For a twice-indicted man with mounting legal woes, Donald Trump does not know how to keep his mouth shut.
In his first public appearance since his latest indictment, the former president bounced from his typical Trumpisms to ramblings on the numerous investigations against him as the Georgia Republican Convention crowd erupted in cheers on Saturday.
The federal probes, which permeated his whole speech, seemed to serve as political leverage to rally voters ahead of a packed race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
“Everytime I fly over a blue state, I get a subpoena,” Trump joked. “We want him before the grand jury!”
Trump faces a 37-count indictment for seven different federal crimes over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, which were found in “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room” at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment.
He did not skip a beat in calling the indictment “fake” and “a political hit job,” describing the Espionage Act—one of the feds’ seven accused violations—as something that “sounds terrible” because “I’ve got a box.” As for Jack Smith, the special counsel behind the indictment, Trump labeled him “deranged” and “a thug who is in charge.”
“I was impressed. It looked so orderly and nice,” Trump said, referring to the stacks of boxes found all over his estate. “Somehow somebody turned over one of the boxes. Did you see that? I wonder who did that, did the FBI do that? Because they also did something where they put documents all over the floors and they took pictures. And they tried to pretend like I did it.”
On the 34-count indictment in Manhattan for his alleged hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, he claimed “there is no crime” and “they just want to get Donald Trump”—before going on a rant about the “Deep State” and “Communists.”
The 2024 contender also turned to the very state of his speech, Georgia, where federal prosecutors could slam him with a third indictment for meddling with the state’s 2020 presidential election votes. In a phone call, Trump allegedly pressed Georgia’s secretary of state to miraculously “find 11,780 votes” so he could overtake President Joe Biden’s lead.
Trump described the district attorney presiding over the case, Fanni Willis, as “a lunatic Marxist” who is “coming after me over a perfect phone call.”
“I had every right to complain that the election in Georgia was in my opinion rigged, that the election in Georgia was a disaster,” Trump declared as the crowd let out claps and cheers.
The election ramble ended when he summoned Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the stage, calling her “a warrior” and “beautiful” before she gave brief fawning remarks about the 2024 Republican top-runner.
He also took a few swipes at his GOP opponents Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence. “These are sick, sick, sinister people,” Trump said of his foes. “No wonder the swamp is getting truly desperate.”
“Pence has gone down [in the polls], … sadly, because he’s a nice person, he’s trying to get nasty though so we may have to fight a different way,” Trump said of his former vice president. “All of a sudden he got a little bit nasty, Mike.”
After hopping through every cultural flashpoint possible, from “illegal aliens” to “transgender insanity” to “concealed carry,” Trump ended his speech on a bizarre and far from inspirational remark.
“Everybody’s being murdered and beat up and mugged. We’re not going to let it happen. Thank you very much everybody, it’s a great honor to be here,” he concluded.
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