Trump talks about neuroses, selecting chairs and his wife’s underwear drawer in latest affordability speech

(CNN) — President Donald Trump came to North Carolina on Friday to talk about the economy.

He ended up explaining how his wife organizes her lingerie drawer.

“I think she steams them,” he offered at one point, hoping to underscore the violation Melania Trump felt when, in his telling, FBI agents rummaged through the pristine undergarments — “sometimes referred to as panties” — during their 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.

In the realm of Trump tangents, it wasn’t the wildest, or angriest, or most bizarre.

Yet as the president hopes to refocus the nation’s attention on his economic record ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections, it was another reminder that his own focus often remains somewhat adrift.

Trump did periodically discuss the economy in his 90-minute speech, which he called a “quick little stop” in Rocky Mount on the way to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays. He trumpeted a report this week that showed inflation unexpectedly cooling. He recounted an announcement he made earlier in the day on lowering some drug prices. He framed an uptick in the unemployment rate as a success since he’d fired so many government workers.

Supporters behind him held signs reading “Lower Prices” and “Bigger Paychecks.” But even the visual cues couldn’t keep the president from veering well off-piste — often to the delight of his crowd.

As he was explaining the negotiations that went into the drug pricing scheme, attendees listened politely, if quietly, as he assumed a French accent to mimic President Emmanuel Macron during their pharmaceutical negotiations.

The audience really came alive when he reminisced about his opponent from nearly a decade ago.

“I don’t know, beating Hillary was fun,” he said to roars. “Remember, she was a nasty person. I was going to use a B word. I said, ‘my wife would not be happy.’”

There are plenty of Trump advisers who would prefer the president focus more on the here-and-now, or — even better — the what’s-to-come. As he loses his political edge on the economy, many of his allies worry he’s lost touch with voter concerns and anxieties that propelled him into office in the first place.

Friday’s rally was the latest in a roadshow of sorts that White House advisers have planned for Trump to hone his message on bringing down prices. He also delivered a primetime address to the nation this week meant to drive the message.

Much of his argument rests on having inherited what he says was an economic disaster from Joe Biden, though inflation was at 3% when he took office and is now only slightly lower. (And economists cautioned that last month’s inflation dip had a lot to do with shutdown-related distortions of economic data.)

Yet as is so often the case, the intended content of Trump’s speech was a target that didn’t always find an arrow.

As he hit the hour mark, his grievance list grew, encompassing the news media and Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the onetime loyalist who has dramatically broken with him and whom Trump now calls “Marjorie Traitor Brown.”

His aside about Melania’s unmentionables came amid a diatribe over the investigations that plagued him during his time out of office. He mused about awarding himself a massive sum in connection with complaints he filed against the Justice Department.

“I am suing and I’m the one that’s supposed to settle. So maybe I’ll give myself $1 billion and give it all to charity,” he said.

Trump found ample distractions in the crowd, including a group of glamorous women from the western part of the state who volunteer at his events. When he spotted a hat he liked, he explained how he could gauge its value.

“I want gold thread, not mustard color. You know?” he said. “When you have a mustard-colored thread, don’t accept it.”

Recalling the times he came to purchase furniture in North Carolina as a hotelier, he explained the exacting nature of the task.

“The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, ‘I like that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape,’” he said. He kept going: “I’m a very aesthetic person, believe me, except with women, I don’t care what a woman looks like. I used to say beautiful. Now I don’t care.”

He spent several minutes discussing his physical health amid questions about his stamina after appearing to doze off during multiple on-camera events recently. He pointed to the string of cognitive tests he claims to have aced. And he pledged to alert the nation should he find himself in decline.

“When that time comes, I will let you know about it. In fact, you’ll probably find out about it just by watching,” he said. “But that time is not now, because I feel the same that I felt for 50 years.”

It was, in the end, the same type of speech Trump has been delivering now for more than 10 years, the “weave” in which he takes great pride. It has less to do with a calculated political message than free-association of whatever’s on his mind — which is often the people or entities he thinks have done him wrong.

If some of his fixations cause heartburn among his allies, though, Trump has a different view.

“I think I’m probably very neurotic,” he said in Rocky Mount. “I always say controlled neuroses is good. Being neurotic, no good. But if it’s controlled, that’s okay. It gives you some energy.”

The-CNN-Wire
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