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Item one: At an antisemitism event, Trump attacks American Jews. The man is unraveling fast, and the sanewashing must stop now.
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It was billed as an antisemitism event, and, well, I guess it was, ultimately, although not in the intended sense. The phrase "antisemitism event" usually refers to an event designed to draw attention to and denounce antisemitism. But in Donald Trump’s hands, it morphed into an event that featured antisemitism, in the form of the mind-blowing comments by the principal.
After opining that the Democratic Party has "a hold, or curse" on Jewish Americans, he then said: "I’m not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40 percent.… If I’m at 40, think of it, that means 60 percent are voting for Kamala [Harris], who, in particular, is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel, very bad."
First of all, as always, he’s lying. He’s not at 40 percent. He’s at 25 percent. But lies are par for the course. What isn’t par for the course is to show up to a constituency and serially berate them. He said again that American Jews who vote for Kamala Harris "should have their head examined." He took it as a given that Jews have a dual loyalty to the United States and to Israel—the oldest antisemitic trope in American politics. And he whined that "I haven’t been treated right" by American Jews.
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In partnership with: Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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Join us on Tuesday, September 24, as top legal and policy minds from Americans United for Separation of Church and State talk with investigative journalist Nina Burleigh about the far-reaching implications of Project 2025—the political blueprint outlined by ultraconservatives for the Trump administration.
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But don’t worry—it wasn’t all about attacking Jews. He attacked Muslims too! He boasted that if elected, he’ll bring back the Muslim travel ban to keep out people from "infested" countries. That is plainly fascist language.
After the debate, I wrote a column arguing that this was the beginning of Trump’s unraveling. I’ve gotten my share of predictions wrong over the years, and we still have 46 days to go, but so far, that one is looking pretty good. In the last few days, Trump:
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has continued to spew the lies about Haitians and house pets in Springfield, Ohio (and, of course, a poll found that 52 percent of Trump supporters think the lie is "definitely" or "probably" true); |
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in a press conference in Los Angeles, rambled about that "very large faucet" in Canada that could solve all of California’s water problems. (What was he doing campaigning in California anyway? Oh, of course: He was at one of his golf courses.) This is not entirely made up—he was apparently referring to the Columbia River, but as this Canadian scientist explains, needless to say, there is no faucet and it isn’t that simple; |
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said in an interview that the audience at the debate "went crazy" for him. Uh, there was no audience; |
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in one of his more bizarre rants ever, said he was "greater even than Elvis." Trump: "Nobody can draw crowds like me.… I’m the greatest of all time. Maybe greater even than Elvis. Elvis had a guitar, I don’t have a guitar. I don’t have the privilege of a guitar." |
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First of all, asshole, a guitar isn’t a "privilege." It’s something you earn by learning how to play it, like I have. But learning a musical instrument requires having an attention span of more than five seconds, so that’s out of the question for Trump. He couldn’t learn the kazoo.
Second, his reference point shows his age, does it not? How far removed is Trump’s invocation of someone who was at his peak of popularity nearly 70 years ago and died nearly 50 years ago from Bob Dole’s famous reference to the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1996 campaign? I mean, that was only 40 years after the Boys of Summer fled to L.A. And third, if you know anything about Elvis’s career and what rock and roll tours were like in those primitive days, you know that he was typically playing crowds of three or four thousand, often less—fairgrounds and high-school auditoriums. Even the ’70s-Vegas Elvis played mostly the Westgate Casino Cabaret, capacity 1,700. The large-scale rock and roll tour started with The Beatles and then grew from there. But Elvis remains the lodestar of the 80-year-old Queens brain.
Oh, and by the way: Trump said this at a rally where—of course—there were lots of empty seats and where, yes, people were spotted leaving early.
So we have two issues we need to examine here. First, the astonishingly offensive remarks Trump made Thursday night about Jews. His Jewish support should start sinking like a stone. But there’s one Jew who clearly loves him, and other events this week have to make us wonder whether Bibi Netanyahu is trying to start a war with Lebanon and maybe Iran to raise gas prices and screw up the economy (right after Jerome Powell made a move to ensure that doesn’t happen) to help Trump win, but that’s another column, if I get around to it.
