”I Can't Read This Damn Teleprompter,“ Trump Complains

Plus, why Steve Levitt is leaving the University of Chicago; What Richard Haass got wrong.

President Trump was in Dayton, Ohio, Saturday March 16, 2024, for a rally on behalf of his preferred candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Bernie Moreno. The teleprompter wasn’t stable—“I can’t read this damn teleprompter,” Trump announced at one point—and, perhaps as a result, Trump gave a speech that was one of the worst I’ve seen him deliver.

One of the criticisms you sometimes hear of Trump relates to the coarsening of the culture. The candidate’s habit of dropping profanity into his public remarks, as he did repeatedly yesterday—“I don’t give a shit,” “People don’t want to hear bullshit,” “He’s just a bullshit artist”—is unpresidential.

Trump managed, simultaneously, to attempt to court Black voters—“When I am president, we will end this Biden betrayal of the African-American community”—and also to denounce Biden for renaming an army base that had been called Fort Robert E. Lee, calling that decision a “terrible thing.”

He mocked Governor Newsom of California as “Gavin Newscum—s-c-u-m is his last name.”

He complimented the physical appearance of the “hot” governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem.