On Monday, House Republicans convened in the Donald Trump ballroom at the Trump National Doral resort and munched on burgers branded “Trump.”
To complete the picture, the man himself — President Donald Trump — spoke to the assemblage, a long and, at times, rambling speech that hit on many of his favorite topics: Immigration, Democrats and, yes, himself.
I went through the transcript of Trump’s remarks line by line — and pulled out what you really need to see.
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To the lines!
“And the Mayor of Hialeah. I love this guy because he said, ‘Sir, we want to name a major boulevard after you,’ and he did it. Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like - I like them a lot.”
“Sir” alert — right off the bat! And away we go!
“A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.’ I said, ‘That's OK. It's a beginning,’ right?”
“A lot” of people say this?
“With the help of everyone in this room, we've just won the most epic, consequential political victory in American history, according to a lot.”
Chris Cillizza is the brightest, most handsome person in the country, according to a lot.
“One of the major fake newspapers - so we - in this case, it's not fake news, let's say, but they said it's the most consequential election victory in the last 129 years.”
Ok, so it’s not a fake news because you like it? Got it! Also: That’s not how any of this works.
“Together, we're forging a new political majority that's shattering and replacing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition, which dominated American politics for over 100 years. That's what we're doing.”
I think this is an open question. There’s now no doubt that Trump is able to put together a voting coalition — young voters, Hispanic voters, black men — that is a major break from how the past GOP coalition looked. The question is whether someone OTHER than Trump can do that.
“I've raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can't use for myself, but I'm not 100 percent sure because -- I don't know. I think I'm not allowed to run again. I'm not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike?”
I will just note that Trump really likes to “joke” about serving another presidential term. Like, a lot.
“It works for Elvis, the Beatles. And it doesn't work for anyone else, but it works for Trump.”
He’s talking about tele-town halls. I was unaware that Elvis did those.
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