The Secret to Donald Trump’s Rhetoric

Benjy Sarlin: “When people say Trump ‘tells it like it is’ despite being a serial liar, this is often what they mean. He’s sometimes credited with a savant-like ability to identify his opponents’ vulnerabilities, but much of this schtick is just repeating what pundits on cable are already saying about them rather than using some Inception-style scheme to plant the same idea in voters’ subconscious with magic words.”

“Trump and his allies portraying DeSantis as an off-putting weirdo who’s too far right for swing voters — exactly what talking heads already say his vulnerabilities are — is perfectly in line with this approach. Whatever DeSantis is doing right now with Trump is not.”