As Democrats continue their rhetorical strategy of trash-talking Donald Trump, running mate J.D. Vance, and other “weird” and “creepy” conservative policymakers attempting to thrust the country into the dark ages, the former president has become increasingly furious at the messaging overtaking media outlets and internet memes.
During a Thursday interview with conservative radio host Clay Travis, Trump attempted to reverse the criticism and said that Democrats were “the weird ones.” He insisted, “Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And I’m upfront. And he’s not either, I will tell you. J.D. is not at all. They are.
“We’re not weird people,” Trump added. “We’re we’re actually just the opposite.”
Notably, in 2015, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) observed, “When Donald comes across a poll he doesn’t like, he gets weird and he does these sorts of strange things and that’s fine — that’s the sort of campaign he wants to run, and he’s entitled to it.”
Then, in 2017, following Trump’s sinister inauguration speech, former President George W. Bush offered a brief assessment: “That was some weird shit.”
If one of the strategic intentions driving the Democratic Party’s anti-“weird” messaging campaign was to crawl under Trump’s skin, in that sense the effort has been a success.
According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, in recent days, Trump has been repeatedly complaining to advisers and confidants about how much amplification the Democrats and Team Kamala Harris’ “weird” attacks on Trump, Vance, and their allies has gotten in the media, including on his generally friendly home-turf of Fox News. The ex-president has grumbled that it makes no sense to him that any “weird” attacks on Vance would stick in the public consciousness, not when Harris has, for instance, “that laugh.” (On the campaign trail, the former president has been trying to convince voters that the vice president is “nuts,” largely based on the manner in which Harris laughs.)
“Of course he’s upset by it,” one of the sources, who talks regularly to Trump, tells Rolling Stone. “The Democrats and the media are smearing this good man who came from nothing as some sort of weirdo. It’s an insult to [Vance], and the millions of forgotten men and women … It’s Kamala’s ‘deplorables’ moment.”
As Rolling Stone reported, Vance expressed his support for a national abortion ban, arguing it would be necessary to prevent women in states with bans from traveling to other states to obtain safe abortions. “Let’s say Roe v. Wade is overruled,” he said, before bizarrely adding: “Ohio bans abortion … you know, in let’s say 2024. And then, every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity.”
Last week, Harris’ campaign blasted Vance’s stance on abortion with an email saying: “J.D. Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide),” adding that “Vance is weird. Voters know it — Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.”
As Vance’s status as the “weird” guy appears to gain traction every passing day (his unearthed urgency for the right to “go to war” with people who don’t want kids didn’t help), Trump may be regretting his vice presidential pick, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Democratic senator added, “The choice may be one of the best things [Trump] ever did for Democrats.”
