Trump uses economic speech to prattle on about anything but

Former president and self-described stable genius Donald Trump let a small crowd in a small venue in North Carolina know what was in store for them Wednesday: “We’re talking about a thing called the economy.”
Ah, yes. That thing called the economy. I’ve heard of it.
He continued: “We’re doing this as an intellectual speech.”
Good. Many Republicans have encouraged Trump to stop babbling and hurling insults and steer his campaign onto some kind of coherent message.
“You’re all intellectuals today,” Trump said at the 2,400-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville. “Today we’re doing it and we’re doing it right now and it’s very important. They say it’s the most important subject. I think crime is right there, I think the border is right there, personally.
“We have a lot of important subjects because our country has become a third-world nation, we literally are a third-world nation. We’re a banana republic in so many ways, and we’re not going to let that happen because we’re starting a free fall.”
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Hoo boy. Trump spends less time on track than a decommissioned train car. And so it was that his highly intellectual speech on a thing called the economy became, predictably, a dumb speech on a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the economy.
Like making fun of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ laugh.
“For nearly four years Kamala has crackled as the American economy has burned,” Trump said, presumably mispronouncing “cackled,” because he struggles with words.
“What happened to her laugh? I haven’t heard that laugh in about a week. That’s why they keep her off the stage, that’s why she has disappeared.”
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have been barnstorming states lately, doing far more events than Trump and drawing crowds significantly larger than the one that showed up Wednesday to hear him occasionally reference the economy.
 “That’s the laugh of a crazy person, I will tell you,” Trump droned on. “She’s crazy.”
Labeling Harris crazy and mocking the way she laughs is the kind of thing Republicans keep advising Trump not to do. But he couldn’t help himself, later calling Harris an “incompetent socialist lunatic.”
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When he did deign to talk about the economy, Trump said things like this, referencing the brief stock market drop of last week, something he had labeled the “KAMALA CRASH!!!”:
“Many people say the only reason the stock market is up is because people think I’m going to win, did you ever hear that? But there was one day a couple weeks ago when they weren’t thinking that.” 
OK, first off, nobody thinks Trump has anything to do with the stock market being up. And then to think last week’s drop – from which the market quickly recovered – happened due to a brief belief that Harris might win the election? That makes me wonder if Trump can even spell “economy.”
Of course, no intellectual presidential campaign speech on the economy is complete without an extended riff on immigrants and rape, so Trump said: “Rape and murder, rape and beatings, rape and something else, and sometimes just immediate killing. These people are brutal. These are people that came out of the toughest jails anywhere in the world from all over the world, and we can’t take them.”
Migrants commit crimes at far lower rates than U.S. citizens, but, you know … THE ECONOMY!
Speaking of the economy, while Trump was occasionally mentioning the word – providing no concrete policy proposals other than specious claims he will singlehandedly fix everything – the U.S. inflation rate hit its lowest point in three years. 
And that gets to the heart of one of Trump’s biggest problems. The economy is doing reasonably well. Unemployment is low, the stock market has been breaking records and inflation continues to drop.
Back in April, Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi told CNBC: “The U.S. economy is leading the way for the global economy. It’s driving the global economic train.”
So, calling America a third-world country while taking childish swipes at the vice president’s laugh and fearmongering about an immigrant crime wave that doesn’t exist? That’s not going to do much to swing voters who have been swinging in Harris’ direction since she took over the top of the Democratic ticket less than a month ago.
Republicans have been frustrated with the Trump campaign, and they know he needs to show voters something that will help him regain footing. His intellectual speech on that thing called the economy didn’t show anyone anything.
It was just another stumble from an aging candidate who can’t see that his schtick has gotten old.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk