How Donald Trump’s rhetoric has become darker and windier

DULUTH, Ga. – No scene has so dominated American politics since 2015 Donald Trump on stage, waxing for over an hour in front of a chorus of red “Make America Great Again” hats.

The stream of consciousness routine, interrupting one of his thoughts with the next, is not something that Cicero or Lincoln would recognize. The former president and Republican candidate calls his speaking style “the weave,” moving from dystopian warnings to light-hearted stories to policy statements.

“You give a speech, and my speeches are long because of the weave, you know, I mean, I weave stories into them,” Trump explained to popular podcaster Joe Rogan last week. “If you don’t do that, if you just read a teleprompter, no one’s going to be very excited. You have to weave it out. So you – but you always have to – as you say, you always have to get back to work straight away. Otherwise it’s no good. But the tissue is very important. Very few weavers around. But it’s a big pressure on you – you know, it’s a big – it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work.”

During the last weeks of his third presidential campaignTrump’s presentation has become as disjointed as ever and noticeably darker. But the crowds keep coming, cheering his nationalist populism, laughing at the insults and singing along, with fists raised, to his auspicious promises to make America strong, proud, healthy, rich and, of course, great again.

While Trump’s speeches are never the same, they all use consistent tools and themes. He uses humor, boasting, anecdotes, grievances and grand promises. There are non-sequiturs, fantastic falsehoods and scathing attacks on opponents. He sprinkles vulgarities and superlatives over it. There are even occasional stints read of the teleprompters he mocks when another politician uses them – and then claims he doesn’t use teleprompters or doesn’t need them.

Vice President Kamala HarrisTrump’s Democratic opponent, is encouraging voters to see him in person, suggesting that this only confirms that he is erratic and unfit for office. Other critics compare his elaborate showmanship to authoritarian leaders. Or they claim that “the fabric” is simply a cover for the cognitive decline of a 78-year-old who would be the oldest newly sworn-in US president in history.

Here’s a study of “the weave,” deployed one evening last week in suburban Atlanta.

An epic entrance and just enough details – even lies – make this clear

Perhaps the most important moment is the entrance of Trump. His walkout music, a device reminiscent of his brief stint as a professional wrestling promoter, is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA.” The former president stands on stage, quiet and serious, as the audience sings along.

At one recent Turning Point USA rally in Duluth, Georgia, pyrotechnics and large video screens flanking him center stage added to the effect, as his image on screen towered over the crowd. Trump looked out over thousands of cellphones recording the spectacle.

With the final notes of Greenwood’s opening anthem, Trump immediately relaxed and praised his audience as “thousands of proud, hardworking Americans and patriots, that’s what you are.”

He then seemed to switch to a more formal tone towards the questioners: ‘I would like to start by asking a very simple question. Are you better off now than four years ago?”

It’s the famous question Republican Ronald Reagan used to defeat Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Trump is using it as a way to tie Harris to the president. Joe Biden. But as soon as the crowd in Duluth shouted “no,” Trump turned to sweeping promises, exaggerations and superlatives that doubled as indictments of Biden and Harris.

“I will put an end to inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals into our country,” he promised, suggesting that all migrants are criminals.

“We are going to restore our nation quickly,” he said. “America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will experience four more years of incompetence, failure and disaster, or whether we will embark on the four greatest years in the history of our country.”

Biden and Harris are not all bad, in Trump’s language. He called them “the worst president” and “the worst vice president” ever. Harris, he warned, would “destroy your family’s finances forever.” He blames Harris alone for “an open border,” taking liberties on immigration and crime statistics and falsely suggesting that the vice president single-handedly controls U.S. immigration policy.

He said Harris “didn’t get any votes” – a reference to the fact that she became the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped out following the party’s primaries. “Therefore,” Trump insisted, “she is a threat to democracy” – a Trumpian element projecting their most aggressive attacks against him onto his opponents.

By the time he was done in Duluth, he had excoriated Harris as a “person with a low IQ” and “not a smart person.”

Thousands laughed on each side.

Transitions and precision are never necessary

Trump does not speak in a linear pattern as he builds to a crescendo. From his first Harris takedowns, he segued into expressions of sympathy for the victims of Hurricane Helene and then shockingly into one of his favorite topics: his public status.

“Our hearts are with you and we pray for you – the polls, despite everything. The polls,” he said. ‘Do you see what’s happening here? Here, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee? And Georgia. The polls. The polls are through the roof.”

Minutes later, amid an audible hush from the crowd, he belted out his signature “MAGA” slogan to draw cheers.

“What a nice audience this is!” he answers, chuckling. “What a nice audience.”

He returned to the question of figures that map the consequences of inflation for American households. He asked, “Should I sue CBS and ’60 Minutes’ for, in his words, manipulating Harris interview answers that ‘came out of the nuthouse.’

“It’s election interference and fraud,” he said, projecting allegations that are part of criminal cases against him.

Trump mocked Harris for saying she would raise taxes but misrepresented her proposals as universally applicable. (She targets corporations and the wealthiest individual filers.) Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, meanwhile, were “the largest tax cuts in history,” he said. (A charitable interpretation that ignores inflation at best.)

However, details are not the starting point

Timothy and Amanda Browning came to different conclusions about Trump’s style after driving from their mountain town of Lula, Georgia, to attend their first Trump rally.

“I liked it because it shows how authentic he is,” Timothy Browning said. “There are breaks – but you have to stay with him because there’s always a zinger coming.”

Amanda Browning laughed as she recalled leaning over to her husband to whisper that Trump “could definitely use a speechwriter.”

Still, the co-owners of an event space and catering company in Lula reaffirmed their loyalty to the former president.

Timothy wore a T-shirt with a sexist insult of Harris, coined by some conservatives after Biden named her his running mate in 2020. However, Browning said he doesn’t view himself, Trump or the former president’s supporters as angry.

Instead, the Brownings relied on Trump’s first term economics and his promises for an encore term. Speaking about their business, they talked about specific price increases they’ve seen since pandemic-era inflation. They were not interested in pandemic supply chain disruptions or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which would roil world oil markets. Trump, they said, made a better situation for them than Biden and, by extension, Harris.

Timothy Browning summarized his findings in Trumpian terms.

“I hear him,” Browning said, “putting America first.”