Jokes, voice impersonations and nickname inspirations — Donald Trump eschews Iowa tradition

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Campaigning for president in Iowa usually means meeting voters one on one in coffee shops, Pizza Ranches and other small venues.

It means engaging in debates and forums, shaking thousands of hands and answering thousands of questions.

Based on sheer intimacy, campaigning in Iowa is unique.

In his quest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump is doing it differently. His approach is still unique, but there’s nothing inherently Iowan about it.

Rather it is unique in the spectacle of the endeavor, more like a music concert, sporting event and celebrity roast within the framework of a political campaign speech. Which seems to be fine with all involved.

As Trump says at the beginning of his one-hour-and-15-minute performance: “Sit down please. We can spend some time together. Who the hell wants to watch a football game? Right? Forget it! This is better.”

Trump campaign speeches are more performative than anything

Attendees at the Trump event in Ottumwa started lining up at the venue hours before the doors opened at 11:30 a.m., and once inside there's a three-hour wait for the candidate to speak. There’s an element of cosplay in the air as at least 70% of attendees are wearing Trump gear: bandannas, T-shirts, buttons and hats, which are also available for purchase from roving vendors.

During the long wait, many dance to the blaring music of “YMCA” and “Macho Man” by the Village People.

When Trump arrives onstage, it’s not to a snippet of intro music, but instead it’s to stand by himself on stage for the entire three minutes of Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA.”

Then he begins.

To understand a Trump campaign speech — and its clear appeal to many in Iowa — is to grasp its performative aspect. Is there policy and political issues discussed, argued and outlined? Yes, indeed, right there on Trump’s teleprompter.

If he stuck to those matters, though, it easily would cut the speech to half an hour. However, the “regular” speech points serve as launching pads for comedic riffs when Trump muses, jokes, bandies nicknames and tells stories using a wide array of voices.

Donald Trump spends part of speech sharing inspiration for nicknames

In Ottumwa, he employs 52 different voices, including (to name a few), Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Joe Biden, the press, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, his aides, his consultants and military generals. He also deploys 13 different nicknames, including “Crooked Joe Biden,” “Ron DeSanctimonious/Ron DeSanctis,” “Birdbrain Nikki Haley” and “Sloppy Chris Christie.”

He actually goes into depth on his use of nicknames with DeSantis, saying “Branding is a great thing” and explaining how he came up with “DeSanctis" nickname of a nickname.

“It’s a beautiful thing," Trump said. "There’s actually a certain genius to it.”

Trump is especially peeved at DeSantis, who, he claims, betrayed him by running for president after Trump endorsed DeSantis in his first run for Florida governor.

“Can you believe this guy? He’s like a very injured, falling bird,” and “he’s a bad seed,” and, “I call him somebody that cannot be trusted. It’s very sad actually. He’ll stab you in the back.” As for Chris Christie: “He’s like a deranged person,” and “what a loser.”

But yes, there is old-fashioned campaigning in his appeal to voters. In Ottumwa, Trump tells the crowd that America is in decline, that Joe Biden and the Democrats are to blame and that when he’s elected he will turn it all around.

Says Trump: “He is crooked, most crooked, corrupt president in history. And we’re going to do things for our country and very quickly that nobody thought was even possible. We are going to do things that are incredible and we’re going to bring it back.”

Trump labels those he disagrees with — which includes Democrats but also can be the media or his GOP primary opponents — as “crazy,” “deranged,” “lunatics” and “sick.”

And while he often mentions strengthening America’s foreign policy and military to demonstrate toughness and win negotiations with such adversaries as China and Russia, he is concerned about those he calls “radical left lunatics.”

“We have to protect our country from outside evil and also from inside evil, because I think the inside evil is actually more dangerous,” Trump said.

Donald Trump lays out agenda during Iowa appearance

He says that inside evil is hounding him with criminal charges. “Every time radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists indict me I consider it a great badge of honor. Because I’m being indicted for you!”

Trump has an ambitious 2024 agenda:

• “We will totally obliterate the deep state.”

• Ending the Russia-Ukraine War: “It’ll be settled very quickly. We’re not choosing sides.”

• Tame inflation by selling American energy.

• Cut federal spending to schools “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity” or that impose mask or vaccine mandates but (paradoxically?) also “Move education back to the states.”

• Reform the election process with the goal of “one-day voting with paper ballots and voter ID,” arguing the 2020 election was fraudulent:“I think we won Georgia” and his opponents “stuffed ballots too.”

• Keeping the U.S. out of a nuclear war.

Trump’s overarching point is that he’ll “finish the job we started,” and that everything now in the U.S. has gone to hell in a handbasket after his four years.

Will Iowa supporters show up to caucus on Jan. 15?

“We did a lot of things,” he says. “You ever see those hats (that say), ‘Trump was right about everything’? Pretty much. I gotta say, pretty much.”

The event ends with him calling on Iowans to caucus for him, saying “2024 is our final battle,” then cueing blaring music, signing one autograph and vanishing from the stage.

The key question is how many of the 3,000 devoted fans in Ottumwa will show up Jan. 15 for Trump.

For a caucus is not a performance, and by raising the expectation of a landslide victory, Trump has opened the tiniest of cracks for a surprise underperformance.

Bob Beatty has a doctorate in political science from Arizona State University and specializes in Kansas and national elections, with a special expertise on the Iowa Caucus and campaigning for president. He has attended and covered the national political party conventions in 2008 and 2016 and 15 presidential debates from 1996-2020.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Donald Trump eschews Iowa tradition with jokes and mimicking voices