Remarks made by former Republican President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday left people across the globe confused, stunned, and disturbed—including former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele.
Flying into Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the 2024 GOP presidential candidate decided he should speak about the late golf legend the airport was named for. It could be considered on brand as Trump cumulatively spent almost a year at his golf courses while President.
During his presidency, Trump reportedly spent 428 days at various Trump Organization properties—almost 1/3 of the 1,461 days he was in office. He played golf 11 times in his first eight weeks in office and was estimated to have played 261 rounds of golf in 307 days—one round every 5.6 days.
But Trump wasn't focused on Arnold Palmer's seven major championship wins, four Masters titles, or even his golf game.
For some bizarre, unknown reason, Trump decided to talk about the size of Arnold Palmer's penis in a rambling monologue on the airport tarmac.
After watching a clip of Trump's remarks on MSNBC's The Weekend, Michael Steele told the panel:
"I'm... I'm not... I don't have a question. Because I'm actually stunned that this is what our country is doing right now."
"You have the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States standing on stage at a rally, not talking about the economy, not talking about creating jobs for the next generation, not talking about providing health care or even dealing with the intractable issues around climate."
"No, he's standing there talking about a man's genitalia."
Steele then added:
"But this is the part that is the most disturbing, Tara [Setmayer]."
"The people behind him who are laughing and yucking it up and think that that's good political discourse. That that is what the next President of the United States should spend his time talking about."
Steele continued:
"They weren't offended, they were amused."
"And that's the rub with Donald Trump. It's all about the amusements, all about the entertainment and yucking it up and dumbing you down enough to be stupid enough to buy into these narratives about other people, about our country, and about another man's genitalia."
You can watch the moment here:
And the longer clip here:
- YouTubeyoutu.be
After Steele's comments, former Capitol Hill GOP communications director and co-founder and CEO of The Seneca Project Tara Setmayer replied:
"Michael this is what they want. They like it. This is who they are—this is who those voters are."
"So we need to accept the fact that there are people in this country who are perfectly fine with all of the issues that Donald Trump has presented to us."
"The fact that he doesn't respect democracy, doesn't respect women, that he is a sexual abuser, that he's a predator, that he's a liar, that he wants to be a dictator on day one, that he can sit there and rant and rave incoherently at times at rallies, crack irreverent jokes, have expletive laden rallies."
"That is who they want."
@TheWeekendMSNBC/X
On X, Steele shared a clip of Trump's speech captioning it:
"The Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States spends his time not talking about making the lives of citizens better, or setting forth an agenda to educate the next generation, or even a strategy to tackle climate change, but rather about the size of another man’s penis."
People agreed the true appeal of Trump was not effective leadership.
@MSNBC/Threads
rPolitics/Reddit
@MSNBC/Threads
@MSNBC/Threads
Speaking with Reverend Al Sharpton on MSNBC's Politics Nation, Steele stated Trump is all stunts and entertainment without substance.
While that clowning around may appeal to some voters, from January 2017 to January 2021, it proved not to be very effective in the Oval Office or on the world stage.
In November, voters will need to decide, as Steele put it:
"Do you want a serious President or entertainment?"
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter