# Trump and his rallies **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 21, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188 "2022-01-21T19:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/61 "2022-02-02T16:28:36Z")
Trump and his ilk severed the connection between belief and truth a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/62 "2022-02-02T21:10:11Z")
What Trump actually believes is that, if he says it, it’s true. His speaking it _makes_ it true. So when he contradicts himself, it’s not that one thing was true, and the other not, it’s that he’s simply re-made the truth by speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/63 "2022-02-03T05:31:42Z")
Yes, this exactly. The 45th President is a ‘woke’ **Lathe of Heaven** > **[The Lathe of Heaven (TV Movie 1980) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081036/?ref_=tt_urv)** > > The Lathe of Heaven: Directed by Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton. With Bruce Davison, Peyton E. Park, Niki Flacks, Kevin Conway. In a highly controlled and overpopulated society, a man who has terrifying dreams that affect reality is assigned a... (‘woke’ = wide awake . . . . not aware of his surroundings- that is for sure!) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/64 "2022-02-03T06:57:01Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > But I don’t know that there is any evidence he doesn’t _have_ beliefs. Sometimes absence of evidence IS evidence of absence. ---
**Author:** ![SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff_II)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/65 "2022-02-03T19:37:05Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > And yet, he has not announced that he is running in 2024. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has he filed any paperwork to do so, as he did in early 2017 for the 2020 election. If he’s in “campaign mode,” it is not very apparent. It’s my understanding that he refrained from announcing or filing for his candidacy because he was advised that this would subject him to campaign finance restrictions. Unlike a lot of other politicians, Trump has the ability to raise money and be in full campaign mode without any sort of official declaration, and this serves his interest at this time. Which is not to say that I agree that his being in campaign mode has anything to do with his statements about the 2020 election. Those derive from his psyche. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/66 "2022-02-04T22:35:23Z")
> [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](#): > > It’s my understanding that he refrained from announcing or filing for his candidacy because he was advised that this would subject him to campaign finance restrictions. More or less. If he was officially declared, then there are limits to what he can do with the money that people donate to him. Without being declared, he can just pocket the money that he fleeces from the rubes. > [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](#): > > Unlike a lot of other politicians, Trump has the ability to raise money and be in full campaign mode without any sort of official declaration, and this serves his interest at this time. Most politicians _could_, but they aren’t so greedy and immoral as to do so. Anyone can hold a rally and ask people to give them money. If someone has declared candidacy, however, they can only use that donated money for campaign related activities. But then, most politicians don’t have such a cult of personality where people will give them money, knowing that it will just go into his pocket for his personal luxury expenses. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/67 "2022-02-04T23:14:08Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Most politicians _could_ , but they aren’t so greedy and immoral as to do so. Have you ever _met_ a politician? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/68 "2022-02-04T23:56:07Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Have you ever _met_ a politician? Or for that matter, the leader of a large evangelical church? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/69 "2022-02-05T00:32:37Z")
Yes. And I stand by the statement that most are not nearly as greedy and immoral as Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/70 "2022-02-05T06:05:00Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Yes. And I stand by the statement that most are not nearly as greedy and immoral as Trump.   Well, yes, to be sure, Trump sets the standard to which all others can only aspire. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/71 "2022-02-05T13:14:37Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Have you ever _met_ a politician? They’re likely greedy and immoral enough to _want_ to do that, but most of them are also canny enough to realize that if they just wallow in their own crapulence like Trump does, there’s a non-zero chance they might lose an election, and the money will dry up. What’s better, 4 years of unlimited grift, or 40 years of “just enough” grift? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/72 "2022-02-05T15:40:14Z")
And to be fair, almost all the politicians that I have known personally have lost the races that they were running for, so maybe I just don’t know any that are greedy and immoral enough. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188/73 "2022-02-05T16:42:22Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Speaking of Mussolini, I recall seeing a clip of him making a speech, and he’s doing the extreme chest puffery and chin juts that he did, and the guy standing behind him was cracking up. So it made me wonder how much was just theater. And at least one guy got it. Then look at CFSG, and…where’s the entertainment value of attending his rallies? Does that asshole even have a semblance of a sense of humor? Sarcasm in lieu of humor is his thing I think. Other than that, Happy Easter. If I’m correct, you are pointing at one of the most used clips about him: [Mussolini’s speech against Germany, Bari 1934](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dBSMU6fcd8). (With a guy also cracking up next to him) Yes, **against Germany**. The surprising thing is that early on, Mussolini did use a bit of humor to disparage the Germans like Hitler that were using racist supremacy arguments. (And Hitler making moves to take over Austria was not of his liking too) > **[Speech in Bari, September 6, 1934](http://bibliotecafascista.blogspot.com/2012/03/speech-in-bari-september-6-1934.html)** > > A historical library of Italian Fascism: documents, articles, books, letters, speeches. Original Italian texts and English translations. > The Mediterranean is certainly a southern sea. It was on the shores of the Mediterranean that the great philosophies, the great religions, the great poets and an empire that left indelible traces in the history of all civilized peoples, were born. ( _Very loud applause_ ). > > Thirty centuries of history allow us to look with supreme pity upon certain doctrines beyond the Alps, supported by the progeny of people who could not write, and therefore could not document their own existence, at a time when Rome already had Caesar, Virgil and Augustus. ( _Very loud cheers_ ). Why did he ignore what he had said before? (Well, he was wrong already, but then he was even more so after) After his invasions of Africa did fail and Germany saved his ass, Mussolini then changed his tune and began to agree with also increasing the prosecution of other religions and races in Italy. (Under his command, a lot of atrocities to African nations took place, I guess they did not count for _il Douche bag_ too) But back to the clip, it is ironic how when that clip of him is shown, the media reporting the incident forget to mention that it was actually him criticizing and making fun of Hitler and his racist policies. Regarding Mussolini, that was his one example of the broken clock being correct for once. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-rallies/958188.md?page=3)