The Daily - Trump’s Re-election Rally

Episode Date: June 19, 2019

The president kicked off his re-election campaign on Tuesday with a rally in Orlando, Fla. We spoke with a colleague who was there. Guest: Maggie Haberman, who covers the White House for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: President Trump’s messaging at the rally signals a bet that his 2020 campaign will be a replay of 2016 — but this time, with the full support of the Republican Party.Here are eight things our reporters learned from attending the rally.The 2020 election is shaping up as a test: Was Mr. Trump’s victory a historical fluke, or a genuine reflection of America today?

I'm Maggie Haberman and I am inside the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, where President Trump is set to begin his campaign kickoff rally. The rally is expected to start in a bit under an hour now, and the crowd has been going wild here for the last several hours. There have been speeches interspersed with music. There have been video clips playing on the Jumbo Trot. It's really important to remember how crucial these rallies were to President Trump in 2016 when he was a candidate fighting as an underdog on behalf of other underdogs. And it's going to be interesting to see how these rallies play out in 2020

when he is no longer the underdog, he's the president. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily. Today, the president kicks off his re-election campaign with a rally. My colleague Maggie Haberman was in Orlando. It's Wednesday, June 19th. Hi. Hey, it's Michael. Hi.

Where are you exactly? Now I'm stepping outside to talk to you. it's Michael. Hi. Where are you exactly? I'm stepping outside to talk to you. It's hot. So I want to talk about this rally that you're attending tonight. These Trump rallies have become pretty familiar at this point. But I remember in 2016 how completely new and different they felt from anything we had seen before. new and different they felt from anything we had seen before. It became clear at some point in the summer of 2015 that we were seeing something that we had not seen in American politics. It's great to be at Trump Tower. It's great to be in a wonderful

city, New York. When Donald Trump first came down the famous escalator, and he was supposed to deliver his kickoff speech, he tore up the speech he had, and he just ripped. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. And that was the one where he talked about Mexicans. And basically every rally addressed from there was an unscripted performance. So exciting. Do you notice what's missing tonight? Teleprompters. No teleprompters. We don't want teleprompters. You were seeing rallies that were massive and he would do performance art from the stage.

When he was attacked by Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina who's now his close ally, but was at the time one of his rivals in the primary, he read Lindsey Graham's cell phone number aloud from a rally stage. I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's the right number. Let's try it. 202-228-0292. I don't know. Maybe it's, you know, it's three, four years ago, so maybe it's an old number.

So that people would call. So that people would call him and protest, exactly. Right. It was just something fundamentally new. There was this interesting rally, I remember, where the president started to talk about his rivals and how polite they were. And they go to Jeb.

What do you think of Marco Rubio? He's my dear, dear friend. He's wonderful. He's a wonderful person. I'm so happy that he's running. Give me a break. And the message he was delivering was, what a joke.

That's not how real people talk. I am so tired of all this political correctness crap. Then they go to Marco. What do you think of Jeb Bush? Oh, he's great. He's brought me along. He's one. They hate each other, but they can't say it.

They hate each other. And it felt like somebody like tearing the top off of something and saying like, who are we kidding? But I am so tired of this politically correct crap. Yeah, and people loved it because it felt real to them. They thought that it wasn't all of the political niceties that the people who they felt had gotten the country into a bad place in the first place would use. It was something that they could see themselves saying. Right. In other words, that niceness becomes a metaphor for an agenda. He's saying all that political correctness was actually another way that people were just deceiving them. But today, everybody's politically correct.

Our country's going to hell with being politically correct. Going to hell. The president managed to connect, you know, the niceties and politesse of previous politicians to almost everyone else in the field, whether it was President Obama as the person who was leaving office. The insurance companies, they backed Obama. They're making a fortune. I couldn't care less about the insurance companies, okay?

