Journalist, author, and fellow Pittsburgher Salena Zito wrote a piece on Sept. 23, 2016 (almost nine years ago to the day) for The Atlantic before the publication became a committed propaganda organ for the extreme left. The pull quote about then-candidate Donald J. Trump was, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."
Not only was this true at the time, but after nine straight years of Trump’s almost complete domination of the 24/7 news cycle and the public consciousness of America, the media and the Left still haven’t learned.
After President Trump’s eulogy for Charlie Kirk yesterday, which was covered thoroughly and with great care by Catherine Salgado, there may be one portion of the president’s remarks that will illustrate Zito’s Trump maxim once again.
By all accounts, the president’s remarks about Charlie were some of the most respectful, affectionate, and personal that he’s ever delivered in front of an audience about anyone. You could tell he loved Charlie and admired him for all of the character traits they shared, and more importantly, some they did not.
More to the point, Trump made it clear that Charlie was his own man, and in some respects a better man than himself. But he did it in classic Trump fashion — with self-deprecation while weaving equal parts sarcasm and polarization into his sentences.
The president’s tendency to use the polarization technique is often what gets him into trouble with the Left. By intent, he says one thing but means another, and the only way you can tell is by keying in on his tone of voice, the tilt of his head, the look in his eyes, and by paying close attention to what he says before (the setup) and after the triggering words.
The whole point of polarization by skilled public speakers, comedians, and even great teachers, is to take the audience down one path and lull them into feeling they know where it’s going. Then you hit them out of the blue with something that surprises or even shocks them into best understanding the point the speaker wants to make.
That’s what Trump was doing when he spoke about Charlie:
On paper or online, this is an easy line to misread. A short video clip of it may also remove tone and context. To be fair, Trump’s patented deadpan delivery doesn’t help with some people, who, even when they watch him say his words, still aren’t able to pick up his self-deprecation. Then, of course, is the fact that there is a certain degree of truth in what he says.
It’s likely that the Left’s spin machine will now latch onto this part of Trump’s eulogy to make its case for how insensitive he was on this day. This will not jive with the manner in which Charlie’s widow, Erika, greeted Trump on stage. There was an obvious deep affection between the two and their shared love of Charlie, and you could see it.
Leftists will wonder how she could behave in such a way around a man who critiqued her and Charlie for loving their enemies. Some of those leftists will know better and just pretend to be perplexed and disappointed by this. But many will have mistakenly taken Trump literally and missed his point.
The best guidance for them is pretty simple. Watch the whole speech in its entirety and pay special attention to how he framed his comments about the differences between Charlie and him. Most of us are easily tempted to feel the way Trump described, and through his remarks, Trump counted himself among us.
Trump’s primary point that should not be lost is that he knows it takes work to be like Charlie. It takes unusual commitment and faith. He knows that Charlie was a better man than most, including him. And maybe we should all try to be more like Charlie. It’s all there in the speech. You take Trump seriously but not literally.
One more thing: If you want to see the Democrats go down to defeat in next year’s midterms and beyond, now is the time to join the battle to Make America Great Again. Without you, America can lose. We need your help to succeed!
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