There are many recurring characters at former president Donald Trump’s rallies, and the shoutout he gave a traveling group of female superfans at a Greensboro, N.C., rally last week was no different.
Until he messed up their nickname.
“And we have our’ Front Row Jacks’ ... we have ‘Front Row Jacks and Joes,’ thank you very much,” he said about the women that call themselves “Front Row Joes” and attend seemingly every public event he does. “What happened, you’re not in the front row? Whoa!”
When ad-libbing about a visit to a McDonald’s where he served food to supporters in a campaign stunt meant to attack Vice President Harris, he couldn’t remember the word fryer.
“And those French fries were good, they were great,” he said. “They were right out of the ... they were right out of whatever the hell they may come out of.”
In Prescott Valley, Ariz., an attempt to recognize a group of Assyrian supporters went seriously awry when he welcomed what sounded like “Azur-Asians.”
These gaffes aren’t isolated events, but are more emblematic of the final weeks of this election on the trail with Trump, who at 78 years old would be the oldest person ever elected president if he wins next week.
In some ways, though, his closing message isn’t all that different from his first trip down the golden escalator nearly a decade ago.
"When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity,” he said in 2015. “And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.”
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In the discography of Donald Trump, his 2016 campaign topped the charts with concerns over immigration. Today, he still plays his greatest hits, like at that speech in Tempe, where he once again called the U.S. a “dumping ground” for migrants from other countries.
“We're a dumping ground,” he said on Oct 24, 2024. “We're like a ... we're like a garbage can for the world. That's what's happened. That's what's happened to — We're like a garbage can.”
Now in the final days of campaign No. 3, Trump often abruptly jumps from remarks on a teleprompter to nonsensical tangents back to his prepared speech.
In a marathon three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Trump touted the oratorical method as a quote “weave” that’s not for everyone.
“I like to give a long — the weave,” Trump said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “But when you do the weaves, and you have to be very smart to do weaves, when you do the weave, look at this, just in this one thing, we’re talking about little pieces.”
“Gotta get it back home,” Rogan interjected.
“No, no, it comes back home for the right people,” Trump continued. “For the wrong people, it doesn't come back home and they end up in the wilderness, right?”
Trump’s attacks have become increasingly profane
Over the summer, Trump had a hard time pivoting away from bashing President Biden after he dropped out. But lately, Trump has fallen into a familiar refrain of calling Harris stupid and low-IQ, and pushing back on criticism of his speeches by arguing none of her words make any sense.
“I have no cognitive,” he said in an Oct. 20 town hall in Lancaster, Pa. “She may have a cognitive problem, but there's no cognitive problem.”
Trump has always pushed the envelope of acceptable speech from a politician, but in recent weeks he’s become more vulgar in his anecdotes and attacks.
"We can't stand you,” he said of Harris in Latrobe, Pa. “You're a sh** vice president ... The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here!”
And while Trump's final weeks could serve as a farewell tour to campaigning, he's also occasionally told his supporters it’s time to face the music about what might come next.
“If you don't win, win, win, we've all had a good time, but it's not going to matter, right?” he said. “Sadly, because what we've done is amazing: Three nominations in a row. What we've done, we've got to win.”
“If we don't win, it's like it was all it was all for ... not very much. We can't — we can't let that happen.”
It’s a tight race that has required multiple, lengthy events in a day, and the fatigue can be heard in his voice.
In many ways, the Donald Trump of 2016, 2020 and even earlier this year, who promised to “Make America Great Again,” is not the same Donald Trump who stands before voters when the curtains close on this election in November 2024.
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