Thursday, October 8, 2026

Trump's 'basket of deplorables' moment

Donald Trump famously won election twice backed by waves of populist anger and frustration towards an out of touch D.C. political class.

Now, that anger is coming back his way. And the president may have just handed his opponents practically the same club he used to beat Democrats with his first time around.

The president’s remark about Iran’s military hypothetically “taking out” the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, both liberal strongholds in deep-blue California, was a final straw for many Democrats.

Even outside of California, the quote first uttered at a Nebraska rally resonated with Democrats who used it to highlight what they see as ugly, divisive and outright hateful rhetoric from Trumpworld.

The White House insisted that the president was taken out of context immediately afterwards, and Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to attack the media over coverage of his remarks.

To be clear, they're right. A review of Trump's original speech doesn't support the claim that he was in a frothing rage, or happily suggesting that Americans be murdered by the millions.

But there's another important fact: That doesn't necessarily matter.

Trump should know. This entire situation should be one big episode of deja vu for the president, who won election in 2016 after seizing on a similar offhanded remark from his opponent.

His opponent Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” moment, a remark Clinton made during a fundraiser that year, emerged as a moment that was galvanizing for Trump's fans, and perplexing and stunning for the media and many Democrats.

Clinton hadn't described every Trump supporter as a racist when she said that about "50 percent" of his voters deserved that label. But her words were inarticulate enough to be seized upon out of context, including by Trump's campaign.

Previously, Trump was immune to this kind of blowback — able to wriggle out of every controversy and every outrage cycle over words that caused offense. But it doesn't look like that's the case this time.

Read more here. 

By John Bowden

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