Hillary Clinton, who President Obama supported. Hillary Clinton is an insider fighting for her donors and her insiders, mostly fighting for herself. Jeb Bush, who a lot of the establishment was backing in the Republican primary, Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida. When you see an ad, every time you see an ad from Rubio or Bush or Hillary, remember that money's coming from special interests and lobbyists. You went down the list and the president was able to attach them all to some version of people who were standing in your way, voter, people who don't want you to succeed, and people who have set up this system that doesn't work.

And that's why you have a case where I go in and win with the vote, and these guys go and they buy delegates, they buy them dinners, they send them to hotels. The whole thing is a sham. Remember, the rallies are where Donald Trump started referring to the rigged system. The economy is rigged. The banking system is rigged. There's a lot of things that are rigged in this world of ours. He was telling them, you are an underdog. I am an underdog.

You have been mistreated by life, by a system that's unfair, by a system that's rigged, as he would put it. He said, I feel your anger and I'm angry for you and I'll be angry with you. And it's OK to be angry. But you're tired and you're sick of watching the stupidity and the thefts and you're watching the world take our country away from us. And that's exactly what's happening. Exactly. And I am the one who is fighting for you and I will continue fighting for you. And that's why a lot of you haven't had an effective wage increase in 20 years, folks. And we're going to change it. We're going to change it.

One of the things that Donald Trump understood about voters in this country better than almost anybody is that there is a cultural divide as much as there is an economic divide. They call them the elite. Oh, really? They're elite? Do you think they have a better plane than I do? These are elite people. These are elite. They call them elite. That means that we're not elite. That means that I'm not elite. I don't know. I don't think anybody has better whatever. They felt like they had up there somebody who the elite didn't take seriously, who the elites were mocking and judging, just like they felt the elite mocked and judged them. You know, when they talk about, they talk about the elite, the elite. You ever see the elite?

They're not elite. You're the elite. You are the elite. So Maggie, Donald Trump has now been president for two and a half years, and he's kicking off his reelection campaign with a rally. And I wonder what you're thinking about as you wait for this 2020 kickoff rally to start. I'm waiting to see whether there's going to be anything new. I've spoken to a lot of voters who are here, a lot of his supporters who are here, who say they want to hear what he's going to do with the second term.

But I think that we are very likely to hear a version of this rally that we have seen many, many times before. He's still going to say he's the underdog, and he's going to say that these unseen shadowy forces are trying to take your fighter away from you. I'm under all of these threats from all of these people, the Democrats in the House, these other candidates who are running for president, the media. He is going to go through this litany of people who he's going to say are trying to undermine him when all he's trying to do is fight for you, his supporters standing in front of him. In that sense, he is going to basically act as if time stands still,

and it's still 2016. So it's 3.32, and you're going to go into a really loud venue where it's going to be impossible to hear you, and you're not going to be a really loud venue where it's going to be impossible to hear you and you're not going to be able to hear anything for probably the rest of your life. And then when you get out and it's over, we're going to call you back and check in and see what actually happened. Sounds good.

Okay. Thanks, guys. Bye-bye. Bye. Do you have five minutes? Do you have what? I'm with the New York Times. My name is Annie.

Do you have five minutes to be interviewed? For the New York Times? My name is Annie. Do you have five minutes to be interviewed? For the New York Times? Very basic questions. What is your name? Glenn Ridgeway. My name is Terry Castro. My name is Rob Ward. Anthony.

Last name? McKinnon. Chrissy. Chrissy, and your last name? Kabbalah. I hate to ask you this, but how old are you? I'm 72. 43.

I'm 26. 28. 79 and 24 old are you? I'm 72. 43. I'm 26. 28. 79 and 24 12s. You look terrific. 81. And what do you do for a living? Are you retired? Real estate.

I'm a chef. Well, my husband was retired military, and then we opened, had a business for about 25 years, and we retired. What brought you here today and what brought you to the rally? What motivated you? We've been Trump supporters since he came down the escalator. Really? Yes. I was not a supporter.

