The speech was vintage Trump in every way -- good and bad. Below the 31 most, uh, notable lines from Trump's last word on Campaign 2018.
1. "There's nobody like him. There never has been anybody like him."
Donald Trump on Rush Limbaugh. And away we go!
2. "And we don't mean at all to insult -- look at the size of the media back there. That's a lot of people."
Always, always, always aware of the media and how many are covering him. He cares -- deeply -- about the media and what the media thinks of him. Always has.
3. "She has got viewership like you wouldn't believe, and she speaks from the heart. Her opening monologue is always exciting."
This is Trump introducing Pirro and proves how aware he is of ratings and how much TV he watches. A lot and a lot.
4. "I'm not on the ticket, although they want to put me on the ticket."
Is the "they" here Democrats? Or Republicans? Neither? Both?
5. "Does that look like the Academy Awards back there? Look how many people there are. Look how many, the Academy Awards. That's the Academy Awards."
Size. Bigness. Always.
6. "Somebody said it's not humanly possible. I said, I guess it is."
What is he talking about? The size of his crowds, of course! Many people said there aren't enough people in the universe for these crowd sizes. I said we'll find them on other planets then. Believe me.
7. "Nah, don't worry. I'm smart, also. And we're smart. Hey, you know, while I'm at it, don't you love it when they talk about the elites, right?"
Donald Trump is introducing his daughter, Ivanka, here. But somehow he feels the need to mention that he is smart. [shakes head in amazement]
8. "The elites. Well, I know all the elites. They're not very smart in many cases. They have a lot of hatred in their heart."
This message is the core of Trump's appeal to voters. That he, despite being a billionaire who lives in New York City, is like them -- a target of liberal elites (media, Democrats, colleges and universities, etc.) who think they know better and can impose their values on the average Joe. And Trump is on to them, he suggests -- he's got it all figured out and he's exposing them.
9. "I don't know about you, but many of you went to better schools than they did. We did better in the schools than they did. We have better houses, homes, boats. We do better than they do. We work harder than they do. We make more money than they do. Why are they called the elites?"
Everything in life is a zero-sum game, a competition in which someone wins and someone loses. EVERYTHING.
10. "But let's let them be called the elites, because you, we are the super elites. We are the super elites."
"Super Elites" is the name of my fantasy football team.
11. "And a very nice guy named John King for CNN, you know, he has the board, the red board, and his hand is like starting to shake because that board had so much red on it, they've never seen anything like it."
[narrator voice] This never happened. [2nd narrator voice] But you already knew that.
12. "But then out of the blue, out of the blue, they said, oh, oh, oh, you know, there were some crying, you know? These people are very fair. They're crying, OK?"
13. "I'm not going to mention CNN's name -- but we're not going to watch it."
14. "And she actually is very good on television, too."
15. "The whole world is talking about -- we're the hottest nation in the world. We're the hottest."
The United States. So hot right now. The United States.
16. "We're doing well with everything, frankly."
I, for one, always appreciate the President's candor.
17. "It's 'Make America Great Again,' greatest slogan of all time. Greatest slogan."
The best slogan. Ever. Many people are saying it.
18. "My last stop is here. I think for one reason, for one reason, and I have to say it, because this is the home of Rush Limbaugh."
So, the President of the United States chose Missouri as the final stop of the 2018 campaign because a talk radio host is from there? This all checks out!
19. "Also, this is the place that Josh is running."
Yeah, I'm also here because of the guy running for Senate tomorrow. But, Limbaugh!
20. "But the deplorables are the greatest people on Earth. They're the smartest."
Again, Trump tapping into the anti-elitism that sits at the center of his message and appeal.
21. "The accuser of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who is a fine man, the accuser admitted she never met him, she never saw him, he never touched her, talked to her, he had nothing to do with her, she made up the story, it was false accusations, it was a scam, it was fake, it was all fake."
22. " False statements. A made-up story."
Again, this is one woman who has recanted her allegations against Kavanaugh. The idea that this woman somehow invalidates entirely the allegations made by Ford and other women is nonsensical.
23. "False accusations. False accusations. They want to ruin a man or a woman. Ruin a man. And it was headed up all by the Democrats, all by the Democrats, right?"
Ford testified, under oath, that she was never contacted or encouraged by Democrats to come forward.
24. "Our great, great, brave, brave soldier from Vietnam, except he never saw Vietnam. Da Nang Dick, you know, Da Nang. He's from Da Nang."
25. "Remember they used to say there is no way for Donald Trump to get 270. And they were right. We got to 306."
The 2016 election was 728 days ago.
26. "We have to have borders. Without borders, we don't have a country. We have to do what's right."
This is a message that could resonate with lots of people -- not just Republicans. But because of all the immigration rhetoric under the bridge by Trump, it won't.
27. "As we speak, Democrats are openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws and violate our borders."
Er, no.
28. "And we're doing very well. We're doing very well. We're doing very, very well."
That's very, very, very, very well, if you're counting.
29. "Happening. Happening. Happening."
30. "The Space Force. Very necessary."
31. "In fact, go home and sleep."
This feels like a good place to end.