Donald Trump held another press conference on Thursday, this time outside of his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he succeeded in dragging a bunch of reporters to his front stoop so he could read off a piece of paper before answering a series of softball questions that gave him a runway to touch on each of his pet irritations.
It was a more subdued Trump than we saw last week, when he used every question from reporters to unload a new personal attack on Vice President Kamala Harris. His campaign and close associates have reportedly been trying to get him to shift his gears for days — with some MAGA allies urging him publicly to stop making racist remarks about Harris and to start talking about his policy platform.
While this afternoon’s grievancefest was clearly an attempt to get Trump back on track, it was also obvious the former President was bored by his own discipline. Glancing down to ramble off what sounded like bullet points on Harris’ supposed failings as part of the Biden administration, Trump didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was reading off of a piece of paper. He’d occasionally veer in the direction of off topic — ranting about “bird cemeteries” while trying to remind voters that he’s going to push to expand fracking, “drill baby drill” — but the entire display was of a man reluctant to stay on message, forced to talk about the economy rather than crowd sizes.
At one point, he appeared to remember that he had to make use of the props his team had set out for him, perhaps to keep him on script.
“You are looking at things behind me — they did a nice job,” Trump said, beholding some groceries his team had set up. “I don’t like the tags very much. Look at that. Up 46 percent. Eggs. Wow.”
“I think I’m going to take some of them back to my cottage,” he said of the groceries. “And have a lot of fun. Like the Cheerios. I haven’t seen Cheerios in a long time, I’m gonna take them back with me. Bacon is through the roof, they’re all through the roof! The milk. Everything is bad,” he said.
When a reporter asked a question about his campaign’s effort to keep him focused on policy, he made it clear who, he thinks, is in charge.
“I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”
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