Trump Versus the Sharks
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Chris Lehmann on how gibberish resonates with the MAGA base.
The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Trump Versus The Sharks with Chris Lehmann | The Time of Monsters
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Chris Lehmann joins Jeet Heer to discuss Trump's obsession with sharks.
Donald Trump does not like sharks. During his memorable encounter with Stormy Daniels, he fixated on a documentary about the predator that was playing on the hotel television and muttered, “I hope all the sharks die.” The former president returned to this topic at a recent campaign rally where he went on bizarre and lengthy digression asking what would be worse, being electrocuted or being eaten by a shark? Trump said he thought a shark attack would worse.
It's easy to dismiss Trump’s rantings as mere gibberish but my Nation colleague has written incisively on how this rhetoric should be understood not as logic but as an emotional and religious appeal. Chris joined me to talk about Trump’s appeal to his MAGA base. We also take up how Trump is increasingly aligned with Christian nationalism (a topic Chris wrote about here) and how the mainstream media doesn’t offer enough cultural context to make clear just how dangerous Trump’s rhetoric is.
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Former president Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Sunset Park on Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Las Vegas.
(Madeline Carter / Las Vegas Review-Journal / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)Donald Trump does not like sharks. During his memorable encounter with Stormy Daniels, he fixated on a documentary about the predator that was playing on the hotel television and muttered, “I hope all the sharks die.” The former president returned to this topic at a recent campaign rally where he went on bizarre and lengthy digression asking what would be worse, being electrocuted or being eaten by a shark? Trump said he thought a shark attack would be the worst way to go.
It’s easy to dismiss Trump’s rantings as mere gibberish, but my Nation colleague has written incisively on how this rhetoric should be understood not as logic but as an emotional and religious appeal. Chris joined me to talk about Trump’s appeal to his MAGA base. We also take up how Trump is increasingly aligned with Christian nationalism (a topic Chris wrote about here) and how the mainstream media doesn’t offer enough cultural context to make clear just how dangerous Trump’s rhetoric is.
The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire w/ Van Jackson | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cell
in 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats have
released thousands of emails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class and
mainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of the
scandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deep
ties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson about
this crucial part of the story.
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