One thing Trump did not mention in his two hours of remarks was the death of George Floyd, whose killing on May 25 has led to nationwide calls for police reform and set in motion rioting, looting, the destruction of monuments, the creation of a quasi-sovereign landlocked nation within the borders of downtown Seattle, and the de facto abandonment of pandemic social distancing measures. Another was Juneteenth, the holiday he has previously taken (in the case of certain audiences probably somewhat deserved) credit for popularizing after rescheduling the rally in question, which had originally been scheduled for the 19th.

My overall impression was that Trump is still somewhat uncertain about how he intends to go about campaigning in the months between now and November. Will the boos we heard when he mentioned Neil Gorsuch convince him not to seize upon his first Supreme Court nominee as a rousing success? Will he continue to equivocate about the pandemic, simultaneously crediting his (limited and almost certainly inadequate) border control measures from months ago with saving hundreds of thousands of lives and winking at people who do not take the virus seriously? Whatever the answer is, he will soon learn that, while there may be a sizable portion of the American public for whom the horrors of flag burning are an issue of paramount importance, they do not make up a vast majority, silent or otherwise, much less the exceedingly narrow one he will need again in a state like Michigan.