www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/post-politics/wp/2017/08/23/as-trump-ranted-and-rambled-in-phoenix-his-crowd-slowly-thinned/
Alexandra Erin @alexandraerin
We know from White House leaks that Trump lives in a carefully managed bubble, wrapped up in his own propaganda.
His team makes sure that TWICE a day, he gets a folder with glowingly positive tweets, selectively clipped media mentions, etc.
And they reinforce his view that everybody loves him, that anything that suggests otherwise is fake.
This gives the messenger all-important favor with him, and helps the staff as a whole "manage" the moods of the most powerful man on earth.
Trump's campaign rallies are there to help him recharge and reinforce the bubble when it's worn too thin for his staff to patch.
He goes to them to relive the glory of his campaign, and because he believes that if they "worked" during the campaign, they'll work now.
Like Tom Riddle looking for trophies from Hogwarts for his horcruxes, Doanld Trump seeks out artifacts of his presidential campaign.
That's why at most of his stops, he references (true or false) things about the campaign or election associated with his destination.
For his rally last night, he invoked The Big Magic. He went back to the city of his first big campaign rally in 2015, to rebottle lightning.
He... didn't succeed, not outside the bubble. They had to use careful staging, metal barriers, and crowd herding to make it look "packed".
Per the Washington Post, the crowd grew distracted and bored as he ranted on, many filtering out the exit or tuning him out for smartphones.
I haven't seen numbers on the crowd inside or out, but the crowd of protesters was impressive by all accounts.
If you compare pictures of protesters crowding on the parking deck across the street to the half-full auditorium, its quite a visual.
Trump, however, opened his speech with this:
I can actually believe a Secret Service agent told him there aren't too many protesters. Meaning: not more than we can handle.
But it's not necessary to imagine a germ of truth in that, because he's clearly lying in the statement as a whole. The fire marshal line?
Invoking the fire marshal was a standard ploy Trump picked up on the campaign trail.
In multiple cases, there actually was a dispute with the local authorities, who had cooperated to safely exceed the standard capacity...
...so long as the exits were clear and the lanes to and from them were clear. The fire marshals who stuck their necks out to fit people in..
...did not appreciate being made bad guys, and said so. Trump liked the effect of blaming them so much, though, he did it all the time.
If he couldn't pack an auditorium? Blame the fire marshal. "Plenty of empty seats, he won't let anyone in. It's a disgrace."
Packed auditorium, people turned away? Fan the flames of resentment of Big Government. (Or Local Public Servant.)
In trump's mind, blaming someone who doesn't have a microphone to shout back is a win-win situation.
[i didn't realise it's an immensely long thread so the rest is here:
mobile.twitter.com/alexandraerin/status/900364233766047744 ]