Even Donald Trump’s base got tired of his rambling and left Phoenix rally while he was still speaking

| 12:24 pm EDT August 23, 2017
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Donald Trump has now lost reasonable Americans on the left, right, and middle. He’s lost the majority of his senior staffers. He’s lost dozens of people from his advisory councils. He’s even begun losing the Republican Congress. So when he held a rally in Phoenix last night, it was to bask in the glory of the one remaining group he hasn’t lost: his base. But even they got tired of Trump’s inane rambling and began leaving in large numbers while he was still speaking.

This seemed to have been confirmed anecdotally last night by various video clips posted on social media which showed the hall half empty during the latter stages of Trump’s speech. Now the Washington Post is confirming that numerous attendees did indeed leave while Trump was rambling (link). Other attendees got bored, sat down on the floor, and began playing on their phones while tuning out Trump’s words. For Trump, this may be his most damaging development yet.

Yesterday, when news broke before the rally that Trump wouldn’t pardon racist former Sheriff Joe Arpaio during the rally as he had long been teasing, I suggested that the move would serve to deflate his base. Sure enough, Trump hinted during his speech that he’ll end up pardoning Arpaio, but then he revealed that he indeed would not be doing it at the rally. This was not what attendees showed up to hear. But this was likely just one of many moments that served to push Trump’s own base toward the exits during his speech.

Donald Trump spent around fifteen minutes re-reading portions of his own prior speech about Charlottesville in an attempt at proving the media was lying about his response. Of course he left out the parts he’d ad libbed the first time around, meaning he was purposely misquoting himself. But more than that, it was a pathetic waste of time, a mere rehashing of one of his most failed moments. During the campaign, Trump was a bombastic bully. Now he’s been reduced to a fragile whiner. Perhaps that’s why even his base said “screw it” last night and went home early.