If Donald Trump wins the 2024 election and returns to the White House for a second term, one thing people will absolutely not be able to say is “I didn’t think it would be so bad.” First, because Trump has been literally telling us exactly how bad things will get should he win another round in office, and second, because it was truly all on display last night at Madison Square Garden.
Trump’s Manhattan rally, held just over a week before Election Day, can and should be viewed as his closing message to voters. The message? That he and his associates believe,* among other things, that:
This is an acceptable way to talk about Latinos, a.k.a. Americans
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That Puerto Rico, a.k.a. home to millions of US citizens, is a “floating island of garbage”**
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That this is an acceptable way to talk about Palestinians and Jews
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That Hillary Clinton is a “sick bastard”
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That “America is for Americans and Americans only,” a line the man who uttered it on Sunday will have absolutely known had disturbing historical parallels
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That Kamala Harris has “pimp handlers,” the takeaway seemingly being that the female nominee for president is a prostitute
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That Americans who don’t support him are the “enemy from within”—a claim he has made numerous times over the last month
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In addition to previewing the groups he can be expected to go after in a second term—possibly with military force—Trump also suggested he’s got a plan to make it back to the White House in the event the votes don’t go his way. “We can take the Senate pretty easily, and I think with our little secret we’re gonna do really well with the House, right?” Trump said, speaking to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was in the audience. “Our little secret is having a big impact. He and I have a secret—we’ll tell you what it is when the race is over.”
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Anyway, yeah, this as as clear a warning as we’re going to get.
*It’s important to note that after he took the stage on Sunday, Trump did not disavow any of the remarks that people had made before him, which he of course could have. As of Monday afternoon, the campaign had only spoken out against the line about Puerto Rico.
**A spokesperson for the Trump campaign said, of the “floating island of garbage” line, that “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” That claim would be more believable if Trump (1) hadn’t treated Puerto Rico as an inconvenience when he was president (2) hadn’t reportedly tried to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland and (3) didn’t himself speak using the same dehumanizing language.
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