Dan Haar: Trump Mocks 'Presidential' Without Knowing What It Means

Donald J. Trump delivers his speech at a rally at the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport, CT Early Saturday Afternoon.
Donald J. Trump delivers his speech at a rally at the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport, CT Early Saturday Afternoon.(Peter Casolino / Special To The Courant)

WATERBURY — Give Donald Trump credit. He figured out soon after his gaffe Tuesday night in New York, when he behaved like an adult, that his followers want a man-child, not someone who acts "presidential."

As he showed in Waterbury Saturday morning, Trump doesn't know what it means to act presidential. Sure, he mocked the idea, after making it known that his wife, his daughter and two of his top advisers told him to knock off the demeaning put-downs.


"I sort of don't like toning it down," he said in a prepared speech made to look like it's stream-of-consciousness conversation. "Isn't it nice that I'm not one of those teleprompter guys?"

The overwhelmingly white, working-class crowd cheered in approval.

"It's easy to be presidential," Trump followed, stepping back from the microphone to parody a distinguished look. In a fake snooty voice, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen of Waterbury, it's a great honor to be here this morning."

Hilarious. He's a great showman. An hour with him moved a lot faster than an hour watching Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and John Kasich these past few days.

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We all like a leader who succeeds but doesn't follow the rules. It's part of American culture. Instead of many centuries of aristocratic history, we have a proud tradition of defiance. I get it.

But how about character? Trump's hero, the blunt-talking Gen. Douglas MacArthur, was a noble man of character underneath all that self-promotion and bluster.

MacArthur isn't on the ballot. Those other three "presidential" candidates who are vying for Connecticut votes in Tuesday's primary all have something serious to say, with thoughts developed over decades of actually trying to understand how to make the country better. Trump, by contrast, appears to believe that acting presidential begins and ends with how he behaves in the moment, not how he thinks, and certainly now how he displays character.

Truth is part of the picture. Within 90 seconds of taking the stage, Trump loudly bellowed two comically obvious untruths. "There are thousands of people outside trying to get in," he said. "You know, the other candidates aren't even coming to Connecticut to campaign."


Outside the glass doors, there were maybe a couple of hundred people still on line after the gym at Crosby High School reached its capacity of 3,000. I made a point of estimating the number immediately before Trump went on stage. As for the other candidates, only Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has stayed away from the state. By Monday, Sanders, Clinton and Kasich will have each made multiple visits to multiple regions of Connecticut, and Trump knows this perfectly well.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump roared into Connecticut Saturday with two stops in major cities in an effort to run up the score and sweep the state's 28 Republican delegates by securing more than 50 percent of the vote.

So he was back to talking about "Crooked Hillary" and "Lyin' Ted," careful not to leave out the journalists in back of the room. "You have a lot of dishonest people in the media, folks, in the Hillary Clinton class."

Even after vanquishing some 14 Republican opponents, Trump is still reduced to attempting to demean Kasich, pretending no one knows who the Ohio governor is and how he pronounces his name.

"Can we ask him to change the spelling of his name?" he asked. The crowd roared in approval.

All of that stuff reveals weak character, but then again, so did Bill Clinton's sexual escapades. Clinton made up for it among his followers with serious policy. Trump had this to say about policy Saturday morning: "I do love policy because I've been right about policy."

Oh yes, of course, policy isn't an ongoing debate about the complex and dynamic workings of economics, diplomacy and social progress. It's part of a game show.


"We're going to build our military so big, so strong, so powerful that nobody's going to mess with us," he said – as if other military powers are doing so now. "Who's going to pay for the wall?" "Mexico!" the crowd replied.

The Chinese have perpetrated the biggest theft in world history. U.S. companies can be stopped from leaving at the border by higher tariffs and taxes. Saudi Arabia would not be there for a week if we weren't protecting that oil-rich nation. NAFTA is the reason Waterbury lost 60 percent of its manufacturing jobs.

I had followed all this for months but naively thought there was more to Trump in a full, hourlong speech. Nope.

Hey, Trump declares, I love Chinese people. The biggest bank in China is a tenant in my building. I'll cut deals, good deals, that will make America strong again.

Now that would be presidential. If only there were anything behind it.