Here's the full crowd as #TrumpinAZ finishes up. pic.twitter.com/iUGVUmppGZ
— David Catanese (@davecatanese) August 23, 2017
Here's an angle from the opposite side of the room. #TrumpinPhx pic.twitter.com/xg0G34eJ7r
— David Catanese (@davecatanese) August 23, 2017
I know it seems a lot longer, but remember — it’s been less than a week!
The reviews were positively brutal:
Washington Post – “As Trump ranted and rambled in Phoenix, his crowd slowly thinned”
Vox – “In Phoenix, Donald Trump committed a sin he’s never committed before: he was boring”
Slate – “Trump’s Phoenix Rally Was An Embarrassing Therapy Session”
He's burning down every last bit of damage control work his staff and other Republicans have been trying to do for a week
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 23, 2017
The insult to His Narcissism has not been forgotten… or forgiven! From Bloomberg, Monday 28 August, “Trump Punishes Longtime Aide After Angry Phoenix Speech, Sources Say”:
Donald Trump was in a bad mood before he emerged for a confrontational speech in Arizona last week.
TV and social media coverage showed that the site of his campaign rally, the Phoenix Convention Center, was less than full. Backstage, waiting in a room with a television monitor, Trump was displeased, one person familiar with the incident said: TV optics and crowd sizes are extremely important to the president.
As his surrogates warmed up the audience, the expanse of shiny concrete eventually filled in with cheering Trump fans. But it was too late for a longtime Trump aide, George Gigicos, the former White House director of advance who had organized the event as a contractor to the Republican National Committee. Trump later had his top security aide, Keith Schiller, inform Gigicos that he’d never manage a Trump rally again, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Gigicos, one of the four longest-serving political aides to the president, declined to comment…
A week later, Trump was still reminiscing about the event.
“You saw the massive crowd we had,” he said at a White House news conference on Monday with Finland President Sauli Niinisto. “The people went crazy when I said, ‘What do you think of sheriff Joe?’ Or something to that effect.”…
It was probably gonna happen anyway, if his aides weren’t able to distract him, but how much of the speed and ugliness by which Trump pardoned Arpaio were due to the fact that his fee-fees had been so wounded by the not-Arpaio-supporting majority of Phoenix residents?
Trump's mind quadruples the crowds in front of him like a CG artist embellishing a Game of Thrones battle scene. Also, he adds dragons.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 23, 2017