The Four Audiences for Trump’s Big Lie Speech

Trump’s speech about the 2020 election on Thursday night has left most of America scratching our collective ass and wondering why our collective finger stinks. It was a real ass scratcher. The fun social media game has been to point out all of the stupid claims and contradictions in the speech and in his “evidence.” Hell, even Fox News said his claims hadn’t been substantiated because who wants to be sued for another $780+ million? Only Trump gets sued twice for saying the same dumbass thing, right E. Jean Carroll?

Over and over again, people have wondered why he would make such a mockery of himself. The answer of course is narcissism. But, there was method to his madness. He made the speech for four audiences: himself, the people who will intimidate voters in November, MAGA, and the meh voters.

The Audience of One: Trump

Primarily, Trump made the speech for an audience of one. Himself.

Losing the 2020 election was the biggest narcissistic injury he ever suffered. He wakes up in the middle of the night choking on the anxiety the loss provokes. He goes to sleep at night haunted by the loss. It’s the unexpected unprovoked intrusive memory that jumps up from his unconscious and drives him to his knees multiple times a day.

The Big Lie — that the 2020 election was rigged and he really won — is a litmus test for anyone in MAGA land because Trump absolutely has to have everyone believe it. He needs that reassurance. He needs people to soothe his tortured soul.

That’s not enough, though. He needs for all of us to believe it, too. He is driven to repeat the lie over and over again in an effort to keep the memory at bay and to convince us that it is true, too. He thinks he can convince us of it.

He doesn’t think that anyone will actually read the evidence that they released because none of them did — obv, duh! He thinks that as long as he says it, we’ll believe it because he’s a narcissist and that’s how their minds work.

It’s as simple as that. He made the speech and released the intelligence because he needs to think he’s convinced us. He’s shown us.

Audience #2: The Oppressors

The second audience he was speaking to were the National Guard members, police offices, and ICE agents that will be deployed to the streets during the voting in the November election. He will deploy ICE agents and National Guards personnel to Democratic hotspots like Atlanta, Detroit, and Milwaukee. The people on the ground harassing the populace need to believe it is for a legitimate purpose. They need to be convinced that they are really protecting ou democracy.

He won’t need to put anyone at actual polling places — by then it will be too late because of early and mail-in voting anyway. He only needs to have ICE agents and National Guard troops in the streets to intimidate enough voters to stay home.

ICE is the perfect force for this purpose. They are lawless and out-of-control. They target People of Color. They can haul anyone in and hold them indefinitely. They operate with impunity.

If we protest, they get to declare emergencies and set curfews and shit. If they can make it chaotic enough, they can call the results unfair and inaccurate. Who knows how the courts will react to that, but Trump’s entire modus operandi has to gum up the works with chaos and confusion, delay, delay, delay, and hope for a favorable court ruling. He seriously believed he was going to be reinstated in August 2021.

He’s a narcissist. He thinks all of his jenius plans, no matter how harebrained are going to work.

Audience #3: MAGA

Another audience was the MAGA faithful. They really won’t read the released documents and they won’t listen to anyone who has. They’ll take the headlines on the conservative news shows, discount the disclaimers, and feel all righteously indignant because all of their conspiratorial ideas have been confirmed.

Trump may not ever need these folks to vote for him again, but it will help him a lot if in 2026 and 2028 these people do another 6 January Insurrection. He needs them standing back and standing by. More chaos equals more opportunities to steal the election.

He needs to give them a reason to act.

Audience #4: The Meh Voters

And, the last audience were the meh voters. They are the low-propensity low-Information voters that propelled him into office in 2016 and 2024. He doesn’t necessarily need them to go out and vote in 2026 or even engage in acts of violence or protest or create chaos. He just needs them to be content with staying home and not voting and not protesting the acts of violence that his other proxies are creating.

These folks didn’t watch the speech, won’t read the documents, aren’t reading or listening to any analysis of the speech. These folks are getting their news through their social media algorithms and are essentially reading headlines. All he needs is for them to be exposed to the words “2020” “election” “rigged” and “threat” and “2026.”

He’s priming them to accept his further bullshit claims when he’s stealing the election. When he’s taking advantage of all of the chaos that the others have produced, he needs these folks to go, meh, like they always do.

The only thing you ever need to know about Trump is that he’s a narcissist. It explains everything he does. It explains that speech and what he hopes to get out of it.

Image Attibution

The image was found on Srpske Novine and has a Creative Commons license.