Trump's Weekend Golf Trip #121 to NJ begins in Great Falls, Montana
Trump's fantasy world of counterfactuals: handicapping an anticipated war with North Korea on the way to playing golf this weekend in NJ via a single event in Great Falls Montana.
Was it an excuse to get a Russian message from Montana’s GOP Senator Steve Daines, who spent July 4th in Moscow (not the Idaho town).
Donald Trump Jr. is speaking first. "Big shooter, big hunter, big fisherman," he says of himself, to cheers. "That's why I also feel ridiculous in this suit." He accuses Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of being a fake hunter.
Tweet thread follows
- Donald Trump Jr. on Trump critics he sees on TV: "People in far-off lands who hate our guts. They hate our freedoms. They hate our religion. They hate everything about us. These people are more concerned about their feelings...than the safety and well-being of our kids."
- Donald Trump Jr. warns Montana voters to be wary of Jon Tester donors' "New York money."
- Trump begins, as he regularly does, by talking about the "thousands" of people he says have been stranded outside the rally. "I said to my people, why didn't you get a larger arena?"
- Trump calls up Montana Republican candidate Matt Rosendale, who says, "Do we have an incredible president or what?" He says Trump is fighting for Montana's servicemembers, seniors, veterans, people in the timber industry, farmers, ranchers, miners, coal workers, and "the unborn."
- Trump: "A vote for Jon Tester is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi" (boos) "and the new leader of the Democrat party, Maxine Waters" (bigger boos).
- Trump interrupts his criticism of Tester to criticize John McCain's Obamacare vote, as he has at every recent rally and several other recent events.
- Trump is, as always, highly misleading about the estate tax, saying farmers can now happily leave their farms to their children. Per the Tax Policy Center, a mere 80 farms and small businesses were among the 5,460 estates likely to pay the estate tax in 2017, before Trump's law.
- Trump: "We're going to protect ICE. We protect ICE. They protect us and we protect them."
- Trump attacks the "clown" who climbed the Statue of Liberty to protest his family separation policy, saying he would not have sent rescuers up but would just have set up "nets" for her, presumably to jump.
- Trump says Tester tried to take away the 2nd Amendment - "tried to take it away." No idea what he's talking about, and not sure if he does.
- Trump's attack on Tester is similar his attack on North Dakota's Heitkamp - saying he says nice things about Trump, and professes to have Montana values, but is really a liberal Democrat.
- Trump is attacking Tester for revealing alleged wrongdoing by White House doctor and VA nominee Ronny Jackson: "He actually said I was healthy. You know, he was the one."
- Trump says he "sort of" feels guilty for the Ronny Jackson nomination disaster, since Jackson didn't actually want to run the VA but Trump pushed him. Trump adds: "How vicious is the world?"
- Trump boasts that he won a state by 44 points "over a Democrat" -- "now it was Crooked Hillary, but still, she's a Democrat." He says she gets "special treatment under the Justice Department." There is a loud Lock Her Up chant.
- Trump: "I'll see NATO and I'll tell NATO, you've gotta start paying your bills."
- Trump complains that the U.S. is paying "anywhere from 70 to 90 percent to protect Europe." As of this year, U.S. defence spending represents 72% of total NATO defence spending. There's no basis for the "90 percent" estimate.
- Trump says he told Angela Merkel, "I don't know how much protection we get by protecting you."
- Trump on NATO: "The Secretary General, Stoltenberg, is Trump's biggest fan."
- Trump on NATO: "We're the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing."
- Trump says it's smart to get along with Russia, then adds without finishing his sentence: "For stupid people or for political people - because they're not stupid - all they are is good at obstruction...but every time it comes up, I will say this, I'm gonna have to ask them..."
- For the eighth time, Trump falsely says that the U.S. is "now" exporting energy. The U.S. has exported energy for over a century. It is not yet a net exporter - the Trump administration projects that'll happen in 2022.
- Trump, shouting in a mocking voice to do an impression of his critics, say they used to say "HE'S TOO TOUGH" on North Korea "and now they say 'HE'S TOO NICE.'"
- "Obama was very close to going to war with North Korea," Trump says again, though there's no evidence for this claim.
- Trump is scolding "the fake news, the fake news media," which he calls "crooked," for criticizing his North Korea efforts.
- Trump claims that Obama would have loved to meet North Korea's leader but "they wouldn't see him." He says this was one of the first questions he asked (the North Koreans?) when he was "over there," and they confirmed, "they wouldn't see him."
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Trump mocks his critics for saying "'President Putin is KGB' and this and that. You know what? Putin's fine."
- "They make the sources up, they don't exist, in many cases." Trump is again falsely accusing newspapers of inventing sources in his administration. Of reporters, he adds: "These are really bad people."
- Trump, who has sought to cut legal immigration, calls for more legal immigration: "We need people! We don't have the workers anymore!...We need people that come in under the merit system."
- Trump says a vote for Democrats is a vote to "let MS-13 run wild."
- Trump with another threat: "Democrats want anarchy. They really do. And they don't know who they're playing with, folks."
- Trump says Maxine Waters's IQ is "in the mid-60s."
- For the 10th time, Trump falsely says Hillary Clinton earned 223 electoral votes. She got 232. "306 to 223," he repeats.
- I’m now inside the press pen inside, where you’re not allowed to get water or go to the bathroom. Celine Dion is playing!
- Brings Gianforte and Steve Daines onto the stage: Daines: “Let me tell you something, Donald Jr is a heckofa shot. Every morning I wake up and I say thanks: thank God Hillary Clinton isn’t president.”
- Gianforte: “This president has given this country hope again.”
- Trump Jr: “Do you want Montana to be a sanctuary state?”
- Big “no” from the crowd. [Montana is not a sanctuary state and has no sanctuary cities.]
- Trump Jr: “If the media was a tenth more friendly to us, think of what we could do.”
- Number of Trump Jr hunting mentions: Four (bow-hunting, hunting camp with Daines, I’m a big hunter, shooting prairie dogs with Gianforte)
- Trump walks on, as usual to God Bless The USA - no sign of Rosendale yet, which makes me think he’s going to intro him during the speech to make a point re: Tester
- Trump: “Steve Daines, running in 2020, we’re running together, Steve” (Calling it now: this is a line that will come back for Daines)
- Trump introduced Matt Rosendale, who’s running against Tester (and ostensibly the reason Trump is here today. Rosendale was one of the early Bannon-endorsed candidates and speaks with a heavy Maryland accent that is arguably his biggest liability
- Trump bringing up a real Tester liability here - that he says one thing in Montana and does another.
- Oh, and Trump just declared Maxine Waters the new head of the Democratic Party, who knew
- Trump now expressing confusion as to how Tester got elected, which tells you something about how well he understands Montana (even Trump supporters will tell you they understand how Tester got elected)
- Trump: “I won Montana by so many points that I don’t have to come here!” [This is another statement that’ll come back in 2 years.]
- Trump just mentioned that he’s meeting with Putin next week - and there was a huge cheer for Putin. “Getting along with other countries is a good thing” (Trump just wrapped up 10 minutes of talking about why NATO is unfair)
- One thing Trump hasn’t mentioned, and that will have an outsize effect on the farming and ranching communities in this area: Tariffs.
- Driving into town, local country station had 10 min of analysis on just how dark the effects could be & how essential it is to end the trade war
- Trump just gestured at the press pen and called us the “crooked media.” Boos in our direction. “They’re the fake news.” [In case you were wondering about how the Maryland shooting has or hasn’t affected the discourse]
- President Trump: 75% of those people [pointing at us in the press pen again] are dishonest. “These are really bad people.”
- “They always want me to apologize for using Pocahontas.”
- “Pocahontas, I apologize to you. To the fake Pocahantas, I don’t apologize.”
- Montana is home to 62K Native Americans. Great Falls, home to the Little Shell tribe. Many of the people at this rally frequent Native casinos
- Trump says that the Democratic party’s new platform is to abolish ICE and get rid of immigration enforcement entirely (Fact check: A handful of leaders have publicly advocated to abolish ICE and replace it with a different immigration enforcement system)
- Trump mentioning how tax cuts have saved family farms (still no mention of trade war tariffs and their effects on family farmers)