Limbaugh: ‘I Think Trump Looks Better Today Than He Did When He Announced’

Wednesday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh spoke favorably of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign launch rally on Tuesday in Orlando.

Limbaugh pointed out how Trump excelled stylistically but added he thought he was doing better than he was during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Partial transcript as follows:

There isn’t anything but him and that podium and microphone. And no matter how good you are, there aren’t very many people that can keep people riveted with a microphone and their voice for an hour and 15 minutes. You have to break it up. I know this because I can do it for an hour and a half to two hours. But most people can’t, and Trump doesn’t want to risk it.

Now, most of these rallies — by the way, contrast this with Joe Biden’s introduction in Pittsburgh. We still don’t know how many showed up. And then his big “Trump’s gonna be eviscerated speech” in Ottumwa, Iowa. You compare what the Democrats are throwing up there in terms of showing excitement and momentum, and it’s nothing compared to any Trump rally, but particularly last night.

So these people, traditionally in politics, go out and they start introducing every dignitary in the crowd. The dignitaries usually are sitting in the best seats, by the way, down in the front row, and the candidate starts off by introducing all of them and getting them out of the way.

Not Donald Trump. Donald Trump starts right in on his message and then breaks it up by appearing to interrupt himself in the middle of – “Oh, by the way, and Lindsey Graham’s right here. Lindsey, stand up.” Crowd goes nuts. Trump goes back to the speech. “And here we have the governor of — governor just signed a great bill on sanctuary — stand up, Ron. Stand up, Casey.”

Trump uses the introduction of invited guests and other politicos as not a throwaway and not something that must be done, but rather as a break in the momentum and things of great note! I mean, these people are not just being introduced, they’re being singled out for great things they’ve done. They then get a portion of the audience response. The audience is actively engaged with these people, rather than just having their names thrown out in a long list at the beginning with these people standing up like jacks-in-the-box and then sitting back down.

Then he brought out Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This is classic Trump. When Corey Lewandowski was in trouble over supposedly throwing some infobabe to the floor back during the campaign and they almost forced Lewandowski out, the next appearance Trump made Lewandowski come up — not made him — asked him to come up there, stand beside him as a show of support.

He did the same thing last night for Sarah Huckabee Sanders — and I don’t care what the Drive-Bys have said about her. I don’t care what elsewhere is being said. Donald Trump showed his sincere love and appreciation for somebody who works for him being beleaguered because they work for him. She was brought up to make some comments. It broke up the rhythm. It also highlighted a great job done by a great employee. It allowed that person to also connect with the audience. It’s masterful, folks.

And then when it came time to come up with a new slogan, he asks the crowd, “What do you think?” and puts it open to a vote. Even though they’ve already decided what it’s gonna be, he gets the crowd engaged, breaking again the rhythm of this so that nobody gets bored, so that nobody thinks they can predict what’s coming next. These are smart techniques. He weaves them in seamlessly. It keeps the audience fully engaged. His voice modulation, his humor — which appears to be spontaneous, not scripted, not written — his listing of accomplishments, his confidence, the improvised comments.

It’s all brilliant, and it all appears natural. You don’t know now when he’s on the prompter and when he isn’t. You can make an educated guess, but you don’t know for sure now — and as I said the other day: I think Trump looks better today than he did when he announced. That’s unusual for somebody that occupies this office. You know, hair goes gray; they begin to look beleaguered and laggard and haggard and all that. Trump looked enthused, he looked energized, and he looked younger — and Melania?

Hey, it’s TV. It matters. (We’re looking at you here, Joe.) Can that woman pull off yellow or can that woman pull off yellow? Yellow is a tough color to pull off. She pulled it off last night. Classic! Talk about sophistication and refinement and beauty. Now, none of this is new. This is the way Trump has been doing these rallies ever since they began. But it’s a whole… However long it takes, it’s fun, it’s engaging, and you don’t want to miss anything. You never know what he’s gonna do next or say next. You’re not sure.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor