Trump is doing a campaign rally in Topeka, Kansas around 7:30. Tweets in this thread, mute thread if you don't want to read many tweets about a Trump rally, you know the drill.
Trump calls this a "historic night." He says Kavanaugh's confirmation is a victory for the country and "our beloved Constitution." There is very loud cheering.
Trump thanks Republican senators for "refusing to back down in the face of the Democrats' shameless campaign of political and personal destruction."
"The radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob," Trump says. "They threw aside every notion of fairness, of justice, of decency, and of due process. Nobody's seen anything like it."
Trump again falsely says there were only 200 anti-Kavanaugh protesters today. He urges voters to go out in November and render their verdict on Democrats' conduct during the Kavanaugh controversy. He warns that this is how they'll behave if they get power.
Trump: "You don't hand matches to an arsonist, and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob."
Trump: "The Democrats have become too extreme and too dangerous to govern. Republicans believe in the rule of law, not the rule of the mob." (This is new-ish language, though in keeping with his recent themes.) The crowd chants "drain the swamp."
This language appears to be in Trump's prepared text.
Trump is touting the strong economic numbers, boasting of his investments in the military. He says electing Democrats will cause "gridlock, poverty and chaos."
Trump with a comprehensive lie about Democrats: "Essentially they want to impose socialism - Venezuela - dismantle law enforcement and eliminate our borders." None of this is true.
Trump lies for the 30th time that wages are rising for the first time in 19 years. Wages have been rising steadily since 2014.
Sir alert: Trump, with a ridiculous lie, says that he was advised that today is so historic, with Kavanaugh being confirmed, that he should cancel his Kansas rally, but he decided he wouldn't do that. "They called me, they said, Sir we're signing the next Supreme Court Justice."
Sir Alert, continued: "So they said, 'Sir do you mind cancelling Kansas tonight?' I said, 'NO WAY I'm cancelling Kansas, no way. No way.'" This story is obviously entirely fictional.
Trump says the crowd outside is bigger than the 10,000-plus crowd inside. Anyone out there on the scene?
Trump: "USMCA. USMCA. I refused to call it NAFTA because NAFTA was such a horrible deal. You didn't even realize it...there's no way I'm calling it NAFTA 2. USMCA." It is predominantly NAFTA, though with some significant changes.
For the 70-somethingth time, Trump lies that the U.S. has a $500 billion trade deficit with China: "$500 billion a year. That's a big one. They take out." That has never once happened.
"After what I just did for you with the new deal with Mexico and Canada," Trump says, his margin of victory in Kansas should "double."
Trump, with some unhelpful-sounding remarks about Kansas Republican governor candidate Kris Kobach, says he'll put Kobach in his administration "in two seconds" if Kobach loses, and was angry that Kobach ran. "I hope he loses," Trump says. Then says he doesn't really mean that.
Kobach talks about stopping illegal immigration. There is a "build that wall" chant. Kobach says Trump is a president who gets it: "Illegal means illegal."
Kobach is talking entirely about illegal immigration. "It's time to put Kansans first, not illegal aliens," he says, and there is a U-S-A chant.
Kobach moves to voter fraud, his pet issue. (The Trump-Kobach commission was disbanded after proving nothing.) He says that if you need photo ID to buy Sudafed, you should need one to cast your vote. He says that every state should also require proof of citizenship at the polls.
Trump is giving more time to local candidates at his recent rallies than he has in the past. He now calls up congressional candidate Steve Watkins. who calls Trump not just any "leader of the free world," but "a great one."
Trump on Watkins's opponent: "His name is Paul Davis. He's not good. He's not good, you know that." He says a vote for Davis is a vote for Schumer, Pelosi and "the legendary Maxine Waters." Waters, a Black woman, is the member he adds to his Schumer-Pelosi warning at every rally.
Trump says again that Democrats' Medicare-for-all plans would "eviscerate Medicare." He never elaborates.
Trump just making stuff up: "Every single Democrat in the U.S. Senate has signed up for the open borders - and it's a bill. And it's called The Open Borders Bill. What's going on? And it's written by - guess who - Dianne Feinstein."
What I think happened here: Trump's prepared text included his usual language about Democrats signing up for an "open borders agenda," but Trump decided mid-sentence to lie that there is a bill called The Open Borders Bill.
Trump, whose administration is in court arguing that Obamacare's pre-existing conditions protections are unconstitutional, promises again to take care of Americans with pre-existing conditions. As usual, he provides no details at all.
Trump is talking about how "tough" ICE officers are, and how MS-13 gang members are scared of them and try to run, but they can't, they get caught by ICE. He adds, "MS-13 doesn't like ICE. That's why I like ICE."
Trump on ICE arresting MS-13 members: "A foreign invader, a foreign invader, finally is being taken out." (MS-13 was founded in the U.S., though some members are illegal immigrants.) He adds of MS-13, "They cut people up." He mocks Pelosi for saying not to call them "animals."
