By Lambert Strether of Corrente.<\/p>\n
Vinnie Daniel: How come you don\u2019t hate this guy? He is everything you taught us not to trust. Mark Baum: I can\u2019t hate him. He is so transparent in his self interest that I kind of respect him.\u2014 The Big Short<\/p>\n
Readers, I apologize. Given the headline, you have every right to the expectation that I\u2019m going to pull on my yellow waders and do a close reading of Trump\u2019s acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention. Unfortunately, Biden\u2019s defenestration blotted out the sun \u2014 and sucked up all my time \u2014 and so I\u2019ve had to scale back my ambitions. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have a chance to take up these themes again!<\/p>\n
In this scaled back version, I will first look at \u201cword clouds\u201d for three of Trump\u2019s speeches, showing consistent themes, but also differences. Then, I will consider the question of whether Trump might morph from a \u201cHeel\u201d to a \u201cFace.\u201d Finally, I will quote and analyze, in a cursory fashion, Trump on his own attempted assassination, and Trump\u2019s appeal to the working class. I\u2019ll conclude with a few brief remarks on the Trump and Biden Administrations. (Topics from Trump\u2019s speech that I will not cover include war, energy, inflation, and the border, although these comprised the great bulk of the speech\u2019s bulky verbiage.)<\/p>\n
Trump: \u201cPeople\u201d and \u201cCountry\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are three world clouds (all made with WordCloud+): Trump in Bangor, Trump in Vegas, and Trump at the RNC:<\/p>\n
Figure 1: 2016 (Bangor Cross Arena)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/trump_bangor.png\")
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Figure 2: 2024 (Vegas)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/trump_vegas.png\")
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Figure 3: 2024 (RNC Acceptance Speech)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trump_RNC_wordle.png\")
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As you can see, \u201cpeople\u201d and \u201ccountry\u201d \u2014 appropriately for a populist \u2014 have been Trump\u2019s dominant themes for the last eight years, \u201cour country,\u201d or \u201cthis beautiful country\u201d being a sort of counterpoint to the Democrat \u201cour democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Of course, three speeches is a very small sample, and it would be fun to create a bigger one, but accepting that word counts can be said to be proxies for themes, here is a different look at the these world clouds data in tabular form:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/trump_wordcounts.png\")
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In Bangor, after the top two, \u201cpeople\u201d and \u201ccountry,\u201d top themes were \u201cjobs\u201d and \u201ctrade,\u201d appropriate to the state of Maine, but also (to the best of my recollection) themes of the entire campaign as well. In Vegas, again after \u201cpeople\u201d and \u201ccountry,\u201d we had a full-fledged Schmittian \u201cfriend\/enemy\u201d discourse (\u201cthey\u2019re\u201d\/\u201dwe\u2019re\u201d) along the \u201cborder.\u201d And at the RNC, \u201cgreat\u201d enters the top ranking, presumably because the \u201cG\u201d in MAGA stands for \u201cGreat.\u201d But we also have \u201cadministration\u201d \u2014 presumably to compare Trump\u2019s to Biden\u2019s \u2014 but also, and very strangely, \u201clove\u201d (of which more later). Let us now turn to Thomas Crooks\u2019 attempt on Trump\u2019s life:<\/p>\n
Trump: The Assassination Attempt<\/p>\n
In a remarkable year, one of the more remarkable events has been a Presidential candidate describing how it feels to almost be assassinated, and at his own nominating convention. I can\u2019t think of an equivalent example[1]. Trump is not terse, so I\u2019m going to edit this down seriously, eliminating the jazzy riffing and repetition, but hopefully you will get the flavor:<\/p>\n
Let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt at my rally on Saturday. As you already know, the assassin\u2019s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me what happened. Tell us what happened. Please. And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you\u2019ll never hear it from me a second time, because it\u2019s actually too painful to tell.<\/p>\n
Trump leads with this; I\u2019ve spoken to people who watched it, and \u201cremarkable\u201d was also their word. \u201cI will tell you exactly what happened\u201d is so simple and direct. And we\u2019ll see if he keeps his promise:<\/p>\n
It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania\u2026.<\/p>\n
I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.<\/p>\n
I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood\u2026.<\/p>\n
Service agents rushed to the stage, and they really did. They rushed to the stage.<\/p>\n
These are great people at great risk, I will tell you. And pounced on top of me so that I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side. I felt that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt that\u201d is also simple and direct. More:<\/p>\n
The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening in the fading sun [indeed, 6:11 p.m. ET] was actually seen later. In almost all cases, as you probably know, and when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet. And we had many bullets that were being fired, crowds run for the exits or stampede, but not in this case. It was very unusual.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as if Trump lifts the crowd up, and shows it to itself in a mirror. More:<\/p>\n
