Trump is scheduled to speak shortly at a campaign rally in Charleston, West Virginia. Thread starts here.
A man tells Trump he loves him. Trump responds, "It's a guy, but I love you too."
Trump begins by attacking the NFL, which he describes as unpatriotic, and ESPN, for not televising the national anthem. "So while the players are kneeling..."
Trump lies that U.S. Steel is opening "seven different plants," which is down from eight plants but up from six plants. He varies the lie depending on the day.
Trump says to loud applause and Trump chants: "We are putting our great coal miners back to work." Here's the chart of coal mining employment. 
Trump repeats his ludicrously inaccurate monologue about how coal is "indestructible" and you "can do whatever you want" to it, unlike windmills and other kinds of energy, which are not indestructible.
Trump on West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who is tall and hefty: "He is the largest, most beautiful man."
After Jim Justice finishes speaking, Trump says, not trying to be funny, that Justice is "6-foot-11." Justice is 6-foot-7.
"He's a big man. He's ALL man," Trump says.
"He's a big man. He's ALL man," Trump says.
Trump again complains that Bill de Blasio is using the slogan Promises Made, Promises Kept, which lots of politicians have used for years: "They're copying it now, the Democrats," he says. "They're copying it. Promises made, promises kept. They're copying it."
Trump calls up Republican Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey, who is running against Joe Manchin. Morrisey says of Trump: "How 'bout this guy? West Virginia's never seen anything like it. We love you."
Hours after Trump's lawyer pleaded guilty to crimes and implicated Trump and Trump's campaign chairman was convicted of crimes, the crowd at the Trump rally is chanting "drain that swamp."
The crowd then proceeded to a "lock her up" chant.
There's a lot of interesting masculinity happening tonight
The crowd delivers bigger boos for Maxine Waters than for Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
Trump says he would campaign more but is held back by the Secret Service, because there are so many Secret Service agents. He says he might make "a few trips without them." (.............)
Trump is boasting at length about the power of his midterm endorsements.
Trump falsely claims that Florida Republican governor primary candidate Ron DeSantis "was at 3" per cent before Trump endorsed him. Trump's endorsement has clearly helped DeSantis, but he wasn't below the mid-teens in any poll.
Trump: "The Democrats want to turn America into one big fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens. And honestly they're more protective of aliens, criminal aliens, than they are of the people."
Trump makes the same case in all of his speeches in red states with Dem incumbents, such as North Dakota and West Virginia: a vote for the local incumbent is effectively a vote for Schumer, Pelosi and Waters.
I'd currently assess Trump's hingedness level as above-averagedly hinged, by his rally hingedness standards. This is subject to change.
Trump lies: "By the way: the wall, right now, that wall is coming along...it's moving along very nicely...it's going up."
Construction of Trump's wall has not begun. There are scattered fence-replacement projects.
Construction of Trump's wall has not begun. There are scattered fence-replacement projects.
Trump brings up today's arrest of an unauthorized Mexican immigrant for the murder of Mollie Tibbetts. "Should have never happened," he says.
Trump criticizes NY Gov. Cuomo for saying "America was never that great." Sounding like the Democrats who criticized his own 2016 claim that America was not currently great, he says it's an insult to various American heroes, from soldiers to medical researchers.
"Sir" alert: Trump claims he came to West Virginia before the election and told coal miners he'd help them learn how to make "little widgets or gidgets or gadgets," but they responded, "Sir, we wanna keep coal."
Trump is boasting of West Virginia having achieved GDP growth near the top of the nation. That was the first quarter of 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2017, West Virginia had fallen to 44th in the country, at a mere 1 per cent growth.
Trump chides "fake news," then the Russia "witch hunt." He says, "Where is the collusion?...You know, they're still looking for collusion! Find some collusion!"
This was Trump's first Russia-investigation reference of the speech. He quickly moved on to MS-13 and ICE, didn't mention Mueller, Manafort or Cohen.
Trump segues from illegal-immigrant crime to Chicago crime: "If you want to save ICE, if you want to protect our border and our border patrol, if you want to stop this craziness of sanctuary cities - take a look at Chicago, how about the mayor of Chicago? It's like a war zone."
