There’s wandering off script; then there’s throwing down the script, setting it on fire, and peeing on the ashes; then there’s what Donald Trump did Saturday night in Pennsylvania.
What was supposed to be a couple of brief, scripted paragraphs turned first into Trump staggering around the stage in mocking imitation of Hillary Clinton’s recent bout with pneumonia.
He said Clinton could not fight bad trade deals or Russian President Vladimir Putin because “she can't make it 15 feet to her car,” alluding to video that showed Clinton buckling as she unexpectedly left a 9/11 memorial service early. Her doctor later said she had pneumonia. Trump then imitated Clinton by flailing his arms and jostling side to side. He walked unsteadily away from the podium as if he were about to fall over.
Then he went beyond talking about Bill Clinton’s affairs, and beyond talking about Hillary Clinton’s reactions to these affairs, and kept on going until he was accusing Hillary of infidelity.
“Hillary Clinton’s only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself,” Trump said. “I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth.”
And he reached what might be the purest moment of projection in Trump’s projection-laden life.
I have a great temperament. I have in my opinion — it’s like one of my strongest things. I have a winning temperament but you know how they choose ‘em — we have a winning temperament. … Now [Clinton] has got bad temperament. She’s got — She could be crazy. She could actually be crazy.
And while he was still rambling, screaming, stumbling and waving his arms … the crowd began to walk out.
As he spoke, dozens of people left the rally early, tired from standing for hours and hoping to beat the traffic. Those who remained leaned against walls, barricades and each other. One woman rubbed her knees. Another took a phone call: “I’m still here… He started an hour and a half late… I’ll call you whenever we get out of here.”
In previous instances, Donald Trump was happy enough to put on his broad smirk while the crowd chanted “Lock her up!” That’s clearly no longer satisfying the itch. Because this time, it was Trump who started the cheer.
“She should be in prison, let me tell you,” Trump said. “She should be in prison.”
The crowd cheered and chanted: “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!”
“And she’s being totally protected by The New York Times and The Washington Post and all of the media and CNN — Clinton News Network, which nobody is watching anyways so what difference does it make,” Trump said.
Well, no one but Trump, who is clearly hanging onto every word with his Twitter app open and waiting.
But throughout the speech, Trump sailed into lingua incognito, coming up with phrases and “sentences” that seemed to be built through random word association.
33,000 emails deleted. Bleached! Acid-washed! And then takes her phone and they hammer the hell out of them How many people have acid-washed or bleached a tweet? How many? That you deleted! So you delete it, but that’s not good enough. No, we got — this is getting crazy. Our country is becoming a third world country.
...
When you leave, is it worth it? Is it worth it? If we don’t win on November 8, I will say I don’t care what [pundits] write. I don’t care are if they have to give us a lot of credit — I think they have to give us credit — I will consider it a tremendous waste of time, energy, and money, believe me.
And he talked about the unmatchable high of listening to Donald Trump, something that Hollywood could never match.
And it’s getting worse. It’s not getting better. It’s getting worse. And you’re unsuspecting. Right now, you say to your wife: “Let’s go to a movie after Trump.” But you won’t do that because you’ll be so high and so excited that no movie is going to satisfy you. Okay? No movie. You know why? Honestly? Because they don’t make movies like they used to — is that right? What a difference.
Donald Trump isn’t just off the rails … he’s left the planet.