Republican strategists have urged Donald Trump to rein in some of his more rambling digressions and to stay on message, a change that experts say has become more essential to his political success in light of the emergence of former prosecutor Kamala Harris as his opponent.
Even MAGA-friendly media personalities like Bill O’Reilly have admitted that Trump “lacks discipline” on the campaign trail.
Trump has long been able to satisfy his followers by skirting the traditional niceties and requirements of credible political rhetoric — instead, he famously trades in name-calling and a deliberately hands-off approach to verifiable facts. [NOTE: After Trump’s most recent Mar-a-Lago press conference, NPR published an article entitled: 162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump.]
But the latest Trump video clip to go viral — and not in a good way for the GOP — features candidate Trump veering off into one of his customary rhetorical rambles to make one of his wildest, most illogical claims yet. In the clip below, which has just surpassed 6 million views, Trump’s bizarre bluster crosses over from the incredible into the absurd.
Trump: Virtually 100% of the net job creation in the last year has gone to migrants In fact I’ve heard substantially more and actually beyond that number 100%. It’s a much higher number than that but the government has not caught up with that yet. pic.twitter.com/OhXChdai8n
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2024
Veering from an already questionable script claiming that nearly 100% of the recent job creation in the United States is attributable to jobs held by migrants, Trump was evidently unsatisfied with the data and asserted that it was wrong.
For Trump’s purposes, 100% was not enough so he claimed it was more than 100%. “In fact I’ve heard substantially more,” Trump said, “and actually beyond that number 100%. It’s a much higher number than that but the government has not caught up with that yet.”
Trump, who graduated from the famous Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, knows that 100% is the full amount of anything and that “giving 110%” is a figure of speech, not a numerical possibility.
Substantially more than 100% of new jobs have gone to migrants??
Make it make sense.
— Hashim Mteuzi, PMP (@Mteuzi) August 15, 2024