Trump is an American legend. And on net balance, he will always be a hero and a legend. But the Trumpian magic just wasn’t there Tuesday night.
On November 15, 2022, Donald Trump officially announced that he will be in the running for the 2024 Presidential election to become President of the United States for a second time. Trump delivered the primetime speech from his Mar-A-Lago estate in front of a crowd of supporters. Personally, I still want to see Trump succeed. I will always have a soft spot for him and I want to see him go out on top. With that being said, his speech wasn’t very good. Trump had especially low energy on Tuesday evening and it was somewhat discouraging to watch. Sadly, Trump is aging and he isn't the same man that he was back in 2015 and 2016. And for those who have been following him, there is no doubt that he’s not even at the level that he was at in 2020. During his oration, Trump sounded sleepy and quiet. At times he was barely audible because he was sort of whispering into the microphone. His speech was strangely un-Trumpian and generally uninspiring.
Donald Trump did not make the triumphant and glorious return to the political battlefield that a man of his pedigree should have made. Instead, his reappearance on the scene was impotent, subdued, and muted. Trump’s speech felt anticlimactic because the vibe and the energy was off. Unlike 2015, there wasn’t any palpable electricity buzzing through the air. When Trump finally said, “I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” it didn’t carry the intended gravitas. It felt undramatic, rehearsed, and mundane. In stark contrast, when Trump officially declared his candidacy in his 2015 speech, he delivered the magical lines akin to how a flash of lightning finally arrives after a steady buildup of ominous clouds and rumbles of thunder. Back then, he rocked the crowd and stunned the world. In 2015 Trump looked like a prize fighter who had a preternatural ability to save his best punch for the right moment to produce a knockout. That version of Trump was nowhere to be seen on Tuesday evening in Mar-A-Lago. The Trump that stood on that stage was visibly worn out and a shadow of his former self. To make an apt comparison, Trump looked like Muhammad Ali in 1981 rather than Cassius Clay in 1964.
Trump had far more vim and vigor in 2015. Seven years ago, Trump sounded more frantic, more urgent, and more righteously indignant. In 2022 not only does he sound less urgent, he sounds more constrained and restrained. In 2015, he had more classic Trumpian gesticulations and hand movements. Donald Trump hardly moved his hands on Tuesday night. He also had far more crowd engagement and feedback seven years ago. Attendees were yelling things like “we need Trump now” and Trump was responding to the crowd in a way that only he could. There was no such frenetic back and forth going on at Mar-A-Lago.
Instead of producing show-stopping rhetoric à la the master class he produced in his 2015 Trump Tower Presidential announcement, Trump gave a generic GOP speech. He talked about reducing inflation, securing the border, and tax cuts. He spoke about trade deals with China. He stumped for people like Herschel Walker and talked about how the Republican Party needs to win more seats. Instead of creating his own separate political movement, Trump foolishly continues to participate in and represent the Republican Party even though the party has done nothing but stymie his original agenda. In spite of the fact that Trump has been repeatedly backstabbed by the Republican Party, he continues to slavishly serve the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConell. Not only is it absolutely puzzling to observe, it's a self-defeating project.
Given the unprecedented controversy that has surrounded him and the pathetically moribund state of the country, one would think that Trump would have been able to deliver a more poignant speech. He should have been able to proudly stand up at the podium and produce a political sermon excoriating the unfair nature of the brutal character assassination he has endured for seven straight years. He should have defiantly vowed to deliver some form of justice to those who have done him and his supporters wrong. His speech should have offered a verbal panacea for the constant abuse, alienation, and disrespect that true Trump supporters face on a daily basis just for loving traditional Americana, cultural normalcy, and traditional American values.
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