Trump is about to start a rally in Missoula, Montana, his first of three consecutive days of rallying (and five rallies in the next seven days). Thread here.
To be clear, I'm in DC for almost all of these rally-tweets, watching on YouTube - went to 12 or so in 2015 and 2016, none in 2018 so far.
"I love these hangars. I love a hangar. There's nothing like a hangar," Trump begins. He is in a hangar.
Trump ad-libbing: "Montana, to me, is a very big and powerful state. At least it will be after Matt Rosendale becomes your senator."
Trump on how Montana values the Second Amendment: "I wouldn't want to be the one that walks into your house, says 'gimme that gun.' Nobody has the courage to do that."
Trump: "We watch Montana. And two years ago, you watched over me. Because we won this state by a lot. That was one of those quickies." He is, as usual, recounting his 2016 victory in the third person in the voice of a newscaster.
Trump on military planes: "You have F-35s, you have the F-18s, the Super-Dupers -- the Hornets. We have them all."
A big cheer for Brett Kavanaugh. Trump calls the Democrats' opposition to Kavanaugh "heartless."
Trump: "This will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense...it's going to be an election of those things."
Trump, on immigration, says Democrats have told him "we're not giving to give you the laws that you need," but, still, he is persevering: "We're taking it and we're doing it and we have great things happening."
! Trump repeats Matt Gaetz's unfounded theory that the caravan migrants are being given money to get to the U.S. "by election day."
Trump continuing with his hugely-misleading-at-best claim about Democrats and the migrants: "They also figure everybody coming in's going to vote Democrat...they're not so stupid when you think about it. But they are crazy."
Trump on illegal immigrants: "We have hardened criminals coming in. You think those people are perfect? They're not perfect. You have some hardened, bad people coming in."
Trump to the "fake news" on immigration: "I have caused the problem. I'm taking full blame. You know why? Everyone's like in shock...it's my problem, I caused it: because I have created such an incredible economy, I have created so many jobs...that everybody wants to come in."
Trump lies that average people in the anti-Trump resistance get "paid by Soros" or "somebody" else." He says their signs are suspiciously nice, "right from the finest printer in Washington," not from "the basement."
Combo Tears Alert and Sir Alert: Trump says that when he was walking in, "a big strong guy grabbed me, and he was almost crying, and it happens every time, and many times. And he said: 'Sir, Mr. President, thank you so much for saving our country.'"
Here is my article about all the big strong guys Trump dubiously claims have been privately crying in his presence, often when he is walking into rallies thestar.com/news/world/ana…
Trump with his pre-emptive defense against obstruction allegations: "If you fight back today it's called obstruction. No no no. We fight back. Call it whatever the hell you want. We fight back. 'Obstruction.'" He said the last "obstruction" very dismissively.
Trump: "We're 1 for 1. We're gonna soon be 2 for 2, and that's going to be it. Although a lot of the fake news said that 'he's not gonna stop at 8 years, he's going longer, we'll never take it away from him.'"
Trump says Make America Great Again is "maybe the greatest slogan in the history of runs." He makes fun of Clinton's "I'm with her" slogan, then mockingly says, "Crooked Hillary is a great unifier." There is a "lock her up" chant.
Trump, ranting about Clinton's emails, tells people to forget everything other than that, then says: "You can never forget about Benghazi, ever. You can forget about everything else. Never forget Benghazi. But forget about all the other things -- 33,000 emails."
Trump is back to his lie that Clinton "acid washed" her emails. He calls this a "very expensive process, never used...because it costs so much." Her team used a free deletion program called BleachBit, which he turned into "bleaching," and then "acid washing."
Trump is wayyy off script tonight, just ranting.
Trump dismissing the possibility that he asked Russia for help: "Can you believe the stupidity of this? 'Let's call the Russians.' If I ever called the Russians, the first one to know about it would be the state of Montana. And they wouldn't be too happy."
Trump on Clinton and the Democrats: "These were not great competitors. But they were fun. Actually they were more effective, in my opinion, after the election than before the election. Does that make any sense? To me it makes a lot of sense. Wiseguys."
Trump after a woman shouts I Love You: "It's finally a woman! You know I get it from the men all the time."
Trump, mocking pundits for their 2016 predictions, begins to talk about the late conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer, so there is applause, but Trump was intending to criticize him, and he says, "He treated you better than he treated me."
Trump criticizes people who criticized Melania's Africa attire as colonialist. Then he segues to the fire on Melania's plane. Trump says that once he found out Melania was okay, "I asked, how was she? Was she SCAAARED? 'No sir.'"
Trump inaccurately claims, at length, that Mike Huckabee stood up at a debate and said nobody was going to beat Trump. He praised Trump but did not predict a Trump victory.
Trump: "You love my hair? Thank you. She knows what to say. She knows how to make me happy. 'I love your hair.' Well the one thing that has been really great about this whole endeavour is they used to say 'he wears a hairpiece, he wears a hairpiece.' They don't say that anymore."
Trump says that people no longer say he wears a hairpiece because they've seen his hair blown around in every kind of wind...and then he segues to the recent hurricanes...and then back to his hair. "So that's one good thing, nobody ever says that anymore."
