President Donald Trump had decided to focus his new rallies around attacking transgender children. In 2016, the former president took aim at immigrants, specifically people of color. By 2022, Politico explained that Trump's new campaign is going after minors.
In a 90-minute rant in Casper, Wyoming on Saturday, Trump attacked Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who is one of the Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He told the crowd that it was the most important race of 2022. Thus far, Trump has lost several primary election races in Idaho, Georgia, North Carolina, Nebraska and Texas.
Instead of discussing issues that those in Wyoming care about most, he took a different turn. It's about as it was before, Politico described, ignoring the candidate he's there to support to talk about himself instead.
“No teacher should ever be allowed to teach transgender to our children without parental consent,” Trump said, as people began to leave early. “Can you imagine?”
Teachers don't "teach transgender" in school, despite what Trump believes.
“We will save our kids and we will also keep men the hell out of women’s sports. Is that OK?” Trump continued, ranting about a female swimmer who was a “huge person who was a guy recently.”
He went on to say that the woman set a record that won't be broken until "some guy comes along and breaks it again."
"The former president appears to have put on some weight, but he still looks younger than his 75 years, and the familiar mix of exaggerations, lies, sometimes hilarious mockery, dark conspiracies, personal grievances, perplexing asides, stream of consciousness riffs — all delivered in his uniform of a blue suit and long red tie — remains unchanged," the report said.
As with many Trump rallies, the massive crowd wasn't made up exclusively of Wyoming voters. The parking lot had a number of license plates from Idaho, South Dakota, Montana, Colorado and Utah. Attending were non-Wyoming politicos like Rep. Lauren Boebert, who recently said about mass shootings that after the Sept. 11 attacks, no one tried to ban planes.
Politico explained that Trump seems to have realized that no one cares about who he supports, they just want to see him, said the report.
Trump went on to attack journalists and say that Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) knows his body better than his wife Melania.
The former president then appeared to see himself on the mega-screen and was distracted by the thinness of his hair in the back.
Politico explained that like a stand-up comedian, Trump tries out new language at rallies to test material.
"There is a cynical strategy at work here. Targeting marginalized groups for ridicule forces more responsible actors to stand up for them. As Democrats have learned, Trump’s goal is to get them to spend their time outraged and defending the targets of his attacks rather than talking about their own message," wrote Ryan Lizza.
