Does Trump still have it?

I watched Donald Trump’s appearance in South Carolina last night, wondering whether I’d see the King Lear-like figure I’ve been reading about in the mainstream media — roaring, unhinged, and obsessed with past wrongs (real and imagined). Frankly, as one who would like the GOP to nominate someone else, I wouldn’t have been disappointed to see this.

But I didn’t. The Trump I saw still has it.

By “it,” I mean the same ability Trump had in 2016 to entertain, amuse, and excite an audience. The Trump I observed last night is a bit calmer and more under control than he often was back then, but not to the detriment of his ability to engage an audience and stick a knife into his adversaries.

The adversaries last night were the Biden administration and the woke. They were not fellow Republicans.

Nor did Trump fixate on the 2020 election, though he referred to it a few times and discussed the need for fair elections. Perhaps Trump finally understands that even many of his supporters are tired of hearing him whine about 2020.

The focus of Trump’s speech was a comparison of how things were during his administration and how they are now under Joe Biden. This is exactly where his focus should be.

What distinguished the speech from that of a garden-variety pol was the candidate’s unique ability to ridicule and sprinkle in amusing asides — riffs that, if they don’t devolve into rambling, add spice. Last night Trump did little rambling, in my opinion.

Trump also came up with what I think is a clever way to encapsulate the once-unimaginable madness that is wokeism — “April Fools Day.” Men competing against women in sports? It’s April Fools Day. Defund the police? It’s April Fools Day. And so on.

Almost across the board, the Democrats offer programs and policies that are counter-intuitive at best and destructively looney at worst. As Trump put it at one point, the debate in America these days is really over whether to use common sense.

This seems like a winning message. But is Trump the right messenger? In my view, he displayed very little common sense in the months after the 2020 election and in choosing which candidates to endorse last year.

Trump may talk to the GOP base in the same way he did in 2016, but a lot of complicated history has transpired since then.

The media reporting on Trump’s speech that I’ve seen focuses not on content but on who was there and who wasn’t. Present were the state’s Governor and its senior Senator — both of whom have endorsed Trump — along with the Lieutenant Governor and a couple of congressmen. Absent were former Governor Haley, junior Senator Scott , a majority (I think) of the Republican congressional delegation, and the state party chairman.

Trump says he’ll hold a mass rally in South Carolina soon. He also says there are more South Carolina endorsements coming his way. Lindsey Graham is trying to line them up, reportedly telling potential endorsees that Trump will win so they might as well get on board.

We’ll see whether Trump (and Graham) deliver. But even as things stand now, a very recent poll finds that Trump leads Ron DeSantis in South Carolina by 15 points.

And if last night’s performance is a good indicator, Trump won’t self destruct. I think he still has it, for better or for worse.