Trump wields well-worn attacks and boasts of 'beating' Obama at Florida rally
It was billed as a “homecoming” celebration for Donald Trump’s newly minted status as a full-time Florida resident, and a chance for the US president to party with thousands of his supporters at a pre-Thanksgiving rally.
But the mood in the arena on Tuesday night was instead one of anger and resentment as Trump repeatedly dipped into a well-worn playbook to attack the “bullshit” of the impeachment investigation under way against him in the House of Representatives, and the Democratic politicians who are leading it.
“First it was the Russia hoax … now the same Democrats are pushing the derangement impeachment,” Trump railed during a 90-minute monologue, delivered after his arrival for a break at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
“Ridiculous. They’re pushing this witch-hunt. Everyone’s saying that’s really bullshit,” he added, drawing chants of support from a crowd of about 20,000.
The rally saw Trump zero in on familiar targets: the “failed Washington establishment” and “rigged system”. He claimed he “beat” the “Bush dynasty” and the “Clinton dynasty” before claiming to have beaten Barack Obama, a two-term president who did not lose a general election. “And then we beat Barack Hussein Obama and whatever the hell dynasty that is!” Trump said, stressing Obama’s middle name.
The president did not, however, have any response to an invitation sent to him earlier in the day by Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House judiciary committee, asking him to attend the panel’s first impeachment hearing on 4 December.
Instead, he went on to attack the Democratic House majority leading the investigation, and predicted the hearings would sour support for the party in next year’s presidential election, both nationally and in Florida.
“The crazy Democrats are going down in a landslide. And that landslide is going to start right here in the great state of Florida,” he said.
Trump announced last month in a tweet that he was changing his primary residence to Florida, claiming to have been “treated very badly” by politicians in New York despite paying “millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year.”
The move will save him money – Florida is one of only seven states with no state income or estate taxes – but the decision also contains political calculations. Trump won Florida by fewer than 113,000 of the 9.4m votes cast in 2016, and with 29 electoral college votes at stake, the nation’s most valuable swing state is a key prize in the
chase for the White House.
Trump, who was introduced to the stage by the vice-president, Mike Pence, in a rare public campaign appearance together, in turn presented a slew of Florida’s Republican politicians, including the governor, Ron DeSantis, and the congressman Matt Gaetz.
DeSantis reeled off a list of reasons why he thought Trump was right to declare his permanent residence in Florida: tax benefits, good weather, unemployment at 3.2%, below the national average, and the fact that a new state law banning sanctuary cities – a key immigration objective of the president – went into effect this summer.
DeSantis also declared he was “really excited about having Melania [Trump’s wife and the First Lady] as a Florida resident”, figuring that too would bolster Republican standing in the state.
“Florida always matters,” Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, said. “It’s been important in every election for decades. Florida has done well under his presidency and is clearly in the win column for 2020, polling shows that.”
Trump, in fact, does not hold a clear advantage in Florida, but he trails only Joe Biden among the leading Democratic candidates in head-to-head match-ups, according to data from Real Clear Politics, and holds a slim lead here over Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
Florida’s Democrats staged their own counter-rally outside the BB&T Center, which is on the western edge of Broward, Florida’s bluest county which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, 66.5% to Trump’s 31.4%.
“Florida is tired of being hurt by his broken promises. This isn’t a homecoming rally, it’s a retirement party,” said Terrie Rizzo, the chair of the Florida Democratic party.