Racist talk at rally mars Trump’s message, but he scores on Joe Rogan

It was a revealing moment for Donald Trump.

“When I say ‘the enemy from within,’ the other side goes crazy,” he said Sunday. 

He’s right about that. I raised the subject in our Trump Tower interview last weekend, saying that phrase seemed ominous, and his response – that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are indeed enemies, not just opponents, was picked up across the media universe.

But driving the other side nuts is a Trump specialty. When he told the rally at Madison Square Garden that the media are “the real enemy, the enemy of the people,” there were loud cheers from a party that already despises and distrusts the press.

BAD BUNNY ENDORSES HARRIS AFTER TRUMP RALLY COMEDIAN JOKES PUERTO RICO IS ‘FLOATING ISLAND OF GARBAGE’

A slight digression: The argument that Trump shouldn’t have been at the Garden because the Nazis held a rally there in 1939 is ludicrous. FDR held an event there two years later, and the Democrats have held nominating conventions there. It’s the place where I’ve watched many Knicks games and a George Harrison concert. And Billy Joel has been selling out the arena for years.)

Trump knows how to rile up the media, rekindling the debate over whether they must cover his more over-the-top rhetoric or are just normalizing him.  

In our Mar-a-Lago interview a few months ago, the former president acknowledged to me that at times he deliberately uses incendiary language to drive news coverage. Remember, even negative coverage helps him dominate the headlines.