Trump's weird words: What's behind his rally rants

Zoom in: Last month in Wildwood, N.J., he was accusing the Biden administration of allowing criminals into the U.S. when he took a rhetorical left turn to praise "the late, great Hannibal Lecter," the fictional serial killer played by Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs."

• "He's a wonderful man," Trump said.

The same rally featured what amounted to a vulgar call-and-response between Trump and the crowd, in which the former president said he has been indicted on "bullsh*t," prompting the crowd to chant the word.

• Trump also led the crowd in a chant directed at Biden's administration: "Everything they touch turns to what...," Trump said. "Sh*t!" the crowd responded.

Last week in Racine, Wis., Trump tried to make up for reports that he'd used the word "horrible" when talking to GOP lawmakers about Milwaukee, the host for the Republican National Convention next month.

• He praised Wisconsin in a sequence in which he said he prefers Lake Michigan to the Atlantic or Pacific oceans because there aren't sharks in the lake. "I'll take the one without sharks," he said.
• He added that he won Wisconsin in 2020 (he lost by 20,682 votes) and that he'd been "indicted more" than Al Capone, (if you're scoring, it's Trump 4, Capone at least 6 indictments).

Saturday in Philadelphia, Trump — who frequently attacks Biden's fitness for office — claimed the president will get a "shot in the ass" before Thursday's debate and that he'll "come out all jacked up."

• Trump's jab at his rival's mental acuity doubled as an effort to reset his supporters' expectations in case the 81-year-old Biden — whom Trump has portrayed as a feeble old man — does well in the debate.

Biden's campaign has hit back by circulating videos and posts on social media highlighting Trump's rants, and his incendiary rhetoric.

• In Philadelphia, Trump appeared to address those criticisms.
• "The fake news will say 'Trump is rambling," he said. "No, it's genius what I'm doing up here, but nobody understands."

Zoom out: Those who've examined Trump's rhetoric see comments like that as an acknowledgment that while some of his words are strategic, many are meant simply to get attention — and that more than anything, Trump sees his rallies as entertainment.

• "He frequently digresses, then digresses from his digression, and never finishes a complete thought," Jennifer Mercieca, a Texas A&M University professor who wrote a book called "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump," said in an email to Axios.
• "It's hard to know why he does this," Mercieca said. "Perhaps new ideas occur to him as he is delivering his speech, perhaps he's playing off of the crowd or changing topics when he suspects the audience is bored."

• "Or perhaps his mind is incapable of staying focused long enough on one idea to see it through to its logical conclusion."

What they're saying: "Of course media elites and Beltway crybabies would be engaging in faux outrage because of their delicate sensibilities," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

• "They neither understand hyperbole or humor or anything that might make them laughingly clutch their pearls and run across the street to the other side of the sidewalk."

The other side: Biden's campaign said Trump's "bizarre rants would be funny if they weren't so dangerous and alarming," repeating Biden's theme that Trump is a threat to American democracy.

• "Sharks and Hannibal Lecter aside, Trump is a wannabe dictator who wants to terminate the Constitution and enact his Project 2025 agenda," the Biden campaign's Ammar Moussa said in a statement, referring to Trump's plans to dramatically increase presidential powers.

The bottom line: Trump "definitely thinks of his rallies as opportunities to entertain as much as inform and persuade, and he's very good at reading his audience and playing their 'favorite hits' from his talking points," Mercieca added.

• The rallies-as-entertainment theme is reflected in how Trump's campaign has talked about them.
• "We are essentially producing rock concerts inside of a week, and we're doing it multiple times a month," Trump deputy campaign manager for operations Justin Caporale told Reuters.

This story was updated with the comment from Trump's campaign.

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