Nobody ran, and by not stampeding, many lives were saved. But that isn\u2019t the reason that they didn\u2019t move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble. They saw it. They saw me go down. They saw the blood and thought, actually, most did that I was dead. They knew it was a shot to the head. They saw the blood.[2]<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t actually know that people thought Trump was dead. But it\u2019s certainly plausible. And now the part that will get some voters, at least, to walk over broken glass to get to the polls to vote for him:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here\u2026 I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.<\/p>\n
And watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was. <\/p>\n
And the \u201ciconic\u201d moment. Trump, with the Secret Service agents huddled over him, protecting him with their bodies, looks out and sees the crowd:<\/p>\n
When I rose surrounded by secret service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead. And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t know I was looking out [i.e., their reactions were not fake, something Trump is probably not used to]. They thought it was over, but I could see it. I wanted to do something to let them know I was okay. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, fight, fight, fight!<\/p>\n
Once my clenched fist went up, and it was high into the air. You\u2019ve all seen that. The crowd realized I was okay and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before.<\/p>\n
I think \u201cpride for our country\u201d transitions back to a more normal campaign mode; but what an extraordinary narrative. I don\u2019t ever want to hear a similar narrative from another politician, but it\u2019s hard for me to imagine another politician carrying the crowd with him as Trump did, whether in Butler, PA, or Milwaukee, WI.<\/p>\n
Trump: Heel or Face?<\/p>\n
The \u201cHeel\u201d and \u201cFace\u201d dichotomy derives from the art of kayfabe in the world of professional wrestling, a world in which Trump has moved (and may still move)[3]. From WikiPedia:<\/p>\n
In professional wrestling, kayfabe (\/\u02c8ke\u026afe\u026ab\/) is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as \u201creal\u201d or \u201ctrue\u201d, specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. The term kayfabe has evolved to also become a code word of sorts for maintaining this \u201creality\u201d within the direct or indirect presence of the general public.<\/p>\n
Very much like politics. In these staged events, wrestlers assume characters:<\/p>\n
The characters assumed by wrestlers can be distinguished into two alignments: faces and heels.<\/p>\n
Faces, short for \u201cbabyfaces\u201d, are hero-type characters whose personalities are crafted to elicit the support of the audience through traits such as humility, patriotism, a hard-working nature, determination, and reciprocal love of the crowd. Faces usually win their matches on the basis of their technical skills and are sometimes portrayed as underdogs to enhance the story.<\/p>\n
Heels are villainous or antagonistic characters, whose personalities are crafted to elicit a negative response from the audience. They often embrace traditionally negative traits such as narcissism, egomania, unprompted rage, sadism, and general bitterness. <\/p>\n
Above, I drew attention to Trump\u2019s use of the word \u201clove\u201d; new for him, at least for this tiny sample. Here are WordCloud+\u2019s usage examples of \u201clove\u201d in Trump\u2019s RNC accepance speech:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/trump_rnc_love.png\")
<\/p>\n
The centrality of love is something a Face would extol, especially the Ultimate Face, Jesus of Nazareth. And so Trump, misquoting John 15:13 (to good effect: \u201cothers\u201d for \u201cfriends\u201d): \u201cThere is no greater love than to lay down one\u2019s life for others.\u201d Trump even gives a shout-out to Fred Trump, the worst father in the world, who \u201cused to love taking me to see Billy Graham.\u201d Of course, there is Hannibal Lector (\u201che\u2019s love to have you for dinner\u201d). However, most of the usage examples involve kayfabe\u2019s \u201creciprocal love of the crowd\u201d (\u201cthere\u2019s great love in the room\u201d). I myself wouldn\u2019t classify that as love at all; it reminds me of the parasocial relations that K-Pop fans have with their favored artists (or, for that matter, Beatlemania). I\u2019d be even more concerned if \u201clove\u201d interpreted in this latter sense turned into a binding force among \u201ccommitted nationalist militants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump: The Working Class<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s acceptance speech contains two passages of direct interest to the working class. The first is \u201ctips,\u201d typically framed as a narrative:<\/p>\n
At the center of our plan for economic relief, our massive tax cuts for workers that include something else that stood out to be very popular, actually, here, it\u2019s very popular in this building and all those hotels that I saw that are so nice. I\u2019m staying in a nice one. It\u2019s called no tax on tips, no tax on no tax on tips.<\/p>\n
I got that by having dinner recently in Nevada, where we\u2019re leading by about 14 points.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re having dinner at a beautiful restaurant in the Trump Building on the strip, and it\u2019s a great building. And the waitress comes over. How\u2019s everything going? Really nice person. How\u2019s everything? Oh, Sarah. So tough. The government\u2019s after me all the time on tips, tips, tips. I said, well, they give you a cash, would they be able to find me? She said, actually, they didn\u2019t know that.<\/p>\n
Here Trump plays both parts in a conversation, which he does quite a bit. More:<\/p>\n
