\u201cOh yes, I\u2019m the great pretender\/ Just laughin\u2019 and gay like a clown\/ I seem to be what I\u2019m not, you see\/ I\u2019m wearing my heart like a crown.\u201d \u2013 from \u201dThe Great Pretender,\u201d by the Platters (1955)<\/p>\n
Explaining the experience of attending a Trump rally to the uninitiated has been a challenge since the MAGA Circus first hit the road about a decade ago.<\/p>\n
The production is like an old-time religious tent revival mixed with a pay-per-view \u201cWWE Smackdown\u201d event. It\u2019s a trip to an alternate reality built on \u201calternative facts,\u201d empty promises and outright lies, a traveling medicine show that brazenly sells poison to hungry customers who can\u2019t get enough of the stuff.<\/p>\n
The show is meticulously staged, but the star rarely sticks to the script. It\u2019s the part of his schtick the crowd craves most. Trump is at his best and worst in front of an adoring audience. I\u2019ve rarely seen one more mesmerized than the 2,000 or so MAGA faithful who waited for hours in bitter cold to cheer him on Tuesday at Mount Airy Casino Resort.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve covered a multitude of Trump rallies. This was the Trumpiest by a mile. It was his first in a while and the jubilant crowd was treated to the full, feral attention addict, unencumbered by any quaint concern for rectitude or restraint. Trump unleashed his raw, unfiltered id, lashing out at \u201cCrooked Joe Biden,\u201d transgenders, migrants, Somalis, Democrats, the \u201cfake news\u201d media and a host of other \u201csick, terrible people\u201d out to destroy America.<\/p>\n
He played the hits, from the golden oldie \u201cWar on Christmas\u201d (he won) to the bold and moldy Big Lie about winning the 2020 election (he didn\u2019t). The app I use to record and transcribe interviews and events generates its own summarized headlines. After Trump\u2019s 1 hour-and-36-minute oratorial assault, the app spit out: \u201cDecoding the Enigmatic Utterances: A Perplexing Narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not making that up.<\/p>\n
Between enigmatic utterances, Trump occasionally riffed on the sinking economy and soaring inflation, ostensibly the focus of the event. It was an all-hands-on-deck affair, a team effort to bail out Trump\u2019s underwater approval rating ahead of next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and chief White House Spokesliar Karoline Leavitt were there, along with U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-9, Jackson Twp.; U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas; and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-7, Lehigh.<\/p>\n
The presence of top cabinet officials at a rally in a casino ballroom in Monroe County is empirical evidence that Team Trump is desperate for Republican wins in next year\u2019s midterms. Meuser is a virtual lock to hang onto his seat, but Bresnahan and Mackenzie \u2014 who voted for cuts bound to hurt the MAGA base \u2014 are vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s supporting cast united in delivering the carefully crafted narrative: Inflation is all \u201cSleepy Joe\u2019s\u201d fault. Prices are coming down, no matter what you\u2019re paying for groceries and gas. When Trump\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d takes effect next year, you\u2019ll all be part of a \u201cBlue-Collar Boom!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Trump \u2014 who promised to \u201cMake America Affordable Again\u201d on \u201cDay One\u201d \u2014 used Day 323 of his second failed presidency to mock affordability as a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trick to covering a Trump rally is not getting bogged down in details. They don\u2019t matter to him or his doting supporters. \u201cThe Great Pretender\u201d is the most honest song on his pre-speech playlist.<\/p>\n
I could fill this edition debunking a fraction of the preposterous lies Trump uttered in scattershot streams of consciousness, but unlike the star, I\u2019m able to stay on message. The rally was purportedly about the economy and affordability.<\/p>\n
The few fragments of Trump\u2019s speech that actually addressed affordability were pinned to Jan. 1, when all the alleged benefits of his \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d will kick in and kickstart a \u201cgolden age\u201d of prosperity for those of us willing to work and wait while our wallets wither.<\/p>\n
Said benefits include \u201cno taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security.\u201d One of the few truly moving moments of the night was delivered by Donna Zajack, a single mother and waitress who said the \u201cno tax on tips\u201d provision will enable her to contribute to her daughter\u2019s lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an inspiring story and I wish Donna and her daughter the best, but the fine print behind the slogan doesn\u2019t add up. While tax deductions for tips and overtime will undoubtedly benefit qualified workers, deep cuts to health insurance and nutrition subsidies and other safety net programs will undoubtedly wipe out those gains for many.<\/p>\n
At best, \u201cno tax on tips\u201d is a roll of the dice, a bet that the benefits will pay out despite the cuts. The same is true for tax breaks on overtime and Social Security. The details say the odds are stacked against Americans who need help most, like, say, farmers on the brink of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
Trump got raucous applause when he bragged about a $12 billion rescue package for struggling farmers. It seemed lost on the crowd that farmers are struggling because Trump\u2019s disastrous tariffs annihilated their markets.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a classic Trump shell game: create a crisis and take credit for \u201cfixing\u201d it. He\u2019s an arsonist paying fire insurance claims with other people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s still just as dumb and delusional about how tariffs actually work.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite word is tariff,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. The smart people understand it. Other people are starting to learn, but the smart people really understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, we do. We learned in sixth-grade Social Studies that American businesses and customers pay the cost of tariffs, not countries sending their goods here. It\u2019s why \u201ctwo or three dolls\u201d now cost the same as 37.<\/p>\n
Some questioned the setting of the rally, considering Trump\u2019s record of bankrupting casinos and that Mount Airy is owned by the DeNaples family. Louis was in the house Tuesday.<\/p>\n
I found the location utterly fitting. Casinos sell patrons on the promise of jackpots as long as they keep playing. Each loss brings you a step closer to the big win. Don\u2019t quit a few spins before the payday you deserve! That would make you a sucker!<\/p>\n
Trumpism is the same long con with a nasty kicker: If you don\u2019t win, the game was rigged to benefit \u201csick, terrible people\u201d who don\u2019t belong here and don\u2019t deserve a place at the table.<\/p>\n
Most of the casino employees I interacted with at the rally were people of color, many with heavy accents. Imagine cleaning bathrooms and emptying trash cans while hearing thousands of struggling people cheer on a billionaire who calls struggling people like you \u201cgarbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now imagine waiting for hours in bitter cold to hear \u201cThe Great Pretender\u201d mock your struggles to pay for basic necessities he promised to make more affordable but instead made more expensive. Imagine cheering him on as he spews \u201calternative facts,\u201d empty promises and outright lies and then sticks you with the tab.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it\u2019s like to attend a Trump rally.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, is still waiting for his \u201cDOGE dividend\u201d check. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Blue Sky Social.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOh yes, I\u2019m the great pretender\/ Just laughin\u2019 and gay like a clown\/ I seem to be what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,182,139,1559,1560,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-61120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-chris-kelly","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-opinion","12":"tag-opinion-columnists","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}