President Donald Trump came to North Carolina on Friday to talk about the economy.
He finished explaining how his wife organizes her lingerie drawer.
“I think you steam them,” he offered at one point, hoping to emphasize the violation that Melania Trump felt when, in his account, FBI agents destroyed virgin underwear – “sometimes called panties” – during their search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
On Trump’s tangents, he wasn’t the wildest, or the angriest, or the weirdest.
However, as the president hopes to refocus the nation’s attention on his economic record ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections, it was another reminder that his own focus is often slightly off.
Trump periodically discussed the economy in his 90-minute speech, which he called a “quick little stop” in Rocky Mount on his way to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays. This week he announced a report which showed that inflation is cooling down unexpectedly. He recounted an announcement he made earlier in the day regarding the reduction of some drug prices. He framed an increase in the unemployment rate as a success since he fired so many government workers.
The fans behind him had signs that said “Lower Prices” and “Greater Wages”. But even the visual cues couldn’t keep the president from veering well off the track – often to the delight of his crowd.
As he was explaining the negotiations that went into the drug pricing scheme, those in attendance listened politely, if quietly, as he assumed a French accent to imitate President Emmanuel Macron during their pharmaceutical negotiations.
The audience really came alive when he reminisced about his opponent from almost ten years ago.
“I don’t know, beating Hillary was fun,” he said with a shout. “Remember, she was a nasty person. I was going to use the B word. I said, ‘my wife wouldn’t be happy.'”
There are many Trump advisers who would prefer the president to focus more on the here and now, or – even better – what’s to come. As he loses his political edge over the economy, many of his allies worry that he has lost touch with the concerns and anxieties of the voters who first brought him to office.
Friday’s rally was the latest in a series of roadshows White House advisers have planned for Trump to hone his price-cutting message. He also delivered a primetime address to the nation this week designed to drive home the message.
Much of his argument rests on the fact that he inherited what he says was an economic disaster from Joe Biden, although inflation was 3% when he took office and is now slightly less. (And economists warned that last month’s drop in inflation had much to do with shutdown-related distortions of economic data.)
But as is often the case, the intended content of Trump’s speech was a target that did not always find an arrow.
As the hour ticked by, his list of grievances grew, to include the news media and Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the one-time loyalist who broke with him in dramatic fashion and whom Trump now calls “Marjorie Traitor Brown.”
His dismissal of Melania’s unmentionables came amid a diatribe over the investigations that have raged during his time out of office. He thought about giving himself a huge sum in connection with complaints he filed against the Department of Justice.
“I’m looking and I’m the one who’s supposed to solve it. So maybe I’ll give myself $1 billion and give it all to charity,” he said.
Trump found enough distractions in the crowd, including a group of glamorous women from the western part of the state who volunteer at his events. When he saw a hat he liked, he explained how he could measure its value.
“I want a golden thread, not a mustard color. You know?” he said. “When you have a mustard colored thread, don’t accept it.”
Recalling the times he came to buy furniture in North Carolina as a hotelier, he explained the demanding nature of the task.
“The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, “I love that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape,” he said. He continued: “I’m a very aesthetic person, believe me, except with women, I don’t care how a woman looks. I used to say beautiful. Now I don’t care.”
He spent several minutes discussing his physical strength amid questions about his stamina after he appeared to be enjoying himself during several events on camera recently. He pointed to the series of cognitive tests he says he passed. And he promised to notify the nation if he finds himself in a recession.
“When that time comes, I’ll let you know about it. In fact, you’ll probably find out about it just by watching,” he said. “But that time is not now, because I feel the same as I have felt for 50 years.”
It was, in the end, the same kind of speech that Trump has been giving now for more than 10 years, the “texture” of which he is very proud. It has less to do with a calculated political message than a free association of whatever is on his mind – which is often the people or entities he thinks have wronged him.
If some of his fixations cause heartburn among his allies, however, Trump has a different view.
“I think I’m probably very neurotic,” he said at Rocky Mount. “I always say that controlled neurosis is good. Being neurotic, it’s not good. But if it’s controlled, okay. It gives you some energy.”
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