After four years of Joe Biden in the White House, Americans might have forgotten how a president is supposed to behave.
On Thursday, former President Donald Trump gave them a reminder.
And considering he’s barely a month past an assassination attempt that came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding, it was a scene to remember.
The moment came while Trump was visiting Arizona’s Cochise County — at the same time as the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office was conducting a manhunt for a man who had threatened repeatedly to kill Trump.
REPORTER: “There was a manhunt going on in this county…some people told me
It’s dangerous for you to be here.”TRUMP: “I heard it’s very dangerous, but I also have a job to do…! Thank you for telling me. Let’s get outta here!” pic.twitter.com/3XaM7nHtfR
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 22, 2024
Trump was speaking to the media when a reporter informed him about the manhunt. Much of the question is tough to make out, but it ended with “it’s dangerous for you to be here.”
Trump’s response was classic, fiery Trump:
Are you voting for Trump?
“I’ve heard it’s dangerous, but I also have a job to do,” Trump answered. “I heard it’s very dangerous.
“I haven’t heard about that. They probably want to keep it from me. Thank you telling me.”
Then he joked.
“Let’s get out of here right now!” drawing a laugh from listeners.
After noting that he felt comfortable with Secret Service protection — despite the near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 — he explained why he wasn’t surprised to hear about an active threat against his life.
“The reason is because I want do things that are very bad for the bad guys,” he said.
The “bad guy” in this particular case was identified as Ronald Syvrud, a 66-year-old of Benson, Arizona. According to a Facebook post by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, Syvrud has outstanding warrants in Wisconsin for DUI and failing to appear in court on a DUI charge and in Arizona for hit and run and felony failure to register as a sex offender.
(Not much other information was immediately available about Syvrud, although the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported that he has registered as a Democrat in the past. Considering his record, including sexual assault on a child, according to the Daily Mail, he’d fit right in.)
But making things “bad for the bad guys” is pretty much Trump’s campaign platform.
Whether its closing the border again to cut off the flow of criminals and drugs that have flowered in the Biden-Harris years, standing up to China, or cracking down on the terrorists in Tehran who have been supporting proxie groups in the Middle East such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Trump’s bid to return to the White House is based around having an American president standing up for American interests.
Americans — who’ve watched as the Biden-Harris administration effectively opened the country’s southern border to an alien invasion, have been humiliated by bullies in Beijing (a regime that thinks nothing of flying a spy balloon across the continental United States obviously thinks nothing of the United States’ leadership), and cozied up to the mullahs running Iran — might have forgotten what that looked like.
On Thursday, Trump gave them a reminder.
