It's always nice to be beating the governor

Rollender Kopf (Rolling Head, 1982), by the German artist Ernst Kolb. Image via www.aussenseiterkunst.ch.

I Love the Poorly Educated

a poem

by Donald F. Trump

I

You know we weren’t expecting—
a couple of months ago,
we weren’t expecting to win this one,
you know that, right?
We weren’t.
Of course if you listen to the pundits,
we weren’t expected to win too much,
and now we’re winning, winning, winning the country.
And soon the country’s going to start winning, winning, winning.

So I want to thank the volunteers.
They’ve been unbelievable.
These people, they work like endlessly, endlessly.
We’re not going to forget it.

And we’ve had some great numbers coming out of Texas,
and amazing numbers coming out of Tennessee and Georgia and Arkansas
and then in a couple of weeks later Florida.
We love Florida so.
We’re going to do very well in Ohio.
We’re beating the governor.
It’s always nice to be beating the governor.

II

It’s hard for me to turn down money
because that’s what I’ve done in my whole life,
I grab and grab and grab.
You know I get greedy, I want money, money.
I’ll tell you what we’re going to do, right?
We get greedy, right?

Now we’re going to get greedy for the United States,
we’re going to grab and grab and grab.
We’re going to bring in so much money
and so much everything.
We’re going to make America great again, folks,
I’m telling you folks
we’re going to make America great again.

III

We won with young.
We won with old.
We won with highly educated.
We won with poorly educated.

I love the poorly educated.
We’re the smartest people,
we’re the most loyal people,
and you know what I really am happy about?
Because I’ve been saying it for a long time.

46% were the Hispanics—
46%, number one with Hispanics.

I’m really happy about that.
So I’m very proud of you,
this is an amazing night.
I love the country,
I love the country.
We’re going in the wrong direction.

IV

We’re going to be the smart people.
We’re not going to be the people that get pushed
around all over the place.
We’re going to be the smart people.
You’re going to be proud of your president,
and you’re going to be even prouder of your country, OK?

(From Trump's victory speech in Las Vegas, February 23 2016. Text lightly edited from the transcription at Quartz)

Editorial note:

That line. You cannot beat that line. It's like cast iron, and you cannot beat it. It sounds, it resonates. It resonates in your heart. It's not lyric. It's not epic. It's prophetic. It's biblical, and you know I love the Bible, right? Somewhere in the Bible there's a line like that. It could be in Amos, it could be in Psalms. It could be in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. But it's in there. You know it. Everybody knows it. It comes from the Bible and I'm proud of that.

And the repetition. I love the repetition. A lesser poet wouldn't be able to swing it. You didn't think he could swing it, right? But he swang it. Line after cast iron line. But he didn't swing it out of the park! Because Donald F. Trump doesn't need baseball metaphors. He doesn't need golf metaphors. The man doesn't need any metaphors, OK? He's got the prophetic line, and he's got the repetition.

It's a winning line, and a winning rhetorical strategy. It rings. It could be winning, winning, winning. It could be winning big. How big? We could be talking Pulitzers. We could be talking about National Book Awards. That's how big. I'm not saying Nobel, but it could be Nobel.

And he's got the Hispanics. Of the 17% of Nevada Latinos who identify as Republicans, almost half voted for him. That's like 8%. And I didn't even mention how the Mexicans are going to be thrilled to pay for the wall because we have a trade deficit with them. "We have a tremendous deficit. We have a trade deficit with Mexico. They’ll pay for the wall. They’ll be very happy about it. Believe me. I’ll talk to them. They’re going to be very, very thrilled. They’re going to be thrilled to be paying for the wall." Because I don't get it. Frankly, I don't get it. I don't see how it works. Also we don't have a trade deficit with Mexico. We have a surplus. They have the deficit.

But if they did have a trade surplus what difference would it make? Why would they be thrilled about paying for the wall? I wouldn't be thrilled about paying for a wall. Regardless. I'd be like, you want the wall, you've got the money, with all that winning, winning, winning, you can afford it. That's what I frankly don't get. Maybe I'm poorly educated.

But Trump loves the poorly educated. That's the prophecy. He loves the poorly educated, and they are going to be the smart people. And the loyal people, and proud of their president. How biblical is that? The last shall be first and God shall not be mocked. And I shall not be mocked either! Thank you. I love you very much. Thank you.