“Rhetorically, Trump drove a high-speed train filled with fireworks into a nuclear power plant”

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Rhetorically, Trump drove a high-speed train filled with fireworks into a nuclear power plant. He was self-absorbed, prickly, defensive, interrupting, baited by every charge yet unprepared to refute them. During his share of a 90-minute debate, he was horribly out of his depth, incapable of stringing together a coherent three-sentence case. The postmodern quality of Trump’s appeal culminated in an unbalanced rant claiming, “I also have a much better temperament than she has” — an assertion greeted by audience laughter. And Trump concluded his performance by praising himself for his own grace and restraint, during an evening that showed him to be nasty, witless and deceptive.

Michael Gerson, “Out of his depth, Donald Trump clings to deception”, The Washington Post (27 September 2016) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/out-of-his-depth-donald-trump-clings-to-deception/2016/09/27/070feda6-84ca-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html]

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