Trump Coaches Himself To ‘Stay On Point’ At Florida Rally

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Donald Trump served as his own coach during a Wednesday night campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida, telling himself aloud not to get off-message.

“We’ve gotta be nice and cool,” Trump said to himself after predicting an Election Day victory. “Nice and cool. All right? Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Niiiiice.”

“Because I’ve been watching Hillary the last few days,” Trump went on. “She’s totally unhinged. We don’t want any of that. She has become unhinged.”

The Republican nominee’s onstage pep talk laid bare his campaign’s strategy for the final stretch of the race. By avoiding negative attention with one of his characteristic off-color remarks, Trump will allow the media’s focus to remain honed in on WikiLeaks document dumps and the FBI’s analysis of emails possibly related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The real estate mogul has mostly stuck to the teleprompter script and kept his onstage asides aimed at Clinton in the final week before Election Day. His team’s previous efforts to keep his rally speeches and debate performances on track were derailed by his attacks on a former Miss Universe, suggestion that “Second Amendment people” could deal with Clinton, and promise to sue the women who have accused him of sexual assault, among others.

Latest Livewire
12
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Trump puts on a big show, but really, he’s a doofuss.

  2. “We’ve gotta be nice and cool,” Trump said to himself after predicting an Election Day victory. “Nice and cool. All right? Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Niiiiice.”

    He was, in fact, reading that off the teleprompter, not realizing that it was a message from Kellyanne.

  3. Trump: This shows that I can learn despite the fact that I have a brain of a 10year old. Everyone, including Putin, thinks I have potential. Media is scared of me so they lie and scare people.

  4. Avatar for imkmu3 imkmu3 says:

    “We’ve gotta be nice and cool,” Trump said to himself after predicting
    an Election Day victory. “Nice and cool. All right? Stay on point,
    Donald. Stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Niiiiice.”

    Is he talking to a puppy or a presidential candidate?

  5. Saw that on the morning news. He looked nuts–well, he always does but extra loony doing that.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

6 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for ajaykalra Avatar for immnamna Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for ecmiles Avatar for frankly_my_dear Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for azjude Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for maximus Avatar for dannysgrandma

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: