Trump takes on ‘dictator’ Biden as his upside down show moves to New Hampshire

Supporters absorb former US president’s strategy of inverting accusations against him and turning them on his accuser. To his fans, Trump is the saviour of democracy

...

Donald Trump, the former US president, was about to hold the biggest campaign rally yet in New Hampshire’s primary elections...and trigger renewed warnings that democracy itself will be on the ballot in November.

But his ardent supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, saw things differently – 180 degrees differently. In their view it is Joe Biden who acts like an autocrat and Trump who is the saviour of the constitutional republic.

...

The ex-president has long deployed strategy in which accusations against him are flipped and turned on the accuser. [It's the Soviet/Russian dezinformatsia strategy] And the rally, and this election season so far, is proof that it’s working.

...

During a presidential election debate in 2016, when Hillary Clinton called Trump a “puppet” of Russian president Vladimir Putin, he interjected: “No puppet. You’re the puppet.”

Trump has perfected this twist of message over the years.

 

 

At Saturday’s rally, early in a speech lasting more than an hour-and-a-half, a giant screen above Trump’s head stated in stark black and white: “Biden attacks democracy.”

...“He is a threat to democracy. He really is. He’s a threat to democracy. We have to get him out. You know why he’s a threat to democracy? A couple of reasons but you know the first reason? He’s grossly incompetent.”

...

Trump addressed a flippant remark that he made on Fox News vowing to be a dictator on “day one”, insisting that he had been unfairly edited....

He argued that presidents should be immune from criminal prosecution once they have left office, a case his lawyers are attempting to make as he prepares to stand trial for election subversion. He said of the media: “These are sick people. We have to straighten out our free press.”

He heaped praise on Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and casually observed: “It’s nice to have a strong man running your country.” And for good measure, in a bizarre closing riff accompanied by hypnotic music, he again referred to those imprisoned for their part in the January 6 riot as “hostages”.

The crowd went home happy.

That is the point. He is made dangerous by his hypnotized "listless vessels" who go "home happy".