Opinion: Trump’s 2020 campaign rallies in 2017: They’re about much more than his need for adulation

To the editor: President Trump has altered the bully pulpit to serve the pulpit bully, as demonstrated by his speech in Phoenix on Tuesday. (“Again breaking ground, Trump takes the permanent campaign to new heights,” Aug. 23)

As demagogues have always known, when large swaths of the public don’t support you, the zeal of the faithful is a key weapon in keeping your enemies off balance. Thus, rather than public addresses to inspire the country at large, you need campaign-style rallies to whip up your supporters and keep your opponents cowed.

There is nothing innocent about this, nor is Trump doing this merely because he wants to “bask in the adulation of supportive audiences,” as the article put it. Trump appears to be laying the groundwork (with this and allegations of “voter fraud” and media dishonesty) to challenge the 2020 presidential election if he loses.

David Saffan, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: I found this article, which ran in print on the front page, to be an excellent example of the challenges journalists face in covering Trump.

While the information in the article was excellent and well written, it also contained parts such as “Trump’s tempestuous appearance … offering a one-man oratorio of anger and indulgence.” So what’s new? He has performed this way many times and he doesn’t seem likely to change.

Featuring an article like this so prominently feeds Trump’s constant need for attention and gives fodder to his supporters who believe the “lying media” continually persecute their hero. It also gives Trump’s detractors more of the same frustration they have experienced for seven months.

As the media grapple with the question of how to cover Trump, I suggest they should consider a key question: Is the president doing something different, or is it more of the same?

Stuart Fischman, Mission Viejo

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To the editor: When my stepson was an adolescent, he wondered why I was so hard on him. I told him I was hard on him in inverse proportion to how hard he was on himself. He was self-centered and could not admit that he had ever made a mistake.

Our president suffers, at an advanced age, from similar issues. And he wonders why the media are hard on him.

If only Trump would admit to a mistake and show any humility at all, the media might be more tolerant. Until then, he will be given a rough treatment by the one institution built to dish it out — because he and America need it.

Peter Maradudin, Costa Mesa

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To the editor: I noticed a typo on your print edition’s front-page headline, “Trump wages a campaign without end.” The “w” should have been an “r,” and the headline should have read, “Trump rages a campaign without end.”

Jim Ouellet, Playa del Rey

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