Trump
reverts to campaign mode on victory tour, bashing Clinton and media
President-elect
hit the same notes he campaigned with at the start of a victory lap
where he will hold campaign-style rallies across the US
Ben Jacobs in
Cincinnati
Friday 2 December
2016 03.37 GMT
In April, Donald
Trump pledged “at some point, I’ll be so presidential that you
people will be so bored.” Despite being president-elect, it seems
that particular pivot has yet to come.
On the first day of
his self-described “thank you tour”, Trump returned to his
bombastic style on the stump at a half-full arena in Cincinnati. He
bashed Hillary Clinton to chants of “lock her up” from the rowdy
crowd while settling scores with the media and former rivals as well
as announcing the nomination of former marine general James Mattis to
be secretary of defense.
The event came at
the start of an unprecedented victory tour where Trump will hold
campaign-style rallies across the country. Often, however, Trump
still seemed to be fighting the campaign. He reminisced, “We did
have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn’t we?” to chants of
“lock her up” while criticizing conservative critics.
The president-elect
launched an attack on Evan McMullin, his independent, conservative
third-party rival in the campaign: “What the hell was he trying to
prove? I guess he wanted us to lose the supreme court.” Trump
didn’t mention McMullin by name and simply called him “that guy”.
The president-elect also expressed his displeasure towards Ohio’s
Republican governor, former presidential rival John Kasich.
Trump said of his
win over Kasich in the Buckeye State: “We didn’t have much help
at the top levels, and it turned out it didn’t matter,” and noted
how Kasich eventually gave him a congratulatory phone call after the
election. The Ohio governor didn’t vote for his party’s nominee
and instead wrote in John McCain on election day. In a tweet, Kasich
strategist John Weaver indirectly returned fire: “No tour, but
thankful every day @JohnKasich shows us the #twopaths way with honor
& integrity. #ItIsALongRoadWithoutATurn.”
The president-elect
also teased the crowd with his long-expected announcement that Mattis
was his choice to head the Pentagon. “I don’t want to tell you to
this, I refuse to tell you, don’t let it outside of this room. I
will not tell you that one of our great great generals, don’t let
it outside, we are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis as our secretary
of defense, and we’re not announcing it until Monday so don’t
tell it to anybody.”
Trump also gave his
usual tirade against “the dishonest media” and expressed his
displeasure that it took television networks until after midnight on
election day to call his win in Pennsylvania. Trump went on to boast
of his win in the electoral college, but not the popular vote: “We
won in a landslide. We didn’t have the press, the press was
brutal.”
Trump began the
rally with broad attacks on what he termed “globalism”.
“There is no
global anthem, no global currency,” he said. “We pledge
allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American flag.” Trump
added: “Global is wonderful, but right now we want to focus on our
national community.”
The president-elect
also cast blame for terrorist attacks on the admission of refugees
into the United States. “These are threats that are stupidly
created by our stupid politicians’ refugee programs,” Trump said.
The venue was the
same location where a packed house rained down boos towards the media
at a Trump rally in mid-October. This time, the disdain for the press
was far less visible in an arena that was half empty, in part because
road closures due to the president-elect’s visit tied up traffic in
the area.
The rally happened
as top staffers for every presidential candidate’s campaign met at
Harvard’s institute of politics to discuss the campaign, resulting
in fiery exchanges between former Clinton staffers and Trump aides.
In one instance,
Clinton’s former communications director, Jennifer Palmeiri, told
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway: “If providing a platform
for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to
have lost. I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.”
Conway was also
asked about Trump’s recent untrue tweets about voter fraud. She
said, “He’s president-elect so that’s presidential behavior.”
If so, it means being presidential may not be so boring after all.
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