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Admit It — Trump’s Boring Now.

A familiar magician possesses no new tricks.

Peter Ramirez
3 min readJul 1, 2020

Trump rallies used to be unpredictable. Muslim bans, Mexican rapists, the wall. It was all so novel. Supporters and haters alike would flock to their TV sets to see what new campaign promise or witty slogan would be uttered next. Ratings-obsessed media companies happily obliged, as Trump received almost $2 billion in free media during the last presidential election cycle.

But Trump didn’t like the rallies because of the free media. He liked them because they scratched a narcissistic itch.

That was back when Trump was interesting, when he was fresh. He was a new animal at the local zoo.

Now his act is stale. The president is obsessed with ratings and crowds and is garnering neither. His Tulsa Rally, which was billed as a great American comeback, fizzled out embarrassingly. The small venue laid two thirds bare. According to the New York Times, Trump “stood backstage and gazed at the empty Bank of Oklahoma Center in horror.”

A full 14 minutes were devoted to a comedic bit about walking down ramps and drinking water, niche programming even for Trumpian standards. An overflow stage, built to address the raucous rally goers who couldn’t fit in the arena, was promptly dismantled. A picture of a disheartened Trump returning…

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Peter Ramirez
Peter Ramirez

Written by Peter Ramirez

political science researcher. former valedictorian. reader/writer. host of “Politics Mostly” podcast.

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