You weren't? No, I was actually a delegate for Ted Cruz. Oh, wow. I'm a conservative. Okay. But he has earned my support. What got you there? Well, appointing conservative judges and then seeing him follow through with his campaign promises. Are you happy with how the last four years have gone?

I'm ecstatic with the last two years, two and a half years. What in particular are you ecstatic about? I'm ecstatic because of the promises. He speaks for the blue collar and the middle class America. And he says all the things that we've been wanting to say, doing the things that we saw needed to be done. And he's kept his promises. And if Congress would get their act together, he could do a lot more.

Are you happy with how the last four years have gone? I am. I could have been happier. What would have made you happier? Immigration stopped, immigrants out, build a wall. And other than that, I was satisfied. How has the Mueller investigation influenced you at all? Has it? It only reinforced what I thought was in the first place. Really? How so?

Well, it took them $25, $30 million to find out nothing. Okay. And once you pack that investigative force with those kinds of people, what do you expect to get? It seems like it's been a big nothing burger, according to, you know, use Hillary Clinton's words. What do you notice is the difference between Donald Trump 2016 and today? I've come to really appreciate him and to value what he's done for this country. Whereas when he was first running, I thought everything he said was just to get elected. And I didn't support him because I didn't believe he was truthful. And, you know, I'd heard him say things about Obama's, you know, the gun reform after Sandy Hook. And now, you

know, he's pro-second amendment. And his abortion stance before, he said, look, I'm from New York. If I had grown up in Idaho, maybe it'd be different. I see he's very, he's appointing pro-life judges and doing the things that I support. I think Donald Trump today is more confident because he sees what needs to be done. Before it was more or less theory, I see this, this and this that maybe we could do. Now he knows what needs to be done. Before it was more or less theory. I see this, this and this that maybe we could do. Now he knows what needs to be done. And he's a strong leader.

How does that show itself, as best as you can tell? I think it shows itself in his dealings with Mexico, with China, his negotiations with North Korea, and now this crisis with Iran Iran I think he's going to everything he does he does with the best interests of America. What's the difference that you see between Donald Trump in 2016 and today? It's about the same a little more mature same attitude same approach nothing changed. In your mind you talked about him sort of as an

underdog yeah last time do you still think he's an underdog no he's not no no he's not but you don't have to say that what no absolutely not no way in hell is he an underdog but he kind of talks about himself like an underdog well that may be there you know the way he looks I mean, you never want to say, hey, I'm the frontrunner. Can you imagine what the press would make of that? And so on and so forth. I think it's going to be one hell of a rally. I think he's going to get the troops fired all up. Hey. Hi. You must be exhausted. I am. But you must be too. It's all relative. But are you still in the venue? The arena? I am. How many people actually left?

But are you still in the venue, the arena? I am. How many people actually left? Not very many. Actually, it's not true. There's about 40 or 50 reporters left. But the crowd has emptied out. The crowd has gone.

The crowd left right away. How many people were there, do you think? It was roughly 20,000 people. But, you know, some started streaming out before it ended. Thank you all again for being here tonight. And now I want to introduce my husband, the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. So Maggie, what actually happens? So at around 8.15, Donald Trump comes on stage

and it's very much as we predicted. Oh, we had such luck in Orlando. We love being in Orlando. Thank you. Thank you, Orlando. What a turnout. It is a speech filled for the first 30 minutes or so with his list of grievances and his anger at the, quote-unquote, fake news media

that he mentioned something like four times in the first five minutes. You know, I said, this is a very big arena. For a Tuesday night, I said, you know, if we have about three or four empty seats, the fake news will say headlines. He didn't fill up the arena. He talked about the Mueller report. We went through the greatest witch hunt in political history. He talked about the Democrats.

They went after my family, my business, my finances, my employees, almost everyone that I've ever known or worked with. But they are really going after you. That's what it's all about. It's not about us. It's about you. They tried to erase your vote, It's not about us, it's about you. They tried to erase your vote, erase your legacy of the greatest campaign and the greatest election probably in the history of our country.

