We rarely seem to ask anymore why the President of the United States is continually holding campaign rallies when his next election is more than two years away. It's just another fact of our dangerously surreal new existence: the creeping presence of the Leader and his Movement in all things, and the public demonstrations of that presence. (History, of course, tells us that it's always a good sign when the leader of a strongman regime in a fragile democracy is continually holding rallies.) The results on Wednesday night in Duluth, Minnesota, were predictable.

Donald Trump, American president, spent a great deal of time complaining. He complained about media coverage of this and other rallies, where apparently newspapers and TV networks don't give him enough credit for how many fans he has. He complained about media coverage of the current state of the economy, which often correctly paints it as a continuation of sustained economic gains under his predecessor. He complained that his opponents are described as "elites" when he is "smarter" and "richer" and has "a better apartment." He complained about the media, period, and earned a chant in response from his Huge Number of Fans, You Wouldn't Believe How Many Fans:

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TRUMP says "Democrat policies released violent criminals into our communities. We need safety. They don't bring cameras to interview the angel moms whose children were killed by criminal aliens who should have never been here in the first place." pic.twitter.com/uA2i0Jp6OD — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2018

But all that moaning was really a sideshow—the mashed potatoes of resentment. The meat lay elsewhere.

What brings people to these rallies, and what forms the foundation of Donald Trump's career in public life, is a vicious hostility to immigration, and the immigration of people of a certain complexion in particular, and the changing country he and his supporters believe will result. After all, the Trump administration suggested cutting legal immigration in half, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions severely restricted the grounds on which people can seek asylum in this country to keep out more people seeking legal entry at the border. Quite clearly, it's not a problem of illegal immigration, as we so often hear. It's a problem with anyone new coming here—at least, that is, if they're from certain places.

"We're sending them the hell back," Trump boomed at one point Wednesday.

This week saw the American president characterize Hispanic immigrants as vermin who will "pour into and infest our country." As The Washington Post highlighted, he has long thrilled his rally-goers by recounting the parable of "The Snake," where the title character represents immigrants whom more tender-hearted citizens might be tempted to allow in. Amazingly, people fretted over whether he recently called all undocumented immigrants "animals" or just members of MS-13, a distinction made irrelevant by his entire career in public life and the fact that 40 percent of the people he deports are now non-criminals.

As if to drive home the point, this rally saw him continue a long and storied Trumpian tradition of painting all undocumented immigrants as violent criminals whom Democrats are content to let run amok in your little Minnesota town:

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TRUMP says "Democrat policies released violent criminals into our communities. We need safety. They don't bring cameras to interview the angel moms whose children were killed by criminal aliens who should have never been here in the first place." pic.twitter.com/uA2i0Jp6OD — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2018

Another thing we often seem to lose sight of, as the controversies and fiascos and national embarrassments explode into each news cycle, is that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit violent crime than native-born citizens. The roots of Trump's political existence—after all, he kicked off his campaign by characterizing undocumented Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals—sprout from a nasty swamp of fear-mongering, misinformation, and lies.

He expanded on that with an admission he'd signed an Executive Order to roll back—at least for now—his own policy of separating families at the border. This was after he and his administration claimed, at various points:

that there was no such policy

that they were merely enforcing the law

that there was nothing he could to do stop it

that only Congress could fix it

that it was working as a deterrent

that it would bring Democrats to the table on an immigration bill and get him funding for his Wall

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TRUMP on immigration: "By the way, today I signed an executive order. We will keep families together but the border is going to be just as tough as it has been. Democrats don't care about the impact of uncontrolled migration in your communities."



Crowd chants "BUILD THE WALL!" pic.twitter.com/CMAEyhDWIG — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2018

Notice that the immediate response from the assembled is to chant, "Build the Wall!" It is no accident. His supporters believe The Wall will stop Those People from coming, sure. But more than that, The Wall is a symbol of this movement's commitment to preserving America as they know it, with white people at the center of American civic and cultural life.

Right on cue, Trump lied about The Wall:

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TRUMP on immigration: "By the way, today I signed an executive order. We will keep families together but the border is going to be just as tough as it has been. Democrats don't care about the impact of uncontrolled migration in your communities."



Crowd chants "BUILD THE WALL!" pic.twitter.com/CMAEyhDWIG — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2018

Perhaps Trump feels compelled to say construction has begun—when there is no funding and no construction—because he thinks it's the one thing he must deliver for his supporters. Increasingly, even that is in doubt, as is the idea they will ever abandon him. Or, more immediately, that they will ever admit that something bad happened and he is responsible. Case in point: this supporter, whom The New York Times' Katie Rogers found waiting in line at the rally.

There is probably nothing that would convince this person that the family separations and detentions on the border are happening, and that Donald Trump is responsible. That includes the fact that those photos and videos she's talking about were released by the Trump administration. The fealty to the Leader is so great that even bad news released by his own government can be easily swept aside. I have compassion for them, and that would be bad, but I don't believe that's happening or my leader is responsible.

If you still think he couldn't shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, I'd like some of whatever you're having.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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