As the election nears, Donald Trump’s final message to voters is about revenge, with promises for retribution and rallies that are increasingly incoherent, vulgar and full of vitriol.
And his last pitch is as dark and sinister as any he’s made while campaigning the last two years. The US is a “garbage can for the world”, he said at a Thursday rally in Arizona, where he railed against people coming into the country illegally and the Democrats, who Trump called incompetent and stupid.
He followed up his hateful rhetoric with a preview of how he would run a second administration, leaving nothing open to interpretation.
“Immediately upon taking the oath of office,” he wrote on Truth Social, “I will launch the largest deportation program in American history – I will rescue every town across America that has been invaded and conquered and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!”
Trump appeared especially angered this week when John Kelly, his longest-serving chief of staff, told voters that Trump is a fascist. Trump called Kelly “a total degenerate”.
Retribution remains a key theme of the Trump re-election campaign. Trump has vowed to root out “the enemy from within” and said he would consider using the military to go after his political opponents. NPR recently tallied “more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents” from Trump in the last two years.
On Truth Social on Friday, he issued a lengthy, informal “cease and desist” message to Democrats, who he continues to insist engaged in “rampant Cheating and Skullduggery” in 2020, depriving him of a second term.
“Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he threatened.
“We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
His campaign is also spending big on anti-trans ads, capitalizing on a culture war issue that elicits anger in many. His campaign is blitzing the airwaves, with $29m in anti-trans ads over the past five weeks, the Bulwark reported based on AdImpact data, compared with $5m on economy-focused TV ads during the same time period. “That makes the topic, by far, the biggest focal point when it comes to Trump’s ad spending – one of the best barometers of messaging priority there is,” the outlet’s Marc Caputo wrote.
In the final stretch of campaigning, Trump will reportedly try to rein in the rambles that have made some question his mental fitness. He has said it’s an intelligent speaking style, dubbing it “the weave”. The Washington Post, by comparison, called it “strikingly erratic, coarse and often confusing, even for a politician with a history of ad-libbing in three consecutive presidential runs”.
Over the last year, the speaking style has revealed his preoccupations to voters. Some of his comments have suggested that thinks Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal, is a real person who has died. He is mad about bacon. He has fulminated against windmills, a frequent source of his disdain. He has conflated legal asylum, the process by which people from other countries seek protection when fleeing persecution, with insane asylums. He spread a false rightwing conspiracy on the presidential debate stage that migrants were eating household pets. He said Harvey Weinstein got “schlonged”. He complimented Arnold Palmer’s penis size. His speeches are often impossible to quote directly without significant editing and context-adding.
Between rambles, he has honed the racist, threatening messages he believes are his best hope for getting his old job back. The media is “the enemy of the people”, Kamala Harris is a “shit vice-president”, Joe Biden is a “stupid fool” and Nancy Pelosi is “crazy as a bed bug”.
As in 2016, he has cast himself as the only person who can fix all the problems his enemies created.
“We stand on the verge of the four greatest years of the history of our country,” he told his supporters in Arizona. “We will redeem America’s promise. We will put America first, and we will take back the nation that we love. We’re going to take it back from these people that have no idea what they’re doing.”
With just 10 days to go until election day, Trump’s campaign undoubtedly wants to keep him on message. But his track record – including a recent town hall that devolved into a 40-minute dance event – indicates he might not be capable.
His last attempt to win over voters includes the message he’s reiterated for four years: that his reign was stolen from him, and he’s trying to get it back. His supporters need to turn out en masse to make his lead “too big to rig,” a line his fans now echo.
He delivered that message during a staged appearance working a McDonald’s fryer, where he would not commit to accepting the results of the election. Leaning out of the drive-thru window, he told reporters he was up in the polls. Would he accept the results of the election? “If it’s a fair election,” he responded.