The second issue is one that must remain front and center in the American political media: Trump is really losing his marbles now. Was that statement about the crowd going nuts for him at the debate a normal Trump lie? Or was it a fantasy of which he has convinced himself? If we hooked him up to a polygraph and he repeated that line, would his pulse quicken? Would he change his speech patterns, avert his eyes, cover his mouth? I doubt it. He wouldn’t even think he was lying.
The mainstream media still treats comments like this with diffidence: "Oh, that’s Trump." No. These are defining comments. They tell us about his mental fitness. They matter. They should be covered. I can’t find evidence that The New York Times or The Washington Post covered those remarks.
This sanewashing must stop. Voters need to be informed when Trump makes statements with a tenuous connection to reality at best. He’s disqualifying himself from the presidency every day that he opens his mouth, but much of the mainstream media is ignoring the words coming out.
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In partnership with: MSI United States
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Join us on Wednesday, October 2, as investigative journalist Nina Burleigh talks with a panel of experts about the threats posed to women’s reproductive rights by Trump’s covert plan to adopt Project 2025 as his policy road map if he’s elected to a second term.
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Item two: Mark Robinson and whither North Carolina
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It looks like North Carolina GOP candidate for governor Mark Robinson is staying in the race after those new jaw-dropping allegations reported by CNN. Of interest to us here is not Robinson per se—he’s a Nazi (we can call him that with confidence now since it’s how he described himself, although of course he denies it all) and an idiot and will get crushed in the gubernatorial election by Democrat Josh Stein.
Stein, by the way, comes from an illustrious Tar Heel State liberal family. His father, Adam Stein, helped start the state’s first integrated law firm and argued the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education case before the Supreme Court—the case that in 1971 finally began the desegregation of that state’s schools. The contrast between a public servant from this noble lineage and fascist boob like Robinson couldn’t be clearer.
But our concern is the presidential race. Can Robinson’s nuttery help Kamala Harris? You bet it can. You may by now have seen the video clip going around of Donald Trump calling Robinson "Martin Luther King on steroids" (start watching at 1:00). I would think that the ad contrasting that quote with Robinson’s instantly famous "I’m a Black NAZI!" could make itself. Just show that over and over and over. And there are plenty more quotes from Trump praising the guy.
According to Five Thirty Eight Friday morning, the state is dead even—Trump ahead by a meaningless 0.1 percent. North Carolina has 16 electoral votes. If Harris holds Michigan and Wisconsin, where in most polls she does maintain a slight but steady lead, she can lose Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia and still win if she carries North Carolina. So it’s a big deal, and definitely gettable. And Trump has himself to thank—he endorsed Robinson for lieutenant governor and thus probably elected the guy.
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You’ve read about the scary horrors of a Trump second term. But a legal war of attrition that harasses MAGA’s enemies and transforms government info into propaganda could prove more insidious and harder to mobilize against.
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Last week’s quiz: Oh, the horror. Because today is Friday the 13th, let’s look at the history of horror and slasher movies.
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1. Which of the following stories or novels was not adapted into an early, pre-talkie horror film?
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A. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
B. Frankenstein
C. "The Fall of the House of Usher"
D. The Phantom of the Opera
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Answer: C, "Usher." Fairly obvious, I thought; the others were all pretty famous, even the old silent versions (especially so in the case of Phantom).
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2. Everyone knows Boris Karloff played Frankenstein. But who played his famous love interest in the sequel Bride of Frankenstein?
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A. Alice Faye
B. Elsa Lanchester
C. Irene Dunne
D. Ida Lupino
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Answer: B, Elsa Lanchester. I would argue this is one of those rare cases when the sequel was better than the original. Elsa, with those pre-Sontagian white ripples in her hair, was kinda dreamy, for a monster.
