Donald Trump Goes To Phoenix, Yells Whatever Crazy Shit Comes To Mind

Sounded just as bad in the original German

We honestly aren't sure whether Donald Trump was more unhinged than usual at his rally in Phoenix Tuesday night, or if we simply hadn't seen him turn the crazy up to Eleven like that since the 2016 campaign. Tuesday's appearance was an actual campaign rally, paid for by Trump's 2020 campaign committee. And Donald Trump was presidential as fuck, all the way through explaining that reporters make everything up, accusing the media of not accurately reporting his comments on Charlottesville while he actually misquoted himself, pledging to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio, and hinting he might shut down the government if the U.S. Congress doesn't appropriate the money to build a border wall that he'd promised last year Mexico would pay for. While he was at it, he told the crowd the Secret Service had assured him only a few people were outside the convention center protesting, which was accurate enough if you call thousands "a few."

We'd offer an analysis of the substantial parts of the speech had there been any. There weren't, so we'll offer a couple of summations from the Twitter machine. Republican strategist Rick Wilson described it thusly:  

But this is also every bit as accurate:

In one of the rally's many highlights, Trump spent several minutes reading parts of his statements on Charlottesville, noting that he'd condemned "hatred and bigotry and violence" but conveniently leaving out the part where he condemned the bigotry, hatred, and violence coming "on many sides -- on many sides." He also made no mention of hislater insistence that there were "many fine people" marching with the KKK and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. Trump went on to explain reporters simply don't love America. In a great disappointment to the crowd, he did not actually direct the beating of a reporter onstage. Give him time.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell eventually just gave up on the live coverage of the speech, and cut away to talk with his studio panel about the lies and madness:

Shortly after that, O'Donnell briefly re-joined the rally; Trump was talking about what a terrific apartment he has in Trump Tower, plus he gets to live in the White House, too. O'Donnell cut away to the studio again, saying, "Clearly there is nothing worth following in what he's talking about," and then only went back to the rally when Trump dropped his maybe-newsworthy comments about Joe Arpaio and shutting down the government. O'Donnell later explainedon Twitter,

At another point, Trump accused CNN of turning off its cameras because the lying media wouldn't cover his speech. Viewers on CNN saw the entire rant.

Trump falsely says media turning off the cameras. “CNN does not want its falling viewership to watch what I’m saying," he says—live on CNN. pic.twitter.com/br3KOh21WE 

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) August 23, 2017