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The guy who’s been cutting funding and killing vital programs at the University of Alabama strolled on campus Thursday evening, and was welcomed with open arms and cheers.
It was the perfect microcosm of Alabama – a state where voters continue to fight tooth and nail for people and policies that directly harm them – as Donald Trump delivered what was, I suppose, although I’m not quite certain, a commencement speech to all of the white graduates and some other white people (maybe there was a non-white person in attendance somewhere) at a university where his policies have been incredibly harmful.
To show their displeasure at this, he was welcomed to the stage by Nick Saban.
Because why not? Maybe Nick can get tariffs eased for his Mercedes dealerships. Principles, people. They’re part of the process.
As for the speech that Trump invited himself to give, it was … meh. An hour of babbling, meandering drivel bookended by Trump reading facts from a University brochure about athletics successes and enrollment figures and ending with Trump reciting phrases generated when someone on his staff Googled “motivational remarks for college graduates.”
The middle, though, was all the standard Trump fare: Biden was old and senile, the economy is not his fault where it’s bad and totally his doing where it’s good, TRANSGENDER ATHLETES!!!, the border is awesome now, the judges are terrible and thank God you got me back to save our beautiful country.
And lies. Sweet baby Jesus, the lies.
At this point, it’s fairly obvious that Trump lies so often and so fluently that he probably doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. It’s like dancing for Fred Astaire, he just looks down and his mouth is delivering an absolute avalanche of BS.
And he’s never more emboldened than when he’s spewing out numbers. Completely made up numbers.
“Eggs are down 87 percent!” Trump told the cheering crowd. A phenomenal accomplishment if it were, in any way, true.
It’s not. Consumer egg prices rose 25 percent since January and were up again in March, the most recent month for price data.
It’s also worth noting that the percentage of decline changes each time Trump talks about eggs. A couple of weeks ago, the decline in prices was 93 or 94 percent.
That’s not the only fluctuating phony number. Gas prices also keep going on imaginary declines. Last week they had fallen to $1.98 in some states, according to Trump. On Thursday, those prices were down to “one dollar and 88 cents in three states,” Trump proclaimed.
If he had told you a tale of magical beans and beanstalks, there would have been more truth involved. The lowest price in America on Thursday was $2.18, according to Gas Buddy. The lowest average price reported by any state was $2.75 in Mississippi.
Didn’t matter. Like Blutarsky recounting the German bombing of Pearl Harbor, Trump just kept rolling along.
Grocery prices are down, he said.
They’re not. They’re up since he took office.
Energy prices are down, he said.
They’re not. They’re up too.
Mortgage rates are down, he said.
They were significantly lower the month before he was elected.
He spewed all of these in a matter of a few seconds, delivering them with little anecdotes and with the confidence of Bernie Madoff assuring you that the numbers are real. In other words, typical Trump.
But there was one particular portion of Thursday’s speech that was far outside of the typical. A dangerous and concerning departure from the norm, even for Trump.
As Trump bemoaned all of the various people who are out to get him – because all good con men need a foe who’s trying to stop him from helping you – he zeroed in on one particular group: judges. Specifically, the federal judges who have determined his actions through his first 100 days are so far outside the bounds of the law and constitution that he must stop.
The most recent came early on Thursday, when a judge Trump appointed ruled that the president could no longer use the Alien Enemies Act as justification to remove migrants without due process. Trump told the Alabama crowd that the people who are in America illegally don’t deserve due process.
“The courts are trying to stop me from doing the job I was elected to do,” he said. “Judges are interfering supposedly based on due process, but how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally?”
It’s a stunning admission from the president of the United States – a country where the constitution expressly provides protections to “all persons.”
To their credit, even the partisan crowd at UA seemed unsure about that one, providing Trump only a toned down spatter of applause.
But that’s the best we had. A president who has done direct harm to UA, who has harmed Alabama’s auto industry and agricultural industry, who has the American economy on the verge of recession and nationwide shortages, who has openly spoken of defying the constitution on numerous fronts, who has taken great glee in attacking civil rights protections and undermining Black institutions, and who has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster on the national and international stage, was warmly received and embraced by a throng of people who have every reason to loathe him and very few to love him.
But self-harm and college football is what we do best here.
Unfortunately, on Thursday evening, there was no college football at UA.