Trump again wrongly suggests nobody would have believed 4 million jobs being created over these 20 months since the election. About 4.3 million jobs were added over the previous 20 months under Obama.
Trump lies for the second time that Hillary Clinton said "there's no such thing as manufacturing jobs anymore." Clinton said in the third presidential debate: "I want us to have the biggest jobs program since World War II. Jobs in infrastructure and advanced manufacturing."
Trump tells people to be more patient on North Korea, since they've been having this problem for "75 years." Korea was still unified in 1943. The two Koreas were still a unified country in 1943. The origins of the North Korean nuclear program are traced to 1956, 62 years ago.
Trump on Obama's view of North Korea: "He considered it like - just read the papers, you'll see what he considered." He does not elaborate.
Trump on Rocket Man: "I won't say it because I don't want to insult Chairman Kim...Elton John! I don't wanna insult, so I'm not gonna mention it. But the fake news back there said heee is going to get us into a war! He's craaazy! This guy is craaazy! Our president is craaazy!"
Trump falsely claims for the 14th time that NATO countries were "delinquent" and not paying bills. That isn't how the alliance works. He says Sec-Gen Stoltenberg said they've now added $44 billion. Stoltenberg said $41 billion.
Best "sir" yet: Trump says he was blasting NATO members for not paying their bills, and then: "Somebody said 'sir' - this is the president of a country calling me sir!"
Trump repeats his lie that the U.S. is paying "close to 90% of the cost of protecting Europe." U.S. defence spending is 72% of total NATO defence spending, not all of which goes to protecting Europe.
As per usual, Trump is getting less hinged.
Trump's view of international relations: "We have only one-way streets...our enemies, our friends, our allies...I mean, our allies treat us worse than our enemies. Believe it."
Trump, demanding patience on tariffs, says members of Congress say, "'SIR, can you get this deal done immediately?'...It's gotta gestate. The word gestate...it's like when you're cooking a chicken...turkey, for Thanksgiving..."He says his mom "made the greatest turkey."
Trump, complaining of Canada's dairy tariffs, says, "Justin, I don't want to have too much fun with you, Justin, you can't do that. Justin Trudeau. Nice guy."
Trump boasts of abandoning the Paris Accord. He adds, "What's a more beautiful name than 'the Paris Accord?'" He then suggests a West Virginia Accord.
Trump falsely: "We've got the cleanest country in the planet right now. There's nobody cleaner than us."
Trump with his 12th lie about how he had the first tax cuts since Reagan: "How come it's been Ronald Reagan since you got the last big tax cut. And they looked at me and said, 'We don't know!'" Even if he's only talking Republicans, George W. Bush passed major tax cuts.
Trump denounces social media "censorship": "I would rather have fake news than have anybody, included liberals, socialists, anything...stopped and censored...we'll live with fake news."
Trump called in October for the revocation of networks' broadcast licenses.
Trump called in October for the revocation of networks' broadcast licenses.
In summary: Trump is not talking at all about today's convictions. Instead, he is talking at great length about every other possible subject.
Trump on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh: "Central casting. How do you vote against him?"
"The Space Force. That's very exciting. We need it. That's the new frontier...militarily, that's where it's at."
Trump on what happened when he was contemplating moving the embassy to Jerusalem: "Every country: don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, please don't do it. DON'T DOO ITTT." He says he thus stopped taking foreign leaders' calls for five days.
Trump to his supporters: "We're the smart ones. Remember. I say it all the time: you hear, 'the elite'...you're smarter than they are, you have more money than they do...let them have the word elite. You're the super-elite."
Trump on himself and "the elite": "I'm smarter than they are. I have many much more beautiful homes than they do. I have a better apartment at the top of Fifth Avenue. Why the hell are they 'the elite?' ...To me, I'm insulted."
Trump says Patrick Morrisey will come to him and say, "THEY DON'T WANNA WIN SO MUCH. THEY CANNN'T STANNND IT." He says, he'll respond, "I don't care WHAT THE HELLLL THE PEOPLE OF WEST VIRGINIA WANT WE'RE GONNA KEEP ON WINNING ANYWAY."
Trump has concluded after about an hour and 15 minutes, longer than usual. No mention of Cohen, Manafort, or Mueller, and less time spent on the Russia probe - just a couple sentences - than at most events.
