RUSH:  Let’s get started on the phones.  And we’re gonna go to Baltimore.  Dan, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir.  Hello.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush.  Happy Monday.

RUSH:  Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER:  I wanted to call this day that I’m not discouraged at how the Republicans are treating Trump.  And I think I finally understand it.  I’m a “why” person.  I’ve been thinking about it, and the definition of “conservative,” while it has many facets, one facet is your political and your religious beliefs and values; but the other facet is slow to change, life’s the status quo. 

So it’s starting to make sense why some of my family members and friends may not like Trump, you know, and most of them are still gonna vote for him, but some aren’t, and that frustrates me. But, you know, there’s been so many changes the past eight years to worsen Baltimore, where I live, and Milwaukee, and the Democrats and Obama, all these changes, we need somebody that’s gonna change back quickly. 

So while Trump — I think there’s two boxes.  Trump checks off the box for values and beliefs.  You know, he believes the same conservatives do.  But his avenue of action, meaning the way he does things, is more aggressive or progressive, so I think that’s why people don’t like him, but I think he’s exactly what we need to make these changes more quickly than what I think David Clarke is saying, you know, we have to do some slow but I feel like we have to make so many changes so fast that the media spins, they don’t know how to keep up with it, and I just want to see change fast.

RUSH:  Well, a lot of people do, but I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying. Are you saying that you have not lost faith in Trump, that all this media coverage and criticism, I mean, it’s bad.  Today the Wall Street Journal: Trump get out by Labor Day or else.  The New York Times, the Washington Post, I mean, it is brutal. They’re talking Trump may get 10 electoral votes.  I mean, they’re doing everything they can to totally demoralize anybody and everybody that has anything to do with Trump, including run stories about how he’s depressed and sullen and is simply looking for laughs now at his rallies, but that’s all he wants anymore.

CALLER:  Correct.  I’m not discouraged.  I mean, that’s obvious to me the media and even politicians are doing everything they can because they’re scared. They’re running around pulling their hair out. But it brings me joy to see that ’cause I think that’s exactly what we need and —

RUSH:  Let me ask you — no, no.  Are they scared now, or are they really cocky, feeling their oats and thinking that they have just, even before Labor Day, they have destroyed Trump, they’ve destroyed the Republican Party, it’s just a matter of time to wait ’til November.  You think they’re really scared?

CALLER:  I think so.  I mean, of course they’re a little cocky, but I think they’re scared because, you know, traditional conservatives take consideration for what the media thinks.  Trump doesn’t care what the media thinks, nor do I.  And I think he’s got 50, 60 million people on his side —

RUSH:  No, I’m happy to hear that you’re still all-in and unaffected by it.  Because what they’re trying to do is, they don’t want anybody talking the way you are.  They want people like you to be the biggest rarity in politics right now.

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RUSH: Here is Tom in Detroit.  Tom, you’re next.  Great to have you, the Rush Limbaugh program.  Hello, sir.

CALLER: (bad connection) Rush, thank you for taking my call and giving me the opportunity to (call waiting click) campaign because I know they listen to you.

RUSH:  Well, you’re breaking up, I think.  Could you…? What campaign’s listening to me?

CALLER:  Uh, hopefully the Trump campaign.  Can you hear me now, sir?

RUSH:  I hear you.  Yeah.  Try again.

CALLER:  Perfect.  Perfect. 

RUSH:  Oh, “hopefully the Trump campaign” is listening.  Okay.

CALLER:  Potentially this is the greatest piece of political advice that has ever been given to anyone on this show.  And here goes.  This is how Trump wins the election.  Right now his biggest enemy is the media, and this is how he’s going to turn the media into his greatest friend and biggest weapon against Clinton.  He’s gotta hold a press conference with a big campaign announcement and say, “The media is covering nonsensical things about me, and ignoring blaring scandals and corruption from Clinton.

“So from now until November, I will only be reading things that are from this piece of paper.”  Pull out a piece of paper from his pocket, and on that paper are written vetted Clinton facts that are being ignored by the media and scandals that are being swept under the rug. And that’s it.  And then, the only other thing he’ll do is hype the debate.  Reporters will say, “Hey, you’re not talking about the issues.”  He can say, “I already talked about the issues.  You be go back and look at the tape.  You’re not reporting that anyway. 

“Did you know Clinton took so-and-so amount of money from her foundation?” and so on.  So the media has to report on Trump — it’s their biggest weakness — and if Trump only says things that the media doesn’t want to cover, they’ll have no choice but to switch from attacking Trump to defending Hillary.  So long as he doesn’t break character, he can hype the debate to infinity — because she does poorly in debates — and put her in media scrutiny — where she also does poorly.  That’s my advice to the Trump campaign.

RUSH:  Okay, just so I understand it because you’re on a cell call and you’re breaking up a little bit, you want Trump to write down some things on a piece of paper that he never deviates from. 

CALLER:  Correct.

RUSH:  And you want that piece of paper to include things about policy where Hillary’s wrong, where she’s been bad, made mistakes, and has caused the country trouble and you want Trump to focus on all of her scandals, the email and everything else, no matter what it is —

CALLER:  To the exclusion of everything else, yes. 

