The Only President More Presidential Than Trump Is Lincoln, Says Trump

A day after charming thousands of Boy Scouts at the organization’s Jamboree (turned political rally), President Trump set his sights on a crowd in Youngstown, OH. During Tuesday’s re-election event, Trump spewed his predictable self-puffery and actually managed to one-up his gross anti-immigrant inclinations.

Right off the bat, Trump reiterated his “modern presidential” claim by declaring that he was more presidential than any other president…except President Lincoln.

To the crowd’s enthusiastic agreement, Trump applauded his own schooling and asserted how much he has accomplished (despite accomplishing next to nothing). “Great schools, smart guy. It’s so easy to act presidential,” he said. “But that’s not going to get it done.”

“With the exception of the late, great, Abraham Lincoln,” Trump continued. “I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office. It’s that easy.”

Perhaps, since the phrase is conditional, Trump meant that he could be more presidential if he really put some effort into it. Apparently that was the case because he followed up by saying, “Sadly we have to move a little faster than that, we will never be beholden to the lobbyists or special interests.” (Okay.)

As if to prove how un-presidential and not “polticially correct” he could be (which really just means: racist), Trump recounted an alleged horror story about undocumented immigrants.

In an all-too-familar tirade, Trump described immigrants as “animals” who murder “beautiful” young people:

“The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people — these beautiful, beautiful, innocent young people — will find no safe haven anywhere in our country. And you’ve seen the stories about some of these animals. They don’t want to use guns, because it’s too fast and it’s not painful enough. So they’ll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others, and they slice them and dice them with a knife, because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die. And these are the animals that we’ve been protecting for so long. Well, they’re not being protected any longer, folks.

The graphic torture tale is, of course, a baseless attempt to scare people. But Trump’s remarks are unsurprising given that he once lumped all Mexicans into the “rapist” category. However in this instance, Trump has eschewed any semblance fact for fear, as he has repeatedly done, and it’s a tactic hate groups have deployed for decades.

Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes, according to multiple studies. Yet the Trump administration (no matter how much the president loathes Sessions) has continued to attack immigrants, sanctuary cities, and refugees. All in the name of race-baiting his way to re-election.