Another day, another Trump speech controversy: Remember the “grab them by the pussy” comments made by Donald Trump in the early 2000s during the 2016 presidential race? Or his “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn’t lose any voters” comment from the same campaign? Those bites are very present in people’s imagination, but they weren’t particularly vague; they didn’t need distortions to be unflattering to the man who uttered them.
Now, however, every new comment from Trump seems like a Rorschach. His comment about Saturday’s “bloodbath” in Vandalia, Ohio, is no exception, but perhaps indicative of how this election cycle will play out.
Pearls were strung up and down the aisle at Acela: “Trump says country risks ‘bloodbath’ if Biden wins in November,” here’s how Politic chose to give the title to Trump’s remark. “Trump says some migrants ‘aren’t people’ and predicts a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses,” thus The New York Times characterized the speech. And don’t even get me started on what various MSNBC commentators have said. (OK, here’s one: “He was sending out a call to his supporters to do January 6th again,” said former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who later compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.)
Here’s what Trump says Actually She said: “Let me tell you something, China, if you’re listening, President Xi…those big, monstrous automobile manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get them, you’re not going to hire Americans and will you sell cars to us? We will put a 100% tariff on every single car that crosses the line and you won’t be able to sell them guys, if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it will be a bloodbath for the whole. .. This will be the least of it. It will be a bloodbath for the country. This will be the least of it. But they won’t sell those cars, they’re building huge factories.”
The “this will be the last” part is certainly strange, but completely removing the context – Trump was talking about tariffs, auto production and job losses – from the “bloodbath” comments seems like media malpractice to me. (More knowledgeable experts might take this opportunity to point out that imposing large tariffs on foreign-made cars would be bad policy, a point made repeatedly by Reasonis Eric Boehm.)
Later, Trump said, “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure there will ever be another one in this country,” which to me (and others) seems like the most troubling message of what the media is saying. grasping. And in his speech he referred to illegal immigrants as “animals,” which doesn’t tell us anything new about what Trump believes, but it’s definitely not in line with what I appreciate.
And yet: the media chose not to focus on these parts of the speech or the actual trade policy Trump was promoting. Many mainstream publications didn’t even provide viewers and readers with full context so they could judge the comments for themselves. This seems to me to be an issue, which has been highlighted several times over the past eight years, that requires self-reflection that unfortunately may never come.
Fighting in Al Shifa: In Gaza, clashes broke out once again at Al Shifa hospital, where Hamas fighters say they are firing from, according to the Israeli army.
In November, the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) decision to raid Al Shifa was controversial. Isreal said the hospital was being used as a Hamas command center and as a means of covering entrances to the terrorists’ underground tunnel network. (The November raid uncovered caches of weapons hidden in MRI rooms and tunnel entrances on the grounds.)
The IDF calls the new raid a “high precision” operation, saying it is based on new intelligence indicating that senior Hamas militants are hiding in the hospital. However, this is a high-risk operation with great potential for harm to civilians and some tests have already occurred.
“The hospital and the surrounding area are home to approximately 30,000 patients, healthcare workers and displaced civilians, and several people have been killed and injured. [Hamas-controlled Gazan] the Ministry of Health said,” it reports The New York Times. “He added that a fire had broken out at the gate of the complex, which caused suffocation of some people and made it difficult to reach the injured.”
Scenes from New York: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is ordering a review of how the state has issued licenses for cannabis dispensaries, having already called the pot’s legal rollout “a disaster.” (I have a Reason documentary in progress on this precise topic.)
QUICK SHOTS
- “Who are currently the most influential thinkers/intellectuals on the left?” asks Tyler Cowen at Marginal revolution.
- Check this out Bloomberg explanation of the end of negative interest rates in Japan.
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) wants the government to establish a 32-hour work week; National review the editors dismantle the idea.
- Dining in the high-end space is now a thing (if you’re willing to shell out more than half a million).
- “The Kremlin handled Russia’s presidential vote over the weekend to send a singular message at home and abroad: that President Vladimir V. Putin’s support is overwhelming and unwavering, despite or even because of his war on Ukraine,” he reports The New York Times«Paul Sonne.
- lol:
Two of the last four films I saw in the theater were set in 1989. Another was set in 1999. Another was set 10,000 years after the Butlerian Jihad. What I’m saying here is: the writers *really* don’t like it when characters have access to cell phones.
— Jesse Walker (@notjessewalker) March 18, 2024