The commander -in -chief could not contain himself. He didn’t even try.
He stood on a scene at the end of a long pier and looked at a sea of starchy white polyester, crowds and Aviator sunglasses.
“Let’s face it,” said President Trump to thousands of US navy sailors on Sunday afternoon, “it’s a rally.”
In fact, it was supposed to be a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the navy, but the president dealt with the opportunity as if it were another Trump rally, but with better toys (there were aircraft carriers and fighter planes).
He continued to turn the script for rail on a “rigged” election and “awakened” things. There was a group of real believers from Maga who follow him across the country sitting on the stage. He called them. And he criticized the media and his democratic predecessors and was invented against “Transgender for Everybody”, which became his last exaggerated maxim intended to invoke liberal madness.
On Sunday, the scene provided the last overview of how Mr. Trump merges his wild partisan policy with his role as chief of the armed forces.
His attempts to politicize the army became more blatant at a time when he flexes his power over this army increasingly. This is a dynamic that has taken a new urgent meaning during last week.
During the weekend, Trump sent Texas National Guard troops to Chicago, against the wishes of the Governor of Illinois, a democrat. The president also ordered the hundreds of troops in the National Guard outside the state in Portland, Oregon, triggering a confrontation with a federal judge who blocked the administration of the administration on Sunday evening.
Judge Karin Immergut (who was appointed by Mr. Trump) wrote in his decision: “This historical tradition comes down to a simple proposal: it is a nation of constitutional law, and not of martial law. The defendants have presented a range of arguments which, if accepted, risk blurring the line between the civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this country.
And Friday, her administration made another strike on what she described as a drug trafficking ship in international waters; These strikes have alarmed a range of legal specialists in laws governing the use of force.
Trump boasted of strikes and troop deployments in sailors on Sunday. “Now we are in Memphis,” he said. “And we are going to Chicago.” He explained how he sent troops to Washington.
“We send the National Guard,” he told them. “What do you know?” We send everything you need. People don’t care. They don’t want a crime in their cities. ”
Most sailors heard that it was quite young. They came from all over the country to make all kinds of jobs for the navy on this basis in Norfolk. Some of them were fans of this president. Others have not been.
In the days preceding the arrival speech of Mr. Trump, a navy official explained, at least some of these sailors had been pronounced by their superiors, who reminded them that when they joined the navy, they took the oath to the Constitution. The army is supposed to be non -partisan. It is not intended to serve a political party or leader or any ideology. It is intended to serve the nation.
It is one of the oldest and most sacred democratic traditions in America, designed by the founding fathers, but it is not the one for which Mr. Trump has historically had a lot of time or respect. He almost always behaves like the political animal he is.
This instinct – this contempt for tradition – was also exposed five days earlier, when he was in Quantico, addressing hundreds of best military commanders. Trump then admitted that he understood that the commanders were not supposed to applaud, laugh or react a lot. He told them to forget these old rules. “You feel very pleasant and loose,” he told them. But they were seated mainly in stock when he delivered a partisan speech for 73 minutes.
So he couldn’t break the brass. Maybe a thrown full of young people would be easier?
He made a hell of an entry, landing in Marine One on the bridge of an aircraft carrier while the theme song of “Top Gun” burned. A squadron of fighter planes stole from above the head in a tight formation while he was pronounced his first words – “God bless the navy of the United States” – and the sailors roared with joy.
“I think he is a great president,” said Josie Reyna, a 25 -year -old crewmist’s companion in Wyoming. Asked what she thought of Mr. Trump sending the National Guard to the cities this weekend, she replied: “I mean, I know he just wants to do what is good.”
At that time, a 37-year-old sailor appointed Ruben Reed who works in the Marine Public Affairs department, who helped organize the event, appeared and threw a warning look.
Mr. Reed made me shadow through the crowd, watching the young members of the navy while they were trying to communicate as best they could what they thought of Mr. Trump without seeing too partisan. Even if their commander -in -chief had put politics on the pier, they knew they were not supposed to speak as he does.
Megan Rush, a 26-year-old woman from Lafayette, Louisiana, who works as an electrician on aircraft carriers, said she had come to the pier because she had never seen a president before. What does this do this?
“Ummmmm,” she said, stopping for a moment. “I don’t know what to say.”
Mr. Reed stung. “Are you happy to be here?” He asked, rhetorically.
“I am happy to be here Support the navy“Said Ms. Rush.
“It is normal to support the president,” Reed said slowly. “It’s ok to support your president, Donald Trump.”
A trio of baby life swimmers standing nearby was much more enthusiastic.
“I just like Trump because of the way he is somehow there, you know, and aggressive,” said one of them, a 22-year-old Chandler, Arizona, named Alex Guerra. “I love Pete Hegseth, because he applies strict military standards. I think it will just improve the army. He brings him back to the way the times were. ”
The sailors shouted the noisiest when Mr. Trump promised that he would secure them all the remuneration after the end of the government’s closure and that he would hang a salary increase while he was there.
The crowd also liked his speech on the “boastful” and “the pure attitude” of the navy and how he described advanced submarines which “prowl” and “strike over-invisible overwhelming depths”. They also appreciated the way he spoke of the guts and the glory of “leatherheads” and “jarheads” and “devil’s dogs” and the epic tales he told about the Con commodore Sinclair and the beach of Omaha and Iwo Jima.
“I like your life better than mine, I must be honest with you,” said Trump at some point. “Navigate these beautiful waters all the time, you’re so lucky.”
But stories of nautical heroism and good old -fashioned patriotism finally gave way to a litany of Vintage Trumpian grievances, who landed with mixed results.
The crowd looked silently in silence as he complained, improbably and as he did several times before, a year before September 11, 2001, the attack on the World Trade Center, he tried to warn the world of Osama bin Laden, but no one gave him credit for this warning because no one gives him enough credit.
He spoke of continuing the Associated Press. Many sailors laughed when Mr. Trump began to make fun of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for dropping. And there have been applause when the president said: “We are no longer politically correct.” But there have also been other reactions.
When Mr. Trump said that “we get the” denideer “from the hell of our soldiers”, a black woman looked at another with vaulted eyebrows; They rocked their heads as they walked away from the scene to the other end of the pier. Many other members of the navy who seemed to have heard quite slowly followed suit.
It ended a little later with Mr. Trump dancing on stage at the “YMCA”, as he often does during his political rallies. He and the first lady climbed aboard the aircraft carrier, went up in their helicopter and disappeared on the horizon. Some sailors returned to the ship and the rest started back from the pier towards the base.
Michael Dube, a 36 -year -old man who works for the chapel as a specialist in the religious program, was one. He went to a Trump rally once ago and has been watching a lot on television. He said he agreed with the president that the day looked very much like one of these gatherings. Which was good for him.
“It was,” he said, “great as always.”
