833: Come Retribution
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbearped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Maybe a little hard to remember now, but when Donald Trump announced he was officially running for president again this time around, he did not say "minevitable." Far from it. It was a week after the midterm elections, where the Trumpiest candidates lost some key races. Post showed Governor Ron DeSantis beating him for the Republican nomination, he had very few endorsements from other Republican politicians. Jonathan Karl covered Trump's announcement for ABC News, where his chief Washington correspondent. I was at Mar-a-Lago. It was a really flat speech. He was, first of all, it was teleprompter Trump. He was reading from the teleprompter. There was no fire in brimstone to it. It was kind of warmed over policy proposals. It was flat. But we will bring our supply chains and manufacturing base back home, as we were strongly doing during the Trump administration, and we will systematically bring Trump out. People tried to leave the room. I mean, I was there in Mar-a-Lago. I saw people going to the exits halfway through the speech, and at one point, there were so many people leaving that they actually blocked the exits. They told me it was for security reasons, but I don't think he wanted a half-empty Mar-a-Lago ballroom at the conclusion of his presidential announcement. So, not a great beginning. When did it turn around? Jonathan says that began with the speech that Trump gave a few months later, in March 2023, at the annual CPAC Conference, conservatives. It was a very different speech, with a very different tone. It's really dark, and it is filled with talk about getting essentially revenge at those who have wronged him. Democrat prosecutors, oh, they're after me for so many things. Oh, those prosecutors, some are racists, some hate our country. They all hate me. They'll get me for anything, anything. You put a comma in this paragraph, "Why did you do that?" I don't really know. This is the famous speech where he said, "I am your retribution." In 2016, I declared, "I am your voice, today I had. I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution, I am your retribution." And that line obviously stuck out in the speech itself, but then speaking to Steve Bannon afterwards. Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser, still apparently talks to him. He said that was the pivotal moment in the campaign, that the campaign got its mojo, and he kept on calling it the "com-retribution" speech. Com-retribution Bannon explained to Jonathan, was referenced to a book about a supposed plot by the Confederacy to kidnap and maybe kill Abraham Lincoln. The plan was codenamed, "com-retribution," because it was revenge. I don't think that Bannon's calling for the assassination of Trump's political opponents
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