Moderator Could Not Keep Trump On Topic

Donald Trump clashes with Bloomberg editor over tariffs.

by Brett Samuels - 10/15/24 1:24 PM ET.

@RalphHightower: Donald Trump had a Q&A session with the Economic Club of Chicago on October 16, 2024. It is clear that John Micklethwait is head and shoulders above, actually many floors above Trump in intellect and knowledge about the economy, trade, finance, and everything than Trump. Trying the best that he could, Micklethwait could not keep Trump on topic. But Trump could not stay on the topic. Trump calls his wandering and rambling off-topic, “the weave” where he goes off on tangents to unrelated topics, and then pretends to bring everything back to a “coherent answer”. “The weave”, as Trump calls his problem, is just nothing more than a cover-up for his cognitive decline. Trump 1) loses focus; 2) forgets the question.

Compare Trump’s veering off topic to a bus flipping over a guardrail on a mountain pass and flipping end over end and rolling over down the mountain. I won’t waste your time like I did with mine, reading the entire transcript.

No Respect For the Rule of Law

Trump calls himself the “Law and Order President”. But his respect for law only occurs when he is the benefiary. The following section is where Micklethwait mentions the January 6, 2021 insurrection and asked Trump if there would be a peaceful transfer of power.

Economic Club of Chicago. Oct 16, 2024 – Peaceful Transfer of Power?

John Micklethwait (52:39):

Maybe I can ask you then about something else. Business people here in this room, business people, capital markets, they all like the rule of law. They like certainty. The Chinese who you mentioned, other dictators, they like it when things go wrong in America. If you look at the events of January the 6th, 2021, it showed to many people America’s democracy was unruly and violent. Only three weeks to go to the election. Will you commit now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power?

Donald Trump (53:10):

Well, you had a peaceful transfer of power.

John Micklethwait (53:11):

You had a peaceful transfer of power? Come on President Trump,1 you had had a peaceful transfer of power compared to Venezuela.2 But it was by far the most, the worst transfer of power for a long time.3

Grumpy Trump Looks Like He's Been Sent to a Corner By His Teacher

Donald Trump (53:25):

Thank you. I appreciate that. Because this is what they like to do. This is what they like to do. And it’s very interesting.

John Micklethwait (53:35):

The question President Trump is, would you respect the decision?

Donald Trump (53:38):

When I found out about this interview, I did a little check. This is a man that has not been a big Trump fan over the years. So I had a choice. Do I do this interview, or not? I’m glad I did it, but do I do this interview or do I disappoint a lot of people? Because I know a lot of people in the audience, but his view is very different than mine. Let me just tell you.

John Micklethwait (53:57):

I’m asking you a question-

Donald Trump (53:58):

March,

Donald Trump (54:00):

We had a term, peacefully and patriotically. These were people… If you think an election is crooked, and I do, a hundred percent, if you think… The day it comes when you can’t protest, you take a look at the Democrats, they protested 2016. They’re still protesting it. Nobody talks about them. But if we protest, we want to have honest elections. You think the last election was honest?4 Well, no. Do you think it was honest?

John Micklethwait (54:29):

All the times it went to courts, the court decided-

Donald Trump (54:31):

No, it didn’t go. They went to court and the courts all said, “You don’t have standing.”5 Nobody had standing. And it’s hard, frankly, after an election for a judge, but they all said… Nobody ever had standing.

(54:44) But the facts, if you take a look, I’d show you hundreds of pages of facts. People were angry. People went there. And I’ll tell you what, they never show that, the primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands, the largest group of people I’ve ever spoken before, and I’ve spoken before, and it was love and peace.6 And some people went to the capitol and a lot of strange things happened there. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the capitol by police, with people screaming, “Go in,” that never got into trouble. I don’t want to mention names, but you know who they are. A lot of strange things happened. But you had a peaceful, very peaceful…

(55:27) I left. I left the morning that I was supposed to leave. I went to Florida7, and you had a very peaceful transfer.8 This was not a… And I’ll tell you what, those people that did go dead9, which was a tiny fraction of the people that went to Washington, you’re talking about very, very small because there were hundreds of thousands of people, and I don’t know what you had, five, six, 700 people go down to the capitol. But those people, not one of those people had a gun10. Nobody was killed except for Ashley Babbitt11. She was killed. She was killed. She was shot in the head by a policeman that had no… What he did was horrible.12

John Micklethwait (56:13):

President Trump, maybe let

Donald Trump (56:15):

So I think we should be allowed to disagree on that. And obviously, you see by the reaction in this room-

John Micklethwait (56:20):

Let’s return to-

  1. @RalphHightower: There was nothing peaceful of Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election. The insurrection led Trump’s Pride Boys, Zero Percenters, and Oath Losers is a black stain in American history. ↩

  2. @RalphHightower: Trump, you once mentioned about moving to Venezuela. If you don’t fly your jet there, I’ll pay for your passenger ticket. ↩

  3. @RalphHightower: Agree! Trump has absolutely zero respect for the rule of law, or law and order when he’s not the benefiary. ↩

  4. @RalphHightower: Yes. Do you think that nearly seven million people conspired to commit voter fraud and risk paying hefty penalties and ris prison sentences? I don’t know seven million people. Do you? ↩

  5. @RalphHightower: That’s right, your court cases had no standing. They were meritless lawsuits without a shred of evidence. One of your attorneys, Rudy Giuliani is now disbarred from practicing law. Rudy is bankrupt. Giuliani has experienced a massive fall from being “America’s Mayor” to America’s Laughingstock.13 ↩

  6. @RalphHightower: So that’s where calling the January 6, 2021 insurrection/riot a “love fest.” It wasn’t a “love fest”; it wasn’t Woodstock. It was a God-damned riot! ↩

  7. @RalphHightower: Like a spoiled brat, Trump went home to his golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, to sulk, and nurse his ego. ↩

  8. @RalphHightower: The inauguration was peaceful, looking a bit bizarre with the twelve foot chain-link barricades, topped with razor wire. ↩

  9. @RalphHightower: A few Capitol Police officers died from their injuries sustained; one by suicide. ↩

  10. @RalphHightower: There might not have been guns, but pipe bombs were found, one near the Democrat Party Headquarters. The criminals had bear spray, zio ties for handcuffs, and flagpoles were used as blunt objects. ↩

  11. @RalphHightower: Ashley Babbitt was not a martyr. She was a criminal. ↩

  12. @RalphHightower: The Capitol Police officer was doing his job, his duty. Protecting the Senators, Representatives, and Vice President. The insurrectionists were a violent mob, calling for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence and calling for Nancy Pelosi. Who knows what would’ve happened if they had kidnapped her? ↩

  13. @RalphHightower: Trump is a resume killer. All who work Trump have their reputation tarnished; perhaps former General James Mattis. He had his resignation letter in his inside coat pocket ready to hand to Trump when Trump didn’t agree with Mattis’ suggestion; Mattison turned in his resignation on the spot. ↩