previously) with few ties to the real decision makers – the investment bankers, MIC, national security state.

        The power elite are the power holders within institutions like JP Morgan and Lockheed Martin, the NSA and the CIA.

        • weka 13.1.1.1
          17 June 2016 at 1:17 pm

          but only because he didn’t play the game right, right? He’d be one of them if he could. And if he becomes president, he is one of them, he’s in the club. He might be breaking the rules, and he has his own agenda, but I don’t think there is any doubt that he is an authoritarian power monger too. Maybe he is just greedy for a different kind of power.

        • marty mars 13.1.1.2
          17 June 2016 at 1:43 pm

          I don’t see how you can think that trump is some maverick giving it to the man – he is doodoodeep in with them, he is one of them. Very few ties with investment bankers? you have got to be kidding me…

    • Foreign waka 13.2
      17 June 2016 at 9:15 pm

      Astounding that they belief that this war they spread is survivable.

  14. Byd0nz 14
    17 June 2016 at 10:15 am

    Made in America,
    Mad is America,
    Break up of America,
    All is chaos,
    The future looks bright.

  15. riffer 15
    17 June 2016 at 10:44 am

    It’s all looking a little too much like this:

  16. Bob 16
    17 June 2016 at 10:55 am

    This is what happens when a country moves too far to the right and the right wing party tries to distance itself from the opposition.
    Wholly shit, please tell me Trump is purely trying to whip up support and doesn’t actually believe half of the shit coming out of his mouth. If he does and he somehow finds a way to win, I really am concerned about where the US could be heading (as if they weren’t bad enough already).

  17. Rosie 17
    17 June 2016 at 11:23 am

    That was, akshully, very chilling to read. Very frightening in fact. If those tweets are a true account of the rally, and I’ve no reason to doubt they aren’t, then that is incredibly worrying crowd behaviour.

    Aside from the crowd reactions to trump and statements from them I was intrigued and a bit shocked that there were many intoxicated people there. It’s so out of context for a political setting (unless you’re an EDL member, but then again these attendees sound a bit like the American version of EDL) That is so off the hook.

    Out of control.

  18. joe90 18
    17 June 2016 at 11:38 am

    Nothing new under the sun.

    In the 1924 presidential election, the most hyped candidate was an egotistical and fabulously wealthy businessman who many politicians did not believe would really run.

    That man was legendary carmaker Henry Ford, and the resemblance between his political un-career and Donald Trump’s is striking.

    Ford was impulsive, hated experts of any kind, and refused to commit to a platform, specific policies, or even a political party. Instead he ran—for Senate in 1918, and (kind of) for president in 1924—on his reputation as a captain of industry and force of nature.

    “I will move my whole force down [to Washington], then they will know that I have arrived,” Ford declared as he announced his political ambitions. He lambasted incompetent politicians, and his inner circle claimed he would save the “average man” from corrupt elites.

    Summing up Ford’s appeal, a former governor endorsed him as “a builder.” His supporters called him “master of big things.”

    Henry Ford did not want to make America great again in the sense of emulating the past. He hated tradition and claimed to have invented the modern age.

    http://priceonomics.com/henry-fords-campaign-to-make-america-great-again/

  19. Kelly-Ned 19
    17 June 2016 at 11:44 am

    In light of the above tweeted comments the following NZ data result is seriously disturbing (from NZCPR.com)
    I most sincerely hope that 71% of NZers don’t think Trump will be the best President.
    That should be translated to mean that I think Clinton is the best, but maybe she will be the lesser of two evils? Perhaps?

    *In last week’s poll, 71% of readers thought Donald Trump would make the best US President, 21% supported Hilary Clinton, and 8% were unsure.

    *Last week’s feedback can be viewed on the NZCPR.com website.

  20. Bill 20
    17 June 2016 at 11:50 am

    When the deeply dishonest “rational” and “understanding” facade of those arguments as to why we can’t “reasonably” accommodate those immigrants and foreigners that we “all love”, “have nothing against”, “my best mate’s an immigrant” drop away…

    First they ‘reluctantly’ singled out the foreign temp worker.
    First they demonised the rich foreign investor (but not the domestic one).

    And it was all seemed so reasonable at the time…

  21. Rodel 21
    17 June 2016 at 12:41 pm

    I like this from one of the twitter comments.
    “Trump is dangerous he is not making America great. He is making America hate.”

    • Stuart Munro 21.1
      17 June 2016 at 1:54 pm

      It’s a brave rightwinger that awakens Blake’s tiger – or a stupid one.

  22. mary_a 22
    17 June 2016 at 3:37 pm

    A very dark, disturbing, ugly part of history repeating itself it seems, this time in the US!

    We should be concerned.