She said very little cash is given. It\u2019s all put right on the check. And they come in and they take so much of our money, it\u2019s just ridiculous. And they don\u2019t believe anything we say and they\u2019ve just tired, as you know, 88,000 agents to go after them. Even more.<\/p>\n
And I said, this shows the level of, you know, most people go out, they hire consultants, they pay millions of dollars. But I said to her, let me just ask you a question. Would you be happy if you had no tax and tip? She said, what a great idea. I got my information from a very smart waitress. That\u2019s better than spending millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
And everybody, everybody loves it. Waitresses and caddies and drivers and everybody\u2019s a large, large group of people that are being really hurt badly. They make money. Let them keep their money.<\/p>\n
(I haven\u2019t checked to see if there really is a \u201cSarah.\u201d) Notice that Trump slams the PMC (\u201cconsultants\u201d) and upholds the working class (\u201cvery smart waitress\u201d). At a policy level, I\u2019m not sure I want to encourage nobles throwing gold coins to the peasants as they pass by in their carriages any more than they already do, but there\u2019s no denying that \u201cmore money in your pocket\u201d has its own appeal.<\/p>\n
And on globalization and unions:<\/p>\n
And right now, as we speak, large factories just started are being built across the border in Mexico. So with all the other things happening on our border, and they\u2019re being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country. No tax, no anything. The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen. And the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately. And every single auto worker union and non union should be voting for Donald Trump, because we\u2019re going to bring back car manufacturing and we\u2019re going to bring it back fast.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world. Think of it, in the world. And we\u2019re going to bring it back. We\u2019re going to make them we don\u2019t mind the we don\u2019t mind that happening. But those plants are going to be built in the United States. And our people are going to man those plant.<\/p>\n
And if they don\u2019t agree with us, we\u2019ll put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200% on each car, and they will be unsellable in the United States.<\/p>\n
We still have to built our own plants here, of course. But nevertheless!<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n
One recent talking point from Democrats has been that the Republicans geared their whole campaign around Biden\u2019s age. There\u2019s no sign of that in this speec. Trump remarks:<\/p>\n
They will not have done the damage that Biden has done, only going to use the term once. Biden. I\u2019m not going to use the name anymore. Just one time.<\/p>\n
Biden, or rather whichever Biden staffer is, or possibly was, in charge of his account, reacted to Trump\u2019s acceptance speech as follows:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m stuck at home with COVID, so I had the distinct misfortune of watching Donald Trump\u2019s speech to the RNC.<\/p>\n
What the hell was he talking about?<\/p>\n
\u2014 Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 20, 2024<\/p>\n
And I think \u201cWhat the hell was he talking about?\u201d is a fair reaction, especially if you\u2019ve got West Wing brain and conceive of a Presidential as a well-crafted script of policy talking points and the occasional clever aphorism. I\u2019m still struggling through breaking down Trump\u2019s rhetoric, because quite frankly I\u2019m a big fan of terse, especially in others, but it seems to me that what Trump is all about is the relationship to a crowd, an actual, visible, tangible crowd. There, Trump is in his element, and everything he says \u2014 jazzy riffing, digressions, verbal oddities, religiosity, and all \u2014 is designed to maintain that connection. Very much unlike all other politicians in the field today.<\/p>\n
NOTES<\/p>\n
[1] In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech and, also remarkably, continued on speaking. But he didn\u2019t describe the shooting in the speech, let alone an acceptance speech.<\/p>\n
[2] I cut this part out for brevity: \u201cAnd there\u2019s an interesting statistic. The ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body. For whatever reason. The doctors told me that. They said, why is there so much blood? He said, it\u2019s the ears. They bleed more. So we learned something, but they just, they just, this beautiful crowd, they didn\u2019t want to leave me. They knew I was in trouble. They didn\u2019t want to leave me. And you can see that love written all over their faces.\u201d \u201cSo we learned something.\u201d <\/p>\n
[3] Needless to say, \u201cI don\u2019t love Trump.\u201d I\u2019m looking at his work as an exercise in rhetoric. When I say \u201csimple and direct,\u201d for example, I\u2019m not saying true; the most I might say is \u201cplausible.\u201d For all I know, to Trump the showman, the story of his assassination is genuine imitation kayfabe all the way down (I, for example, have been spoken to about mediating serious emotional events through literature, as opposed to direct and genuine feeling, whatever that may be).<\/p>\n
[4] Interestingly, in kayfabe the crowd can also be a \u201cpseudo-character\u201d: \u201cIn the WWE Universe era, the crowd also can be spontaneously used, mostly as a Heel, either to distract promo, build more heat to heels, or used to distract referees on their count-outs to force a result, even when they have no physical power or rights to fight the wrestlers.\u201d Trump, however, makes the crowd in Butler, PA a Face.<\/p>\n
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