WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump bragged about his election victory, insulted Hillary Clinton, attacked the “fake news,” told bizarre stories, said untrue things.
In other words, it was a typical Trump rally. Except he was speaking to children.
Trump appeared Monday evening at the 19th National Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. Speaking to some 40,000 people, most of whom were boys under 18, Trump departed from his prepared text, which was a conventional tribute to the value of scouting, and delivered a rambling address reminiscent of his famous monologues from the 2016 campaign.
The speech left pundits aghast. Below, the 17 most remarkable moments:
1) He began by insulting the media: “Tonight, we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, DC you’ve been hearing about with the fake news.” He added: “Boy, you’ve got a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people.”
2) He said “hell”: “Instead, we’re going to talk about success. About how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your dreams. What to think of what I’ve been thinking about — you want to achieve your dreams. I said, ‘Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?’”
3) He spoke of the Washington “cesspool”: “You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp and it’s not a good place. In fact today I said, ‘We ought to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool or perhaps to the word sewer,’ but it’s not good. Not good.”
4) He falsely claimed the “fake media” wouldn’t report the size of the crowd: “By the way what do you think the chances are that this incredible massive crowd, record-setting, is going to be shown on television tonight? One per cent or zero? The fake media will say President Trump spoke — and you know what this is — ‘President Trump spoke before a small crowd of Boy Scouts today.’ That’s some, that is some crowd. Fake media. Fake news.”
5) He falsely suggested the media wouldn’t show the crowd on television:“Some of you here tonight might even have camped out in this yard when Mike (Pence) was the governor of Indiana, but the scouting was very, very important. And by the way, where are our Indiana scouts tonight? I wonder if the television cameras will follow you. They don’t like doing that when they see these massive crowds. They don’t like doing that.”
6) He called the Affordable Care Act “horrible”: “Secretary Tom Price is also here. Today Dr. Price still lives the Scout oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our Secretary of Health and Human Services. He’s doing a great job and hopefully he’s going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare that’s really hurting us.”
7) He mock-threatened to fire his health secretary: “By the way, are you going to get the votes? He better get ‘em. He better get ‘em. Oh, he better. Otherwise I’ll say ‘Tom, you’re fired.’”
8) He accidentally said “sex”: “Each of these leaders will tell you that their road to American sex. And you have to understand—their American success…”
9) He jabbed at predecessor Barack Obama: “By the way, just a question: did President Obama ever come to a Jamboree? And we’ll be back. We’ll be back. The answer’s no, but we’ll be back.”
10) He told a meandering five-minute story about developer William Levitt: “He sold his company for a tremendous amount of money and he went out and bought a big yacht and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts, I’m not going to tell you what he did — should I tell you? Should I tell you? Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life, you know life.”
He continued: “What happened is he bought back his company and he bought back a lot of empty land…and in the end he failed and he failed badly. He lost all of his money, he went personally bankrupt, and he was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party. And it was very sad. Because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross. Steve Ross, he was one of the great people. He came and…”
11) He bragged about his election victory: “Do you remember that famous night on television, November 8, where they said, these dishonest people, where they said, ‘There is no path to victory for Donald Trump.” He continued: “Do you remember that incredible night with the maps. And the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue. And that map was so red it was unbelievable, and they didn’t know what to say.”
12) He falsely claimed it is harder to win the Electoral College for Republicans than for Democrats: “We have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College. Popular vote is much easier.”
13) He mocked Hillary Clinton’s campaign strategy: “Michigan came in. And we worked hard there. You know, my opponent didn’t work hard there. Because she was told, she was told she was going to win Michigan.”
14) He disparaged opinion polls: “The polls, that’s also fake news. They’re fake polls.”
15) He suggested children voted for him: “So I have to tell you. What we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again.”
16) He falsely claimed he had produced the best jobs report in 16 years: “We had the best jobs report in 16 years.”
17) He promised to bring back “Merry Christmas”: “Under the Trump administration, you’ll be saying Merry Christmas again when you go shopping. Believe me. Merry Christmas. They’ve been downplaying that little beautiful phrase. You’re going to be saying Merry Christmas again, folks.”
