Posted on 09/16/2015 12:53:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
His appeal was on full display as GOP rivals prepare debate assault.
LOS ANGELES — Master showman and Republican poll leader Donald Trump strode across a stage aboard a retired battleship on Tuesday night, reveling in the cheers and chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!”
“I am with the veterans 100 percent,” Trump declared when he took the podium on the USS Iowa, having just been endorsed by the group hosting the event, Veterans for a Strong America.
Dubbed “the battleship of the presidents” for having hosted Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the Iowa offered a useful backdrop for Trump, who appears eager to project a more presidential bearing as the campaign shifts to fall. Though clearly he’s uninterested in ditching the bluster that’s propelled him thus far.
His remarks were trademark Trump and over the course of 13 minutes, he hit the usual talking points. The people now running the country? “The stupidest people,” in Trump’s phrasing. The people he’ll hire? “I have the smartest people lined up,” he said. The other Republican candidates he’ll spar with Wednesday night? “Nice people.”
He rendered the problems facing the country — and his own solutions — in the broadest of brushstrokes. Lamenting long wait times veterans have encountered at VA hospitals, for example, he promised that care will improve if he’s elected president next year.
“We’re going to create a whole new system and if they’re not doing the job, the veterans are going to go to private hospitals; and you’re going to get the greatest service of any veterans in any country because you deserve it,” said Trump, before linking the issue of importance to his audience with the one that has defined his campaign.
“Right now, we have illegal immigrants who are treated better,” he said, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
The simplicity of Trump’s language and his approach to the campaign, mocked by many in the political class, are clearly part of his appeal. And on the eve of the second GOP presidential debate, Trump remains the leader in the race for the Republican nomination due in great part to the populist nationalism he has awakened with his no holds barred, stream-of-consciousness oratory.
Indeed, what's clear from this rally is that however much the other Republican contenders come after him on Wednesday night, Trump has popular support that won't be dented by well-executed debate zingers.
Jack Arends, the Iraq War veteran and founder of Veterans for a Strong America, introduced Trump by blaming the country’s persistent problems on “professional politicians” who lack courage and then giving Trump the group’s official endorsement.
“I want a president that has one tenth of the same amount of courage that our men and women showed on the battlefield,” said Arends. “We don’t normally take sides, but 2016 is too important to not take a stand.”
Earlier this summer, Trump appeared to have alienated veterans when he dismissed John McCain’s service and questioned whether he was a hero because he was taken prisoner. But those veterans who came to hear Trump Tuesday night like his trademark bravado, although they called it something else.
“I have a lot of respect for John McCain but I can let that slide by,” said Bill Cook, a retired Marine Corps veteran who drove to hear Trump from Mission Viejo. “Who else is speaking like this? Who else is telling it like it is. I’m a Marine and we kind of respect balls.”
Jack Stitzen, 91, was one of the few veterans in the crowd Tuesday who served in World War II. For him, Trump’s message evokes nostalgia and hope.
“I fought for our country in 1945, but we lost our country now,” he said. “We need somebody to bring it back.”
Looking back at the arc of his campaign to date, Trump noted that he “took a great hit” when he first spoke during his campaign announcement speech in June about the undocumented immigrants streaming into the U.S. from Mexico. Now as the campaign moves closer to primary season, Trump took credit for steering the broader debate toward the issue of illegal immigration.
“You have found out what illegal immigration is all about and I am so happy that I brought it to the fore,” he said.
“There’s tremendous crime, tremendous drugs pouring across the border. The drugs pour in, the money pours out…it’s not a good deal.”
The crowd cheered when Trump promised he would build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. They cheered louder when he promised that Mexico would pay for it. Trump scoffed at critics who’ve dismissed that promise, to force a major trading partner and ally to build a $20 billion wall, as unrealistic.
“They don’t know,” he said. “They haven’t read The Art of the Deal.”
When the cheers subsided, shouts from a large group of protestors positioned behind a fence on the other side of a parking lot several hundred feet away could be heard atop the deck.
One refrain, shouted loudly by protesters, came through clearly: “Trump’s a racist.”
But to many who gathered on the deck for the event, he’s saying the things they want to hear.
“I trust him. He’s the first politician I’ve trusted for many years,” said Dottie Stitzen, 82, from Huntington Beach. “He’s a negotiator. He gets things done.”
Because he’s all about him. He’s more full of himself then Obama. If he won, he’d have to do something besides run his mouth. Plus, he’d have to take a pay cut.
Just saw this on Drudge:
APNewsBreak: Vet group hosting Trump lost nonprofit status
Apparently, the IRS revoked their status on August 10th. I really did not know much about the group prior to this event. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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