Live from Council Bluffs, it’s Donald Trump

I think the end may be nigh in Nebraska attorney David Begley’s series on the appearances of the candidates in Iowa over the past year. Yesterday Donald Trump came to Council Bluffs. This is Dave’s report:

Who is Donald J. Trump?

I attended a rally with my three young voting age children in Council Bluffs last night and I learned nothing new. While his speech was rambling it was essentially the same speech that he gave in Sioux City. My Sioux City report is here.

Trump started the rally by displaying the Bible his mother had inscribed and given him as a child. He later said, “Not too many Evangelicals come out of Cuba.” I thought that line flopped with the crowd as a crude reference to Cruz and Rubio.

He spent an inordinate amount of time on poll results from the last debate, both as to Iowa and nationally. He is really trying to set himself up as the inevitable nominee and urging people to go with the presumptive winner.

On policy, he vowed to build a wall, deport illegal aliens, negotiate great trade deals, “blow away ISIS,” repeal Obamacare, end Common Core, protect the Second Amendment, deport any Syrian immigrants who are in the country before January 2017, rebuild the military, rebuild our infrastructure, and make our country great and safe again. He’s also rich, in case you didn’t know.

In recently added remarks Trump criticized the omnibus budget deal. He said “the entire world blew up during” Hillary Clinton’s term at State and that Bernie Sanders is a Communist. Furthermore, he added, the Obama’s administration’s handling of ISIS was “just all bullshit.” The crowd agreed with him that global warming is not our biggest single threat.

As in Sioux City he referenced Ford’s proposed $2.5 billion dollar factory in Mexico. He would tell Ford’s CEO if he built the plant in Mexico then all vehicles would be subject to a 35 percent import tariff. My gut tells me that the President can’t issue an executive order overriding the terms of NAFTA, but the Donald would change it with a couple of phone calls. At least that’s the way he spun it. Maybe he plans to propose new legislation but it would be helpful to know that. Congress does have a constitutional role in taxation.

By my count he used the word “love” over a dozen times. Trump said that there was a lot of love in the room and I agree with him. The more than 3,000 people there dearly love their country and are upset over where things stand on many fronts. One chord that he struck with the crowd was that, since he is self-funding his campaign, he will not owe anyone but the voters once in office: “When you take their money, they own you.”

The crowd was enthusiastic. Trump asked for a show of hands and by my estimate at least half were from Nebraska. When the pundits say Trump backers won’t vote, they are dead wrong.

The crowd was also large. The 3,000 or so in attendance obviously paid nothing. By contrast, more people paid good money to see Creighton beat a weak Coppin State (2-11) on a cold Monday night after a big snow storm. And the game was also on cable TV. But the crowd turned out for Trump.

Trump bashed the media as usual. Take a look at this piece by Jean Kaufman at Neo-neocon. Jean asks: “Does the Trump own the media or does the media own Trump?”

Trump has dominated the news from the day he began talking about running. He gets great ratings and so the media give him the coverage. Neo’s theory is that the left-leaning media do so for their own purposes to benefit themselves and to set Trump up as the GOP nominee because Hillary can beat him.

Conservatives complained bitterly that Barack Obama was not adequately vetted by the MSM when he ran in 2008. Sean Hannity is a leading advocate of this point. My question is: what do we really know about Donald Trump? Have the media vetted him? Have his opponents? Take a look at the Wikipedia entry on Trump and appreciate the fact that the Clinton campaign is doing its opposition research now. Are the media sandbagging the public on Trump’s past with the idea of springing the “news” on the public after he wins the nomination? What kind of dirt is the Clinton campaign and MSM going to dish on him later?

If CNN can run a special on whales at Sea World, it should be able to devote a little air time to Trump’s history. I say less horse race coverage and more vetting of all candidates. At least we know Rubio bought a small fishing boat and he got some speeding tickets.

My kids will not be voting for Trump. They rightly noted he contradicted himself several times in the course of his lengthy speech. Mary D. Begley’s reaction was: “Incoherent, incorrect, and disgusting.” From my point of view, the fact that they would vote Clinton over Trump that tells me everything. The GOP has several candidates who can beat Hillary and that is what must happen.

SCOTT adds: Video of Trump’s speech has been posted on YouTube. I am embedding it below to supplement Dave’s report.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses