President Donald Trump went post-verbal Wednesday at his rally in South Carolina.
After holding 20 campaign rallies in the span of just two months, the evidently exhausted 80-year-old president has started to insert wild sound effects into his already incoherent rants.
At one point, Trump appeared to short-circuit in the middle of a sentence. Instead of saying former North Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s name, the president produced a gagging sound.
“I’d say 90 percent of the reason I took the governor—EUHH,” Trump said. “I took the governor, I put her over at the United Nations, because I wanted this guy to be, I wanted the guy to become governor.”
Trump has repeatedly misspelled or misstated Haley’s name. Recently, Trump has appeared to forget the names of candidates he’s shown up to support.
Later, Trump described the unlawful military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats using one of his favorite sound effects. “We brought the flow of deadly drugs coming in by ocean and sea down by 97—pew, pew, pew. Ninety-seven,” he said. Trump has been repeating this number for months, but the Pentagon’s own statements don’t support this claim.
It then appeared that Trump has given up on pretending that the flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz has been restored. He’s also given up on trying to say it.
“Oh, and when Iran ends. POW,” Trump said, miming a downward flow. “The oil,” he clarified.
Trump’s nearly eight-month “six-week war” against Iran has caused a sustained spike in energy prices, creating a quagmire for Republicans in the coming midterm elections. The president’s pathetic deal to lift sanctions on Russian oil hasn’t helped. Trump continues to promise that an end is near, but indirect negotiations are still ongoing.
It’s hard not to view this latest rally as one humiliating moment after another. Speaking in front of thousands of people, Trump ranted about wanting to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to “Trump Ocean,” insisted that he should’ve won the Pulitzer Prize for writing (after confusing it for his much-coveted Nobel Peace Prize), cheered on a rallygoer who assaulted a heckler, and leered at Senator Tim Scott, of all people.