So Trump has decided tohijackthat national fourth of July festivities on the Mall in Washington DC, and try to make it all about him and how he made America Great again. While it turns my stomach to see what should be a non-partisan celebration of our nation be turned into a tribute to our Cheeto in chief, part of me is curious about how all of this is going to shake out. I’ve always wondered the extent to which Trump actually believes his own Bullshit. The fact that he thinks the rally is a good thing makes me think that he may be drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid.
Presumably Trump is expecting something just like his other rallies but even more so. Thousands of cheering fans, in front of the most patriotic background possible on the most patriotic day possible celebrating his greatness. 2020 here we come.
But in actuality the crowd will be made primarily of locals who: (1) vote reliably vote Democrat over Republican by afactor of twelve to 1; (2) largely work for the federal government, and so still have bitter feeling towards their being used as pawns in his shutdown fight over the stupid border wall; (3) probably feel the same way as I do about having what is normally a nice day for a picnic, fireworks, good music, and a chance to feel good about their country transformed into an event celebrating a man that is the embodiment of everything that is making them feel bad about it. Needless to say, its not going to be the friendly crowd of MAGA heads that Trump is used to.
To my knowledge Trump has never really directly confronted a group that was actively hostile against him, and certainly never gave a speech that wasn’t in front of a group that wasn’t composed primarily of his supporters. His standard tactic of going off script and throwing red meat to the crowd and feeding of their blood lust isn’t going to work as well when the target of their blood lust is him. So I don’t know what he will do.
I see this as panning out in four possible ways
Trump chickens out citing security concerns, once it becomes apparent that most of the signs being held up are more against him than for him
Trump gets so flustered that his entire speech becomes a Palinesque word salad.
Trump assumes that everyone is shoutingboo-urnsand goes on as normal.
Trump follows his instinct to punch back, and spends much of the speech attacking the crowd.
In any case under any of these we can assume that it will end with Trump tweeting claims about how huge the crowds were (biggest crowd on the mall ever), that they only came to cheer him and how high his ratings were.
I think that your assessment of the political leanings of the crowd are on the money. Unless his plan includes requiring tickets for admission that are issued by his re-election campaign, the crowd is going to be the largest Trump-hostile gathering he has ever faced. I think the most likely scenario is that he chickens out before the 4th arrives. If he speaks, and when he is booed and heckled, he will spew out a worse international embarrassment than his post-Charlottesville press rant or his Helsinki ass-kissing of Putin.
It would have to be a heck of a lot of buses to even make a dent in the overall makeup of the crowd but I had thought that there might be a separate area near the stage for selected guests, so that can concentrate on them and not the 10’s of thousands on the outside calling for his immediate removal. In that case I would file it under the boo-urns scenario.
True but they were career diplomats who are at hiding disdain, or at least exhibiting it in a subtle manner that is beyond Trumps level of comprehension .
If he thought the protests on Inauguration Day were bad, he ain’t seen nothing yet, and that was on a lousy cold rainy day in January. People have been known to enjoy an adult beverage or two on the 4th of July. I can’t see a bunch of MAGA types coming into DC just for the 4th of July, DC hotel rooms ain’t cheap.
Trump is too chickenshit to throw out the first ball at a baseball game. I bet he backs out of his plan when he realises it’s not a rally and he can’t put the token black right behind him in the crowd.
If Trump makes his speech just before the fireworks show (which he probably would, for maximum effect), watch New York move its annual fireworks show (that NBC airs) to start at the same time.
Then Trump would probably claim that a handful of people standing next to the microphones made it sound like half the audience was against him.
Oh no, wait, that was Michael Moore…
Trump would probably claim that CNN et al. “sweetened” the crowd reaction - and I wouldn’t put it past Fox & Friends to show a version where it sounds like everyone was cheering his every word.
I’m sure Trumpistas will come into Washington by the busload (and frankly, why not come in by the busload for July 4th at the Mall whoever is president) and the crowd will be the HUGEST July 4th crowd in history.
It will be the perfect occasion for him to introduce his new President Uniform - all that gold braid and the epaulettes, my god the epaulettes will be amazing!