This is one of the very weirdest speeches I've ever heard Trump give.
Trump: "Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs." A few seconds later, he says, "By the way, this is the most beautiful sky. Well, Big Sky -- I guess there's a reason for everything, right...someday, one of you will explain exactly why."
Trump says that nobody even challenges him when he calls Democrats the "party of crime." He then adds, "Maybe they have, who knows." He says he has to hedge because if he doesn't he'll get Pinocchios from @GlennKesslerWP.
Trump on his Montana performance in 2016: "I won by a fortune of votes."
Trump professing to be mystified by how Montana could elect Democratic senator Jon Tester: "I know you! You know me, I know you! How the hell did you ever elect that guy?"
! Trump praises Rep. Greg Gianforte at length for assaulting reporter @Bencjacobs.
Trump on Gianforte assaulting reporter Jacobs: "Never wrestle him. You understand that. Never. Any guy that can do a bodyslam, he's my kind of" -- crowd cheers -- "he's my guy. I shouldn't say this."
Trump: "I had heard that he bodyslammed a reporter. And he was way up...and I said...I said oh this is terrible he's gonna lose...then I said wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did."
This is truly horrible. The president is gleefully applauding violence against a journalist.
...amid an international controversy over the apparent murder of another journalist who lived in the U.S.
Trump is constantly escalating. He did a veiled reference to Gianforte's assault at a September Montana rally, saying the congressman is a fighter in more ways than one. This time, just came out with it.
Trump on Democrats: "You see what they do, you see what they think, and you almost say, like, can it really be possible?"
Trump is doing his regular criticism of a red-state Democrat, Tester in this case, saying he talks like a Montana guy but votes like a Pelosi liberal.
Curious whether the Montana media will go with the usual local angle on Trump rallies - "president comes to town!" - or go with "president applauds congressman's unprovoked assault on journalist."
Trump, in Montana, is telling his usual lies about California Democratic governor candidate Gavin Newsom, falsely saying "he wants open borders," which will allow "everybody in the world" to enter California.
Trump says, "You don't have a border. What you have is you have infiltration of drugs."
"We have a massive trade deficit with everybody," Trump says of the U.S.'s 2017 trade deficits with well under half of its trading partners.
Trump refers to Montana Senate candidate Matt Rosendale as a "high-end" guy. It's always fun when he lapses into real estate promoter lingo, as he also did earlier when he said he won Montana by "a fortune of votes."
"THESE people are starting to think of it as a mob," Trump says, bizarrely, of reporters' views on Democrats, pointing at the media pen.
Trump lies that Kavanaugh was first in his class at Yale, then decries all the "lies that were made up" about Kavanaugh.
Trump on how you can appoint anyone to the Supreme Court: "There's something nice about putting judges on the Supreme Court...I think a businessman would be nice, or a woman...doesn't have to be a judge, would you believe it."
Trump is doing an extended monologue about Kavanaugh's opponents. As usual, he very inaccurately recounts Dianne Feinstein's response when John Cornyn asked her if she leaked Christine Blasey Ford's letter.
Trump is doing an impression of Jon Lovitz's SNL character Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar, complete with a voice. He says of Feinstein: "That was like a female version of Jon Lovitz. And then you had Spartacus, right. That's not Spartacus."
Mocking Biden for saying he wants to fight Trump, Trump again alludes to Gianforte's assault on Jacobs: "He'd be down faster than Greg would take him down. He'd be down so fast. Remember?...Faster than Greg. I'd have to go very fast. I'd have to immediately connect."
Trump is attacking Tester for his criticism of VA nominee and White House physician Ronny Jackson. He says of Jackson: "He's a handsome, wonderful father."
! Trump, while attacking Tester for criticizing Ronny Jackson, says of Jackson, "He didn't really want it. And he might not have been qualified."
So, at great length, Trump is castigating Tester for his attacks on a nominee Trump just said "might not have been qualified." The crowd has gotten extremely quiet.
Trump on Warren: "I used to say I have more Indian blood than she does, and I have none. And I was right."
Trump says Warren probably disqualified herself with her DNA test, by making a fool out of herself. He then says a few times that he can't call her Pocahontas anymore. He then concludes without explanation: "But if you don't mind, I'll continue. Do you mind?"
Trump says again that Democrats will destroy Medicare and Social Security. There is no apparent basis for any of this.
Trump's concluding framing: "A vote for Republicans is a vote to reject the Democrat politics of hatred and anger and division and to celebrate the greatness and the glory of being American."
Trump, sounding like a bad boy band, explains what women want, then concludes, "I'm the one that gives you that. They don't give it to you on the other side."
(Does he leave/does he leave/when you need him the most/do his friends get all your
(Does he leave/does he leave/when you need him the most/do his friends get all your
In tonight's second criticism of a recently deceased Republican, Trump criticizes McCain (though doesn't name him) over his Obamacare vote, saying he had the votes but "somebody disappointed us a little bit."
Trump has concluded. That was comprehensively bonkers. By far the most significant part was his praise for a congressman's assault on a journalist.
This was also a significant moment: Trump returning for the first time in a long while to his baseless conspiracy theories about illegal immigrants voting, this time applying it to the midterms and the caravan. 