And they wanted to deny you the future that you demanded and the future that America deserves and that now America is getting. And then about 30 minutes in, he clearly could tell that the crowd's energy was sagging. And it reminded me of something that he told the Times editorial board in January of 2016 when he said that when he could see the crowd's energy was kind of getting low, he would say, and we're going to build the wall. And so there was this moment in the rally. You know, we have a big decision to make. You know what I'm going to say? We have to come up with a theme for the new campaign.

Where he starts poll testing the crowd as to what slogan they thought he should use. Is it going to be make America great again, which is probably and possibly the greatest theme in the history of politics, I think. Make America great again. Mega country, right? Make America great again. But, you know, there's a new one that really works. And that's called, keep America great, right? Keep America great.

Or keep America great. Let me just hear by your cheers what you like. So. And that got them engaged again. And for the second half, he changed. Together, we're breaking the most sacred rule in Washington politics. We are keeping our promises to the American people. And he did start talking about the future. Because my only special interest is you. I don't have a special interest. I don't care.

I don't care. And he did start talking about his accomplishments. I think about only one thing, how the American people are going to win, win, win today. And he did start talking about things he believes he has done as president. He talked about the economy. We have created six million new jobs. Nobody thought that would be possible. He talked about the judicial nominee.

I will soon have appointed my 145th judge. My 145th judge. And it went on like that for a good 40 minutes or so. For the first time in half a century, we've reduced the price of prescription drugs, and our amazing veterans are no longer left to languish and die on endless waiting lists, standing in line, waiting for a doctor. We pass VA choice. So, Maggie, being the establishment, being the president? I think he did. I think he had this delicate line to walk between being the

outsider and being the insider. And I think based on the crowd's reaction that he was successful at it. He's in charge of a third of the system, and yet he got huge applause when he said the system is rigged. He wrapped all of this sense of grievance and people are coming for me and people are trying to take away what I've done in a sense of populism and telling the people in the audience that this was really about them. He told the crowd that when they're coming for me, they're trying to undo your vote. And he made it less about himself and more about his voters. And that was, I think, how he bridged that divide between being the insider who is overseeing the system, but still trying to be the outsider, the insurgent who these forces want to keep at bay. So his message is they're trying to take it all away from you, even though it looks

like they're trying to take it away from me. Exactly. They're coming at me as a way to harm you because they've been disdainful of your voice or they've been dismissive of what you want. And we have had these hard fought games and it could all disappear if you don't guard it by reelecting. Maggie, thank you very much. Michael, thank you. Because he has, he's doing what he promised. Maggie, thank you very much. Michael, thank you. with that. I wish that we didn't have such divisiveness in politics. If I was king and I could change that, I would. I have a lot of friends that are Democrats. Q What, in your mind, is Donald Trump still the underdog? He talked a lot tonight about

being the underdog. Is he still? THE PRESIDENT. Well, if you read the polls, he certainly is. But I think it's like everybody says, it's premature. We'll see. What's the difference you see between Donald Trump in 2016 and today? He's now president. President. Thank you. No one thought he was going to be.

Actually, I didn't. Thanks so much. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Tuesday, President Trump's acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, stepped down after the president withdrew Shanahan's nomination to permanently fill the position. The decision followed a background investigation of Shanahan by the FBI, including allegations of domestic violence inside his family. In one episode, Shanahan's ex-wife accused him of punching her, a claim he denies.

In another episode, Shanahan's teenage son beat his mother with a baseball bat, an action that Shanahan at one point defended as self-defense by his son, but has since called unjustifiable. The president has named Mark Esper, the Secretary of the Army, as the new acting defense secretary. And a major report from the United Nations estimates that the world's population

may stop growing by the year 2100 due to declining birth rates. The report found that the global fertility rate, which was 3.2 births per woman in 1990, is expected to fall to 2.2 births in 2050. The declining birth rate, combined with increased life expectancy, means that the number of elderly will steadily rise, straining retirement and health care systems across the world.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Babarro. See you tomorrow.