Thread by @jenmercieca

Pretender to the Presidency just took the stage at CPAC.

Starts with ad populum, praising his crowd, as he does. Trump is nothing without his followers. He constantly praises them for loving him.

Does some slander and conspiracy theory. Still with the Big Lie.

Does some fear appeals, nothing new.

He doles out some patronage. Loyalty tests are common with authoritarians. Once you demonstrate fealty, then you get high status shouts out.

These fealty showers stand up when Trump gives them a shout out like they just got called to "come on down" on the Price is Right. It's really...something.

For those playing Demagogue Bingo at home:

https://twitter.com/HOUmanReporter/status/1497728537293467652

He's on his second "Sir" story. Whoa, then calls the "president of Ukraine is a brave man, he's hanging in, he's hanging in and I like him."

He's still talking about Zelensky, he's now anchoring to him and his ethos, uses bolstering to claim that Zelensky approved of what Trump did with Ukraine, says he said Trump did nothing wrong. Says they/we (ambiguous) are facing "evil."

Now congratulates himself for being such a great president. Crowd chants "four more years!" Says he never realized how important the president was until now. Slanders Biden.

So many fear appeals. Trying to activate the audience's fight/flight/flee responses. His delivery is hella weak though. Really flat affect. Weird dystopia.

CPAC supports Ukraine. Gives a standing o, Trump blames Biden for letting it happen.

oh no. "I stand as the only president in the 21st century under which Russia did not invade another country!" Crowd chants "USA!"

Fails to mention that he's #PutinsPuppet a big lacuna.

Trump doing a head-fake toward presidentiality and patriotism, but it's actually a slander against Biden. Oh, the irony.

Tries to explain away his "Putin is smart" comment. "Of course Putin is smart, but really it's because our politicians are so dumb." Somehow that makes sense to CPAC and they cheer.

Lots more slander, conspiracy, and historical revisionism to explain away his Russia/Ukraine/Biden problems.

Talking point you've prolly heard already: making an appeal to hypocrisy (tu quoque) comparing Ukraine's borders with US borders (parallel case). The case is weak bc the US is not invaded by a foreign military. Trump is hallucinating.

Oh no, now he's talking about Canada. Praises himself again for changing the name of NAFTA. Something about truckers and the CPAC crowd cheers.

Now Trump hates Canada. 🙄

Trump does anti-trans hate slander in his litany of harms/fear appeals. CPAC joins in.

Trump is so dangerous. I don't know if he'll run in 2024, but he is still dangerous.

Trump does the victim/sacrifice authoritarian thing. It's fascist:

https://twitter.com/jenmercieca/status/1208040204730273797

If Trump wins again prepare yourself for purges. This speech is so dangerous, it's also his campaign plan. It's all conspiracy, danger, don't trust anyone or anything, it's all corrupt, but Trump's going to fix it all. He has more of a plan now than he did in 2016.

Ends with ad populum/American exceptionalism as he tends to do. He's doing it tonight in the style of Winston Churchill "we will not surrender..."

My guess is that Trump has spent the past few days fuming because Zelenskyy is being called a hero around the world, so he decided that it would be expedient to praise him & anchor to Zelenskyy's prestige. He used bolstering to rewrite history, saying he supported Ukraine.

That's smart domestically, but that's a tricky move for him with Putin and the rest of the autocrats. So he didn't actually condemn Putin or what Russia is doing in Ukraine. He actually gave RT more propaganda material to help Putin save face in Russia.

So that's newsworthy. The other thing that really struck me tonight is how bitter Trump is still. His campaign will be all negative & all fear appeals. And he has a much more specific plan to roll back liberal gains from the past 50-60 years.

I still don't know if he'll run. I still don't really think he will (but arguments about future facts are weak and I'm not making one), but if he does run & he wins prepare yourself for a McCarthy era like purge of writers, schools, government, etc.

To clarify: Trump just gave a speech in which he blamed US President Biden and NOT Russian President Putin for Russian President Putin invading Ukraine.

😱

Headlines tonight/tomorrow will claim that Trump announced his support for Ukraine. They will likely elide that Trump didn't condemn Putin and that he blamed everything on Biden. Shame.