Final-Fan said:
I watched it. It seemed to me that after his boast, there was a commotion in the background noise that could well be people starting to laugh or otherwise react incredulously. This prompts Trump to pause and then go off script and say "so true", which causes more laughter. (Don't you think he seems to be reacting to something here?) Frankly, I think he played it off about as well as he could; I've never said Trump doesn't know how to work a crowd. The only problem is later when he says things like he purposely meant it as a laugh line when that definitely doesn't appear to have been the case, going by his own comment at the time. |
Background noise is pretty hard to hear but well before he get's to the phrase, you do hear what seems to be a couple coughs in the background. It's hard to distinguish what it is exactly. Could be people chatting, which may be about anything. To assume each and every person is focused solely on what Trump is saying is unlikely. As for going off script, he sure looks to be reading off the teleprompters, especially when he says "America's" but turns away and leans a little and tilts his head twice quickly facing the same direction when he says "so true", as if to point out he's not being genuine. Trump tends to stand tall and firm when he's being honest and direct and only tilts his head slightly when he's changing teleprompters. The way I see it, if they were laughing at him, and then he mentions he apparently wasn't expecting that response, to which he gets even more laughter and a big applause as he chuckles, says to me they are laughing with him and not against him. If they hated him, laughing with him doesn't fit. You could also say Trump is laughing with them as they laugh at him, but that doesn't fit because that's surely not how he is portrayed to the world. He's a mean guy that everyone hates apparently.
Sure it's possible some people are listening to their interpreters but to assume most of them can't speak English, or would rather have a translator so they can hear it in their native language, which would leave room for error, seems unlikely. It would also be extremely coincidental for the majority of the laughter to all come immediately at the same time, right after "America's so true". To assume all of the different translators ended their explanation close enough to allow for timing that perfectly between the majority makes it even less believable. Possible? Maybe, but a less likely scenario in my opinion.
He could have planned it to be a joke and pretended he didn't mean it that way, probably so the media wouldn't rip his head off for implying fake news once again, but it's hard to say. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. One way or another, that laughter was going to be used against him, or wouldn't be shown at all if it catered to him. As straightforward as he usually is, at times he can be hard to read, which makes sense, since he's a billionaire businessman. You don't get rich if you can't bluff. If he by chance had gone off script, there's no way he meant what he said. It most likely was a joke. Which would also make sense. When your about to give a generalized speech, especially like where his speech went afterwards for the duration, lightening up the room isn't exactly a bad idea early on. This way when he starts saying tough things that other countries aren't going to like, they can refer back to the fact that he's not a total dick and has another side to him.
