Donald Trump did not need to be in Texas on Wednesday evening. He was giving the keynote speech at the first-ever midterm Republican convention – an event viewed as a cynical cash grab even by some within the President’s own party.
Trump, who loves a show, had hoped for big crowds, big money and all the attention that goes with that for his big event, which had quickly been dubbed by his fans as the “Trumpapalooza”.
But the shine seemed to have come off the event even before the President got to his lectern. Sales had reportedly been disappointing. Big-name candidates up for re-election have almost all stayed well away from the event. At one stage in his nearly two-hour speech, Trump told the crowd: “I didn’t need to be here tonight. I could’ve been in a nice place somewhere in the world.”
If any Democrat – let alone a Democratic president – had even dared to imply that Texas was not a “nice place”, it would get blanket coverage for weeks, and be used in attack ads against Democrats for years to come. Trump, of course, will almost certainly get away with it unscathed, but it was hardly the only gaffe in Trump’s long and rambling remarks.
For most of the time, the US President promised that if the American public would just vote Republican in the midterms – which polls currently suggest will heavily favour the Democrats – he will pass a flurry of big, splashy legislation.
