Tom Nichols: Let's Talk About Trump's Gibberish

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/06/trump-sharks-las-vegas-rally-speech/678667/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/NySZh

Perhaps the greatest trick Donald Trump ever pulled was convincing millions of people—and the American media—to treat his lapses into fantasies and gibberish as a normal, meaningful form of oratory. But Trump is not a normal person, and his speeches are not normal political events.

For too long, Trump has gotten away with pretending that his emotional issues are just part of some offbeat New York charm or an expression of his enthusiasm for public performance. But Trump is obviously unfit—and something is profoundly wrong with a political environment in which he can now say almost anything, no matter how weird, and his comments will get a couple of days of coverage and then a shrug, as if to say: Another day, another Trump rant about sharks.

Wait, what?

Yes, sharks. In Las Vegas on Sunday, Trump went off-script—I have to assume that no competent speechwriter would have drafted this—and riffed on the important question of how to electrocute a shark while one attacks. He had been talking, he claims, to someone about electric boats: “I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery’s now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’”

As usual, Trump noted how much he impressed his interlocutor with his very smart hypothetical: “And he said, ‘Nobody ever asks this question,’ and it must be because of MIT, my relationship to MIT. Very smart.” (MIT? Trump’s uncle taught there and retired over a half century ago, when Trump was in his 20s, and died in 1985. Trump often implies that his uncle passed on MIT’s brainpower by genetic osmosis or something.)

*snip*

[flamingdem]

1. This sealed it. He won't be showing up for the debate.

Dementia will be too obvious!

[calimary]

4. Well, I could stand to watch Biden take the whole hour, singlehandedly.

I’m always interested in whatever he has to say.

[Skittles]

2. YES LET'S TALK ABOUT IT

Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2024, 09:21 PM - Edit history (1)

TELL US HOW THE REACTION WOULD BE IF A DEMOCRAT BEHAVED LIKE THAT. EXTRA POINTS FOR DETAILING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF A WOMAN OR POC BABBLED ON ABOUT SHARKS WHILE RUNNING TO BE PRESIDENT.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. +100!

[Geechie]

8. This scene has come to mind thousands of times since Trump ran for president

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“Being There” starring Peter Sellers

[LymphocyteLover]

20. THANK you

[Cha]

5. Let's DO. TSF is a Gibberish Gish Galloping Rapist Felonious Fool.

Oh and TSF "Convinced" the Cult because they're Idiots and the "media" is complicit and Hates Democracy. Fuck them.

[tanyev]

6. Yes. This is where the media has really dropped the ball.

Or carried the water.

[Quanto Magnus]

19. I think it's carrying the water....

The talking heads in the M$M are generally wealthy too (not including the execs). They have a vested interest in both making this more of a horse race and getting tRump back into office since he said he'd cut taxes for the wealthy again .

[Kid Berwyn]

7. He's an entertainah!

Sooo interestin’!

Media have not only have covered up his insanity, they foist it as the new normal all the freaking time.

[pandr32]

9. It's not the 'sharks' part that scares me.

He is actually suggesting that boats are too heavy to float unless they have a gas motor. He even went so far as to mention the Mercury boat motors. This is a person who never should have graduated from elementary school.
I'm glad he's scared of sharks. I want to troll him with things that rob his peace. I wish SNL's Land Shark from a few decades ago would troll him. Knock knock. Who's there? Candygram!

[PCIntern]

11. You know what else floats?

Very small rocks. (MP’s Holy Grail)

[Ray Bruns]

15. A duck!

[Martin Eden]

16. If the battery made the boat too heavy to float ...

How did the boat get to where the sharks are

And should Joe ask him that question at the debate?

Seriously.

"I'd like to ask the former president how a boat too heavy to float made it to where the sharks are. Perhaps he can explain that to the professors at MIT."

News media could NOT ignore that, and TFG would be ridiculed.

[pandr32]

18. He SHOULD be ridiculed!

Mercilessly.
How is it that he is being promoted as a serious person at all?
He is a complete bafoon.
He should be ridiculed every time he feels confident enough to make a joke of himself. We should all be laughing at him.

[mahina]

22. Because of the weight.

Dont tell him about aircraft carriers and battleships.

[pandr32]

23. LMAO!

[hay rick]

10. A huge segment of the media isn't failing us- they are betraying us. nt

[sanatanadharma]

12. Great comeback to maga-mad talkers, " don't speak gibberish!"

And, walk away.

[Wednesdays]

13. TSF didn't "trick" the American Media into normalizing his oratory

They're willingly complicit.

[BobTheSubgenius]

14. Wow! If there had never been an uncle that taught at MIT,

imagine how stupid he would be. The distributive power of intelligence - the world should be thankful.

[NoMoreRepugs]

17. Gloves off - JoeB and the Democratic Party need to attack the media for normalizing Slobby.

JoeB needs to stand at a podium and challenge the media - …”can u Imagine the 24/7 coverage of my competency if I talked about electric boats and shark attacks or most anything trump says that’s preposterous??”

Democracy and the Free World are at stake - do it Joe, do it.

[PatSeg]

21. "Nobody ever asks this question"

Okay, that part is believable, no one in their right mind would ask such a question. Of course no one said that to him. He made the whole thing up.