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3. The 1950s were the decade when horror films, especially those featuring scary creatures and monsters, came into their own. Two of the great classics of the genre, Godzilla and The Creature From the Black Lagoon, were released in the same year. What year was it?
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A. 1951
B. 1954
C. 1957
D. 1958
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Answer: B, 1954. They were both also great drive-in movies. Ah, the drive-in! There were two in Morgantown when I was a kid. I remember seeing Goldfinger at one of them. By the late 1970s, they were both showing porn films, which was particularly amusing in the case of the one whose screens could be easily seen by motorists heading down I-79 South.
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4. This phenomenally successful 1978 movie is said to have inaugurated the golden age of slasher films.
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A. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
B. Friday the 13th
C. A Nightmare on Elm Street
D. Halloween
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Answer: D, Halloween. Jamie Lee!
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5. Match the female slasher-movie star to her character.
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Neve Campbell
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Lupita Nyong’o
Courteney Cox
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Gale Weathers
Addy Wilson
Helen Shivers
Sidney Prescott
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Answer: Neve = Sidney, Sarah Michelle = Helen, Lupita = Addy, Courteney = Gale. Oh, Neve …
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6. In 2022, writing that it "whispered in moviegoers’ ears that maybe there were some things that science couldn’t explain," Rolling Stone named this the greatest horror film of all time.
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A. Psycho
B. Get Out
C. The Exorcist
D. The Blair Witch Project
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Answer: C, The Exorcist. I’d kinda forgotten all about that movie until researching this quiz. It was pretty great all right, and very original at the time.
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Also, there was this, remember? Bonus Boris Karloff question: What is the actual greatest thing he ever did in his career? It wasn’t playing Frankenstein. It came three decades and change later. Answer: His brilliant narration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, of course. Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss himself) and animator Chuck Jones (of Bugs Bunny fame) chose Karloff because of his "beautiful, rhythmic, caring" voice. Such an inspired choice for what is at least the second-greatest Christmas special ever (after Charlie Brown), and arguably the greatest.
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TNR Travel: New December Dates Added
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Join a special group of readers and supporters on a lovingly designed, all-inclusive tour of one of the most amazing places in the world. Drawing on The New Republic’s special contacts among local historians, artists, and chefs, we’ve created a first-class experience that will immerse you in Cuba’s colorful and unique history, politics, and culture.
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This week’s quiz: "Come fly with me …" A few questions on the ins and outs of commercial aviation
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1. From a 2017 analysis, on average, how many airplanes are in the sky around the world at any given time?
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A. 5,304
B. 9,728
C. 11,116
D. 14,088
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2. Roughly how many flights take off in the United States every day, according to the Federal Aviation Administration?
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A. 22,000
B. 28,000
C. 33,000
D. 45,000
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3. According to the travel website Far & Wide, how many of the world’s Top Ten Worst Airports are in the United States?
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4. If you’re flying from JFK in New York to Shanghai, as your plane takes off and reaches cruising altitude, which direction does it head? (Possibly confusing hint: It stays pretty much on that heading for a long time, until it does the opposite.)
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A. North
B. South
C. East
D. West
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5. When a plane flying the great circle route from Washington-Dulles to Warsaw traverses the U.K., where does it cross?
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A. It doesn’t—it flies above the English Channel between the U.K. and France.
B. It just skirts Cornwall and the south.
C. It flies almost directly above Liverpool.
D. It goes roughly above Inverness, Scotland.
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6. Where is the world’s shortest commercial flight, and how long does it last?
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A. From the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula in Michigan, 12 minutes
B. From Cerro Sombrero, Chile, to Cullen, Argentina, in the Tierra del Fuego, 10 minutes
C. From Mbabane, Eswatini, to Lobamba, Eswatini, six minutes
D. From Westray to Papa Westray, Scottish Orkney Islands, just under two minutes
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The longest flight in the world, incidentally, is from New York to Singapore—18 hours, 25 minutes. No thanks. Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.
—Michael Tomasky, editor
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