Candidate Trump staged one of his pressers!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

How did The Five react? Yesterday afternoon, in front of Trump Tower, Candidate Donald J. Trump staged one of his lengthy pressers.

It started at 4:52 p.m. The candidate continued until 5:37, having taken just a handful of questions. The Fox News Channel aired the whole thing, eating into the regular time for its most-watched program, The Five. 

As the presser drew to an end, we felt sorry for that program's four Trump-supporters. Here's why:

We don't think we've ever seen the candidate seem more disorganized or more disordered. We know that the candidate doesn't drink. Otherwise, we would have wondered if he had been drinking that day.

What would the Trump supporters say about his performance? Below, we'll answer your question. First, though, we'll show you the sort of thing the candidate said this day.

Just after the clock struck 5, he was off on one of his standard jags, a jag to which he kept returning. At 5:05 p.m., in the iteration shown below, his presentation made even less sense than it normally does:

TRUMP (6/26/24): By the way, the crime rate in Venezuela is down to the lowest level it's ever been that they know of because they've taken their street gangs, they've taken their criminals, off the streets, they've taken their drug dealers and they've emptied their jails, almost. They'll be empty very soon, within the next two months. I guess they can't get enough buses.  

But they're bringing out, they're bringing people at record levels to our country. These are criminals, and their crime rate is the lowest it's been ever that anybody can remember...

"I guess they can't get enough buses!" Under current arrangements, given the traditions and norms of American journalism, we don't have an established way to report, and then to discuss, a peculiar statement like that.

Most of that passage is pure boilerplate. The candidate has said it a million times. It's been (dismissively) fact-checked almost as often. 

As far as we know, the Trump campaign has never produced any evidence in support of these general claims—claims the candidate recently seemed to extend to countries all over the world. That said, we thought the candidate added an especially fanciful filigree this time around:

They've emptied their jails, almost. They'll be empty very soon, within the next two months. I guess they can't get enough buses.

Venezuela's jails will be empty soon. As of now, whoever is doing this apparently can't get enough buses!

That struck us as an especially pitiful addition to the standard story telling. They're busing the criminals to our country—but for now, they're just a bit short on buses!

Where do these buses get unloaded? Why is there no videotape of this remarkable process? 

Also this:

Has any news org ever posed these obvious questions to the Trump campaign? What did the Trump campaign say in reply, and why isn't a presentation as peculiar as this being reported on the front page of major American newspapers?

We've long recommended pity for Trump, who we regard as (clinically) afflicted. To us, his behavior seemed to be especially disjointed on this particular day.

That said, there is no established language within our mainstream journalism for describing such disjointed behavior. And there's no established practice according to which major reporters report the fact that a major figure is making statements which seem to make no earthly sense.

To our ear, the candidate's story was wearing no clothes in this embellished new iteration. To our eye, his performance had been especially disjointed and disordered all the way through.

As the lengthy presser continued, we felt sorry for the Fox News stars who would have to discuss this event. How would they describe it? 

Perhaps you know the obvious answer. The candidate had never been sharper, the four Trump acolytes all agreed, starting with Judge Jeanine's reliably upbeat assessment. Five hours later, the reliable host of the Gutfeld! show took things even farther.

Last month, The Five was the nation's top-rated "cable news" show. Yesterday, it occurred to us that the program needs a name change.

We'll save that new name for another day.  But there has never been a major candidate who makes the type of presentation this candidate routinely makes, and big newspapers like the New York Times seem to lack an established language with which to report such events.

Where do the buses drop all those criminals off? Has any news org ever asked? Is it just simpler not to do so—to avert a news org's gaze while reporting the latest polls?