23:47

Perhaps the most shocking element of the “Donald J Trump Special Event to Benefit Veterans Organizations” was its utter failure to shock.

In a vacuum, the idea of the party’s frontrunner ditching the final primary debate four days ahead of the Iowa caucuses is completely insane - a massive departure from the rules of political gravity. Had you told any political reporter six months ago that said frontrunner would then host a concurrent event three miles away, with the vague goal of raising money for unnamed veterans’ organizations, featuring appearances by the two lowest-ranked members of the field of candidates, you would’ve been laughed out of the room.

But - and someday we’ll get tired of saying this, we swear - Donald Trump is different. Just when you think he’s reached new heights (or new lows), Trump goes farther, harder, rougher, lower than you ever thought he would.

Which is why, counterintuitively, his “special event” didn’t seem all that special. Trump’s months-long feud with Fox News and Megyn Kelly built up expectations that no political rally could live up to. Even the appearance of viral YouTube stars, multiple presidential candidates, his famous daughter, a billionaire and his trophy wife, and an honest-to-goodness war hero failed to raise our pulse. Even Trump’s infamous crowds seemed subdued - as protesters interrupted the proceedings with chants of “we love veterans, Trump loves war”, it took Trump’s acolytes nearly a minute to muster the energy for chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”

The billionaire frontrunner may be a victim of his own outlandishness. After calling for a 2,000-mile wall, a ban on Muslim immigrants and for the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, what new policy could surprise us? After taunting a disabled reporter, chalking Kelly’s aggressive questioning up to menstruation and labeling John McCain a fake war hero, who else could he possibly insult? Short of calling for a preemptive nuclear strike on Iran or a sequel to the Mexican-American War, it’s hard to imagine what else Trump might be able to shock us with.

If his “special event” was any indication, the world’s greatest showman may finally be running out of tricks.

