I have referred a number of times to the ‘revanchism’ of Donald Trump’s supporters. The term originated out of the French demand to reclaim the eastern territories it had lost to Prussia in the War of 1870. But the literal meaning of the word is “revenge” or “revengism”: revanchism is a politics based on one group seeking revenge on another group and reclaiming from the latter group what was wrongfully taken from it. This kind of political orientation has been clear in the Trump movement from the beginning. But under pressure it’s coming even more clearly to the fore.
The events of the last twenty four hours are a good example: Trump can try to pivot to the general election. But the primaries will insist on coming along too.
As you can see in the feature story, something happened today at a Trump rally in Ohio. What is clear from the video is that while Trump was speaking at an open air rally in Dayton, Ohio, half a dozen of what appear to be Secret Service agents rushed to him to protect his body. I had heard from people who said Trump had been rushed on the stage. But the video shows clearly that that did not happen. Presumably, the agents saw something they believed to be an imminent threat to Trump and rushed to protect him. We will try to find out more about what happened.
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Interesting segment on CNN just now. Jeff Zeleny is explaining that at least outside the Chicago event the crowds were very diverse – ethnically, in terms of age, individuals and families – and orderly, not violent or threatening. A real cross section. Obviously inside the event things got unruly. But that seems to be a very incomplete picture of what happened.
Arm-Grab-Gate has now descended into a bizarre replay of the Kennedy Assassination Zapruder Film. But it seems everybody who touches this story gets splattered with derp. Here’s MSNBC having a bit of a hard time. Watch.
Here’s the latest on the weird goings-on within the Virgin Island’s GOP, which we first told you about late yesterday.
Trump today on rally violence: “You know what? The audience swung back. And I thought it was very, very appropriate. He was swinging. He was hitting people. And the audience hit back. And that’s what we need a little bit more of.”
Full story here.
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The big takeaway from tonight’s debate – perhaps ‘confirmation’ is a better word for it – is that Donald Trump can turn the bully boy shtick on and off like a spigot. Watching this debate was like being transported back to the pre-2016 GOP debate world where one candidate ranting “Little Marco” ten times or another putting up his hands to show how big they were was essentially unimaginable. The tone of this gathering made it seem almost unthinkable again.
As everyone has noted, Trump is now trying not only to pivot to the general election but reassure GOP party stakeholders with his restraint and smother his competitors with talk of unity. I thought Trump and Cruz did very well for themselves but in very different ways. Trump owned his frontrunner-dom, didn’t deign to rise to the taunts of his competitors and didn’t let the moderators – especially Dana Bash – orchestrate a confrontation. He didn’t allow himself to get knocked off that game. A bit more tired by the end of the debate, he was a little less able to keep attack Donald under wraps. But overall, he kept it cool and restrained. He kept to his plan.