RUSH: The Trump rally last night was a barn-burner. Man, was the guy on. You know, you watch this, and you ask yourself how long can he keep this up? We’ve got basically 11 months, maybe 10 and a half before the election, and there doesn’t seem to be even one sign of any fatigue. You know, the president, over the Thanksgiving holiday goes over to Afghanistan on a secret mission to see the troops. He gets off the plane, flies all night back here for a game of golf on Friday morning, a commitment that he had made before he left. And he made it.

The guy just is indefatigable, and you watch that rally in Toledo last night, I had people say, “Man, this guy’s hilarious.” I said, “Let me tell you one of the reasons for that: confidence.” And that’s what Trump exudes. If you wonder what one thing that kind of stands out that makes all of the other aspects of Trump possible, it’s confidence. He strides to that podium and that microphone fearless and confident. He’s confident of the total support he has in the room. He’s confident of everything he’s gonna say.

There isn’t one bit of indecision. There isn’t any doubt. It is a clinic, folks. It is a clinic on how to build, develop, and maintain a bond with a support base, be it voters or an audience, however you want to characterize it. It is a clinic on optimism and positive thinking and bringing everybody up along with you, and it is all in such stark contrast to what we are seeing on the Democrat side.

The Democrat side, as it always is, is permeated with negativism, a dour state of mind, dour facial expressions. There’s no contest. There’s no contest. A-B, side by side, which team do you want to be on? The malcontents, the never happy, the people that don’t even seem to be seeking happiness, where there is no laughter, there doesn’t appear to be any enjoyment.

And then you see Trump and you see a guy who appears to be totally besieged, set upon, hit upon 24/7, some of the most vile, disgusting, hate full things said about anybody or said about him every day, and yet you look at him, optimistic, happy, confident, exuberant, energetic, engaging, charismatic, infectious, all of these things. It’s no contest.

In fact, John Fund tweeted something that David Brooks wrote. Now, David Brooks, New York Times, ostensibly conservative columnist. But David Brooks, for all you need to know, he’s a Never Trumper. Hates Trump like all of the so-called conservative intellectuals and their magazines and their think tanks and their cruises, they all hate Trump. And David Brooks has finally figured it out.

So Trump hits Soleimani, takes out Soleimani, a massively successful, hugely successful military operation that resulted in the death of zero Americans. The number two leader in Iran, the number one terror activist and military person in Iran wiped out. And what happened? Here comes the chorus from the Democrat Party, “Trump’s a monster. Trump had no reason. There was no imminent threat. Trump is a disease. Trump is horrible. Trump stinks. Trump’s rotten. We’ve gotta get rid of Trump.”

And David Brooks writes, “So we’ve had another chorus of ‘Trump is a monster.’ This is Trump’s ultimate victory. Every argument on every topic is now all about him. Hating Trump together has become the ultimate bonding, attention-grabbing and profit-maximization mechanism for those of us in anti-Trump world.”

Hating Trump is “the ultimate bonding, attention-grabbing and profit-maximization mechanism.” Meaning they’ve got nothing. The only thing holding them together is not what they believe, it’s their hatred for Trump. But Brooks has figured out that this hatred for Trump is doing nothing but calling attention to Trump which, by the way, is what Trump loves.

So in another sense, these people, in their quest to damage Trump, in their singular effort to get rid of Trump outside of an election are actually giving Trump exactly what he wants: never-ending attention, never-ending focus. Trump’s ultimate victory, every argument on every topic is all about Trump.

And the Never Trumpers say, “Yeah, this is the only thing holding us together. The only thing we have in common anymore, all of us Never Trumpers, the only thing we have in common is our mutual hatred for Trump. And what’s it getting them? Zip, zero, nada.

We have a call, somebody from Toledo who I think was at the rally last night. This is Michaela. Michaela, hi, great to have you on the EIB Network. Were you there last night?

CALLER: Yes, I was. Happy birthday, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I was at President Trump’s rally last night in Toledo, and it was massive. I was also at his 2016 campaign rally in Toledo, and last night’s crowd had to have been at least double, if not triple the size it was in 2016.

RUSH: Wow. Well, you know, there’s some interesting things like Florida, Florida has become red. Florida is not in the toss-up category anymore. And the same thing’s being said about Ohio. You know, not long ago Ohio was a toss-up state. If you’re gonna win the presidency, you had to win Ohio. Not true now. It’s pretty much been ceded to the Republicans.

That state, if there is a replacement, would be Pennsylvania now. Well, for the Democrats. If the Democrats are gonna win, they have to win Pennsylvania. And they may not. They probably won’t because of Trump’s strength outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, even as you get closer to the city, Trump’s support is growing.

So you were there in 2016, you were there last night. What is your overall perception of everybody at the event? For those of us watching, it just looked like everybody was on the same page and having a great time and the president was on, it looked like he was connecting with everybody.

CALLER: Oh, it was. He gave an awesome speech. I was standing in line with just normal, everyday Americans: farmers, construction workers, even union members, and we were all out braving the cold yesterday because we wanted to say thank you, President Trump, thank you for being our voice.

RUSH: Well, that’s interesting. You wanted to go in to say thanks.

CALLER: Yes. And there were people around me screaming “Thank you.” And I hope the Republicans understand something that President Trump said last night. He said the Republican Party is the party of the American worker, the American family, and the American dream. And that gave me goosebumps, Rush, because I absolutely believe that President Trump, that’s what he’s doing for us.

RUSH: Well, that is absolutely true. The Republican Party is all of that. Well, I did not watch, did not see the beginning. Was there a protester?

CALLER: I didn’t see any protesters when we were walking there. We got there about noon.

RUSH: Ah. Somebody sent me a note. Somebody sent me a note and said there was a protester, and Trump said, “Don’t worry. I’m gonna order a missile to be fired up his rear end.”

CALLER: Oh, inside the stadium there was a couple of stupid protesters. They had some anti-war posters — and, yes, they got escorted out.

RUSH: Did they not look silly?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Do they not look just out of place and silly and just childish and tiny and small?

CALLER: Childish, yes, exactly. The whole arena, I think it holds 10 to 11 thousand people, and it was packed to the rafters, and there were people — at least a thousand people — outside that couldn’t get in, and they were standing there watching President Trump’s speech on the JumboTron.

RUSH: Yeah, I know. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. I’ve been to these and I’ve seen it in every one that I have attended. Michaela, thank you very much for the phone call.