RUSH:  Right makes — (crosstalk)

CALLER:  — interviews, rallies —

RUSH:  Wait, wait.  All of this is gonna give the media no excuse but to report what Trump is saying?

CALLER:  Correct.

RUSH:  And they won’t want to do this so they’re gonna start defending Hillary?

CALLER:  Correct.  No, they have to report on Trump.  That’s my point.  They have to report on Trump, and right now they’re reporting on everything that Trump says that they can find silly.  So if he says nothing except Clinton facts and scandals, they’ll have only one thing to report on about him, that and —

RUSH:  Look, I know it sounds good, it sounds good, and I like your thinking, I do.  But I think it is a mistake to say there’s only one thing the media could report.  I think that’s where you may be missing this a little bit.  There’s nothing stopping them from reporting anything.  “Donald Trump looking increasingly insane, once again made the baseless claim that Hillary Clinton’s emails matter to anybody.  Trump appears to be losing it before our very eyes.” And they’ve done what you said, they’ve reported what Trump said.

As long as the media remains Trump’s focus in any way, he’s not gonna gain ground if the media’s the target, he’s not gonna gain ground.  If the media is the objective, he’s not gonna gain ground.  He needs to go back to talking to the American people.  And, you’re right, he needs to tell the American people what is wrong with America today and why.  Even during Trump’s primary days he didn’t explain why all these problems he correctly identified exist.  Oh, yeah, he claimed immigration because our immigration system is out of control, but why is it out of control? 

My point is that you can take everything in this country, 70% of the American people think this country’s on the wrong track, you take every bit of evidence that leads people to think that and blame it on the Democrats and Hillary. You can do that, because it happens to be true.  But if you choose to do this by talking about the media or if the way you do it has in mind the media as the target, it isn’t gonna work. 

Gotta forget the media.  You’ve got to forget the media. You just have to acknowledge that they’re an obstacle, acknowledge they’re an enemy, but you’ve got to talk to the American people.  And it can’t about how the media isn’t fair.  It can’t be about how the media is crooked. No candidate ever won beans trying to make people feel sorry for him. 

And Trump is no exception.  And even if it’s not that he’s trying to make ’em feel sorry, nobody ever won beans complaining about the media.  Everybody complains about the media like everybody complained about the electric bill.  Now they complain about the cable bill.  But it doesn’t change the cable bill, does it?  The cable bill keeps going up, doesn’t it?

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RUSH: I like this.  You never know what’s behind these blinking lights on the phones even though it says what they’re gonna talk about.  These last two callers haven’t said one thing that I thought they were gonna say, which means I have to constantly be on my toes.  Now, these guys, they didn’t lie, they didn’t mislead, it’s just when they got on the air they thought they would say it differently than the way it was written up. One guy’s phone line was chopping out on me there so I had to correct him. 

But the last guy’s point is good in the sense that Trump’s got to focus on Hillary, but not the media.  If he just focuses on Hillary — and they’re still gonna characterize him as a Looney Toon wacko, as I so adroitly illustrated.  Two callers ago, the guy, I think some people might have misunderstood what he was saying.

The people he’s saying are really scared are Republican conservative pundits.  They are scared.  They are scared that Trump is redefining the party.  They are scared of what the Republican Party’s gonna be once this is over.  Even if Trump loses they’re scared to death that their place in the party may be gone, up for grabs, or what have you.  And it may be.  And I think the sooner Trump can be made to get out of this, the sooner they can humiliate him, the better. 

And I’m talking about, like these 50 clowns that signed this letter, these former NSA guys that say Trump is just unacceptable as president, these other Republicans.  I mean, that’s not the media. He was talking about those people being scared, and it’s purely personal with them.  I mean, it’s all they’ve got.  You know, anybody coming after you trying to take away all you’ve got, you’d be kind of defensive, too.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Oh, here is Ken at a truck stop in Elmira, Missouri.  Great to have with us, sir, hello.

CALLER:  Yeah, Rush! I was gonna say that a lot of people don’t see Trump in the total light.  He’s a lot like Ronald Reagan was where he has the ability to talk right past the cameras to the hearts and minds of the American people.

RUSH:  Yeah, I’ve heard people make that assessment. Look, let me cut to the chase here.  You’re familiar with all the negative press coverage Trump is getting, obviously?

CALLER:  Yeah.

RUSH:  You don’t believe it?

CALLER:  No! No! No, I don’t.  I don’t buy into it because the media right now has the credibility of a used car salesman.

RUSH:  Okay, cool.  True.  But still, it hasn’t depressed you, it hasn’t made you mad, it hasn’t dispirited you in any way? You think Trump’s still riding high?

CALLER:  I think he is.

RUSH:  All right.

CALLER:  I really believe that, and I also think that the American people believe that, because he’s got that ability to talk past the camera —

RUSH:  Yeah.  Well, he does that.

CALLER:  — and the media and everything else, and that’s why they can’t control him.

RUSH:  Interesting.  Well, I’m glad you called, Ken.  I appreciate it.