President Donald Trump reverted to the same old lies and hates that got him elected president in 2016 at the event in Florida Tuesday officially launching his 2020 re-election campaign. And his right-wing base still loved those same old lies and hates.
Trump again boasted he'd build his border wall with Mexico, but this time not bragging he'd force Mexico to pay for it. And he again portrayed immigrants as destroyers of Trump's American Dream that would take jobs away from the whites.
"Illegal mass migration brings in millions of low wage workers to compete for jobs, wages, and opportunities against the most vulnerable Americans, cutting off their path to the American dream," he said.
In his 80 minute-long harangue, Trump said the "American dream" is in peril from illegal immigrants.
The noisy 2020 reelection campaign in Orlando, Florida (the site of Disney World) featured memes typically associated with right-wing thought and white supremacist racism. Trump re-stoked fear of immigrants and promised to again fight for blue-collar workers in front of an estimated 20,000 people.
Trump said the Democrats have "become more radical, more dangerous, and more unhinged than at any point in the modern history of our country."
"They want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it," he said to a tumult of boos. "Not acceptable. It's not going to happen."
He derided his Democratic opponents as radical leftists driven by "hatred" of him and out to "rip your country apart." This must not happen, he said.
"And that is why tonight I stand before you to officially launch my campaign for a second term as president of the United States."
As is usual, Trump's speech was filled with pompous boasts, outright lies, and half-truths. He also bashed the media and goaded his supporters to boo journalists covering the event, calling them "fake news."
Some political analysts found it odd Trump chose Florida as the site to formally launch his re-election bid. The latest poll from Quinnipiac University showed Trump has a 51 percent disapproval rating in Florida.
The poll of Florida voters released Monday reveals former Vice President Joseph Biden beating Trump 50 percent to 41 percent. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) led Trump 48 percent to 42 percent in the poll taken from June 12 to 17 that surveyed 1,279 Florida voters.
Matchups between Trump and the leading Democratic contenders, while too close to call, all show Trump on the losing end. The news from the polls, including Trump's own internal polls, was so bad Trump flew into a rage upon learning about them.
Trump's 2020 re-election campaign over the weekend fired pollsters Michael Baselice, Brett Lloyd, and Adam Geller over leaked internal campaign polls showing Trump losing badly to Democrats. Trump's internal polls also show Trump trailing Biden, the Democrat presidential frontrunner, in key battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
"Trump is also behind the former vice president in Iowa by 7 points, in North Carolina by 8 points, in Virginia by 17 points, in Ohio by 1 point, in Georgia by 6 points, in Minnesota by 14 points, and in Maine by 15 points," said NBC News.