Trump says that people who won't talk about who they support with pollsters are Trump voters. He says he's not sure if he should be happy about that, but it's true.
Trump claims he's very popular with African-Americans, saying: "Thank you, Kanye West. Thank you, Jim Brown...thank you, Iron Mike." That's rapist Mike Tyson.
Trump lies: "We're the fastest-developing country in the world, can you believe that? Boom. Fastest in the world." The U.S. has been doing better than most or all major industrialized country, but not better than all countries.
Trump: "Pocahontas, Pocahontas. I've got more Indian blood in me than Pocahontas, and I have none."
Trump lies that he's hitting potential Democratic opponents "so hard" that they are "disappearing," so he has to be softer, so he doesn't eliminate easy prey.
Trump is fantasizing at length about beating up Joe Biden. "He's down, and he'll never get up," he narrates.
Trump mocks Elizabeth Warren for talking about her grandfather's "high cheekbones" while explaining her family's story about having Native heritage. Trump says, "Hey, I have high cheekbones too. Maybe I'm an Indian."
Trump is now mocking Richard Blumenthal, who lied about having served in Vietnam, as "Da Nang Dick." But Trump, as usual, adds his own lies, inventing a whole war-battle story he falsely claims Blumenthal told.
The president: "Connecticut's such a mess right now...you gotta see, it's a mess."
Trump acknowledges for the first time that Blumenthal served in the Marine Reserve. Trump, who also got five deferments, did not serve at all.
Trump on the FBI probe: "That extra week was a great thing...it showed, no corroboration, no nothing. By the way, no NOTHING."
Trump praises Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell, and Susan Collins. Don't think he's ever praised Collins at a rally before.
Trump lies that Brett Kavanaugh was "#1 at Yale." Yale doesn't do class rankings, but Kavanaugh, who graduated cum laude, wasn't close to the top.
Trump: "I just left the United Nations last week, and I can tell you, and everybody else can tell you, and even the fake news can tell you: America is respected again." Leaders literally laughed at him at the UN when he boasted of his accomplishments.
Trump tells his usual lie about how nobody could pass the Veterans Choice program, which lets vets see private doctors, for "44 years" before him. He adds, "I'm good at getting things done." The program was created in 2014 under Obama.
For the 19th time, Trump lies that his $700 billion military budget was a "record." Obama signed a $725 billion version for 2011.
Earlier, Trump bashed Cory Booker, saying he was a disaster as Newark mayor. Of his potential 2020 opponents, Trump has singled out Booker, Warren, Biden and Sanders at recent rallies, saying he thinks or dreams of them every night.
Trump on the deal with Mexico and Canada: "I said who knows...it's a deal...who knows. It takes all the pressure off."
As usual, Trump is criticizing the media coverage of his work with "Chairman Kim," saying he's done a lot, stopping missile and nuclear testing and more, in a short period of time. He shouts, "THE FAKE NEWS SAYS WHY AREN'T YOU GOING FASTER?"
Trump repeats his lie that Obama was about to go to war with North Korea, and he asked Obama if they'd at least tried to talk to Kim, but "somebody" in the Obama administration told him that that hadn't occurred to them.
Trump is telling his usual story about how he gleefully ignored foreign leaders' pleas not to move the embassy to Jerusalem. "You know the story. I refused to take their phone calls."
Trump lies again that he built a US embassy in Jerusalem for "about $400,000." The required renovations of the existing diplomatic building will cost a minimum of $21 million.
Trump: "Canada was taking advantage of the NFL." He boasts that he solved this dispute, over "simultaneous substitution" of football ads, in "two minutes" in the trade deal. Background: globalnews.ca/news/4518977/d…
Trump says that NFL players will "still hate me" even though he fixed this NFL dispute with Canada and thus players will get more money, but he doesn't care as long as they stand for the national anthem.
Trump urges people to "reject the Democrat politics of anger and division and destruction and to reclaim America's true heritage." He says "we're losing that with these crazy loco people." That's at least his sixth "loco" of the week.
Trump again says that a person said that he's delivered even more than he promised. What happened was he started saying that himself a while ago, then started attributing it to an unnamed person.
Trump talking about the (white) people who settled Kansas: "Strong women. Strong women. Stronnng. I'm sorry, fellas. Stronger than the men. I'm sorry, fellas."
Take 2 on typo-free summary:
- Lies
- President insults Connecticut
- President makes up nonexistent Open Borders Bill
- Mocking Warren, Trump says he too has high “Indian” cheekbones
- Trump urges voters to punish Dems, an “angry mob,” for their Kavanaugh behaviour
- OK bye
- Lies
- President insults Connecticut
- President makes up nonexistent Open Borders Bill
- Mocking Warren, Trump says he too has high “Indian” cheekbones
- Trump urges voters to punish Dems, an “angry mob,” for their Kavanaugh behaviour
- OK bye
