Trump, the Man in the Arena. No, really.
For South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem, who called Trump “The Man in the Arena” when he gave his July 4, 2020 “Monumental Leaders” speech at Mt. Rushmore, Trump — still the Man in the Arena — gets her ringing endorsement now…
September 9, 2023–“In 2020 we invited the world’s strongest leader — Donald J. Trump — to South Dakota to speak at our Monumental Leaders July 4th event and he showed up then and he showed up tonight like he always does,” said Republican South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, last night at the GOP convention in Rapid City, SD.
Days before the event, Noem, who has made increasingly positive statements about Trump lately, said publicly last week, “I’d absolutely consider running with Trump as VP.”
Her formal endorsement of our favorite president made it clear in her half-hour long introduction why Noem stands behind Trump:
“He’s real, he’s genuine, and he never pretends to be something he isn’t. And, those who hate America know he will fight to save the country.”
She prefaced much of the case she made for Trump to become the 47th President of the United States by noting that he was the only one to accept her invite to speak at the South Dakota GOP convention. Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott and others declined she said. “We asked Donald Trump and he said, ‘I will be there.'” To him, she continued, “We are not little people in a little state. We are the backbone of this country.”
After a few more shots aimed at the also-rans in the 2024 race, she then said, “Donald Trump showed up. He is that Man in the Arena…”
She then segued into a reading of “The Man in the Arena” – a poetic piece by President Theodore Roosevelt – whom Noem admires. She underscored in her remarks why Roosevelt’s description of the “Man in the Arena” suited Trump in 2020 and still does today saying, ‘It is not the critic who counts…it is the man in the arena who fails while daring greater…’
“The ONLY person in this race who will put America back on its foundation is Donald J. Trump. He has my full and complete endorsement. I will do everything in my power to help him win to save this great country.”
Gov. Kristi Noem (South Dakota), September 8, 2023
As Trump did in his speech that followed, Noem ticked off a list of her accomplishments as governor. She told the audience, “We didn’t shut down for covid. We said ‘we’re open for business’ — South Dakota has become a beacon of freedom and we’ve grown faster than any other state and faster than South Dakota has in our history…Our unemployment rate is 1.8 percent, the lowest in the country.”
“And President Trump let me do my job!” she added.
“I PROMISE YOU A FREE NATION AGAIN!”
Donald J. Trump took the stage in Rapid City last night at 9:20 pm EST and spoke for over two hours to a crowd of 7,000 South Dakota Republicans at their state convention.
Of course, viewers were not shown the crowd and Trump did his best to call out the fake news media as usual. The stage however was draped in black making the event more somber than Trump’s usual red-white-and-blue American-flag drenched staging.
If for no other reason than his stamina, Trump always gets high marks for his speeches regardless of whether the venue is up to par.
He thanked the GOP bigs in attendance and called Gov. Kristi Noem, “A warrior for American values.” And, he noted that although the backdrop in Rapid City could not compare to the majesty of Mount Rushmore (an ‘incredible place’, said Trump, ‘we had so many great photos and memories of that day with the fireworks’), he was honored to receive Noem’s endorsement.
President Biden shut down the annual fireworks celebration at Mt. Rushmore for the third year this year. (Story under Resources.) Trump of course lamented as a terrible thing.
After eight years, we are all familiar with Trump’s speeches. He lays out the case for defeating ‘the Marxists, fascists, and communists’ aka the Democrats led by WH occupant, Joe Biden, whom he referred to as “an economic arsonist.” But in one of his funnier lines of the evening he complained about Biden’s lies saying:
“Biden even lies about golf. He said his handicap is a six! A six!! I think that might be one of his worst lies yet if you want to know the truth. He couldn’t hit the ball from me [at the podium] to Kristi [where she’s sitting]…”
Trump’s America First platform gets updated depending on the new outrageous things Democrats throw at the country. The list of problems we face includes: dismantling our borders, mutilating our children, desecrating the Constitution, making our military woke – to name a few. He always says now: Did anyone think we would be talking about things like parental rights five years ago? Let alone, he will add, ‘indicting a former president’?
The upside is, “America is strong and proud” but “they are trying to take our history and culture away from us,” says Trump. “We’ve turned into a banana republic.”
Trump’s biggest promise from a long list:
I promise you we will be a free nation again!
He talked about the polls noting he is as much as 6-7 pts. ahead of Biden in national head-to-head polls. This is notable since he never polled ahead of the Democrat in 2016 or 2020. “These are liberal polls, he said, so we must be ahead by a lot if they say we’re ahead this much.”
Toward the end of his lengthy remarks, Trump recited his “Nation in Decline” segment — a stand-alone piece accompanied by somber music.
He Called Out Congress
Trump told the Senate and Congress, “we cannot let these phony indictments go.” If we do, he intimated, we won’t have a country and said Congress has September 30 to get it straightened out. (September 30th is the date the House could withhold funding the government under a CR.)
We dearly hope Congress — especially our do-nothing uniparty Republicans in the Senate — heard his message.
In case you missed Trump’s speech live, see link below:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5083490/sd-governor-noem-endorses-donald-trump-2024-republican-bid
“The Man in the Arena”
by President Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Gallery: President Trump at Mount Rushmore, July 4, 2020
Editor’s Note: Photos without captions for source except for what is contained in the unique URL links. Google for more. To add, the mainstream media panned his speech. Conservatives, however, have said Donald Trump’s 4th of July speech at Mt. Rushmore was one of his best.
RESOURCES
Full transcript of President Donald J. Trump remarks at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota fireworks celebration held July 4, 2020:
Fox News: Biden Administration Denies Fireworks at Mount Rushmore, July 3, 2023: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6330501880112
