Donald Trump gave his Suffolk speech today in front of a hastily assembled group of police officers ostensibly to thank them for their work combatting MS-13. Instead, he occassionally talked about them in between bizarre veers onto every topic imaginable.
Read: The Impact of Trump’s Policies on Long Island
While the speech was supposedly occassioned by the tragic killings in Brentwood and Central Islip which have caused untold grief for the families of the victims, Trump joked, attacked political enemies, and bragged about himself. Here is a segment from the heart of the speech:
One by one, we’re liberating our American towns. Can you believe that I’m saying that? I’m talking about liberating our towns. This is like I’d see in a movie: They’re liberating the town, like in the old Wild West, right? We’re liberating our towns. I never thought I’d be standing up here talking about liberating the towns on Long Island where I grew up, but that’s what you’re doing.
And I can tell you, I saw some photos where Tom’s guys — rough guys. They’re rough. I don’t want to be — say it because they’ll say that’s not politically correct. You’re not allowed to have rough people doing this kind of work. We have to get — just like they don’t want to have rich people at the head of Treasury, okay? (Laughter.) Like, I want a rich guy at the head of Treasury, right? Right?
I want a rich guy at the head of Commerce. Because we’ve been screwed so badly on trade deals, I want people that made a lot of money now to make a lot of money for our country.
And, by the way, as I was walking up, they just gave me the numbers. Our numbers just came out this morning. GDP is up double from what it was in the first quarter. 2.6 percent. We’re doing well. We’re doing really well. And we took off all those restrictions. And some we’re statutorily stuck with a for a little while, but eventually that statute comes up, and we’re going to be able to cut a lot more. But we’ve sort of liberated the world of creating jobs like you’re liberating us and the people that live in areas.
Trump also called for police to abuse suspects more when they arrest them:
And when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see them thrown in, rough — I said, please don’t be too nice. (Laughter.) Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody — don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay? (Laughter and applause.)
So, this speech was about encouraging police abuse of Latino suspects, and how rich guys should run the government, and how tough the ICE agents (hired under Obama and Bush) are.
Trump did his usual “crazy racist uncle” routine, only it isn’t an act.
