Trump shoots from lip
‘Woke people are losers and we should be more like Nazi hunter Patton’
Donald Trump invoked the image of World War II general George Patton to attack “wokeism” in the military at a rally in Alabama.
George C Scott’s Oscarwinning version of Patton’s rousing and profane pep talk to troops to defeat the Nazis – featuring the line “We are going to murder those Hun bastards” – was played as the warm-up to Mr Trump’s 90minute assault on President Joe Biden’s administration.
The crowd seemed uncertain of how to react to the clip at first but Mr Trump won the loudest cheer of the night when he declared: “Everything woke turns to shit.”
Mr Trump told the crowd of tens of thousands that it was his idea to use the clip of Scott from Patton, which was released in 1970. “I said, get that clip, the people of Alabama understand that clip,” he said. “Do you think that General Patton was woke? I don’t think so. He was the exact opposite. You know what woke means? It means you’re a loser.”
Mr Trump had been criticising General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, for his apology after he accompanied Mr Trump through a park near the White House that had been cleared of protesters last summer.
He went on to attack the women’s national football team and its captain, Megan Rapinoe, a vocal critic of Mr Trump. Referring to the team’s bronze medal at the Olympics in Tokyo, he said: “Our women’s soccer team was supposed to easily win but they went woke. Except for a few of them.
“I love those women that stood up and they saluted our flag. But the one with the purple hair (Rapinoe) – she didn’t play too well. She went woke. And they didn’t do too well.”
There was one moment when Mr Trump lost his audience when referring to vaccines, which he regards as one of the greatest achievements of his presidency. Boos could be heard when he urged people to get vaccinated.
“I believe totally in your freedoms, I do … but I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good,” he said.
Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate of any state, and Cullman, the location of the rally, declared a state of emergency earlier in the day because the state has run out of intensive care beds.