Quotes are going to be good when the Grand Old Party gets a hot mic in their hands, especially at a love fest like the Memphis Safe Task Force roundtable on Monday.
Metaphors just won’t slap right. (Maybe) true stories are exaggerated into hyperbole territory. And, when President Donald Trump is involved, Republican compliments get downright steamy.
Here are some of the best and brown-nosiest quotes from that time the Trump circus came to town.
Tennessee House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said Memphis kids never rode bikes outside before.
“It’s as little as watching a kid… they had a bicycle in their living room and now they’re able to ride it outside. We take that for granted. We take that freedom for granted. But because of you now here in the city of Memphis, the kids can ride their bicycles outside, which they never had an experience before.”
Trump prodding Congress to vote on the Save America Act before Easter break.
“I tell them you got to do it for Jesus. It’s a damn good thing.”
“I tell them you got to do it for Jesus. It’s a damn good thing.”
President Donald Trump
Aw thanks, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee:
“We oftentimes say Nashville’s the heart of Tennessee, but Memphis is the soul.”
Well, thanks, I guess:
“I have a lot of hope for the future [for Memphis]. I do believe, and have believed all my life that this is a great city and now it is on a trajectory of greatness beyond where it’s been in the past.”
Trump edits himself in the workplace.
“We have people working in the White House, young women, they walk [to work] …
“I would say normally beautiful young women. Ever since I get elected, I don’t like to say that because usually when you say, ‘a beautiful woman…isn’t she beautiful?’ That’s the end of your political career. So, I never say that. But young women coming up to me and they’re saying, ‘Sir, thank you so much.’”
Trump never met Elvis. But he thought maybe he should lie and tell his “little friends” he did.
“You know, I’m going to see Graceland after this, I think. Is that right?
“I love Elvis. I never met Elvis. Everyone said, ‘Did you?’
“I met them all. I met Sinatra. I knew all of them. I never met Elvis.
“Sometimes I feel I should tell the little friends that I knew him. Well, I love Elvis. But I never met him.
“But I’m gonna go see Graceland after this, I think. I’m sure it’s not gonna be a very long stay. But I want to see that.
“But for years prior to our involvement, Memphis had become known for something else: being the murder capital of the U.S.A., not a good title.”
Stephen Miller’s “miracle” brown nose.
“What President Trump has done in the world of security and public safety is a national miracle. It will be studied not only for generations, but for centuries to come. Thank you, President Trump.”
To which Trump set the challenge for FBI Director Kash Patel
“So, Kash, see if you can top that one. I don’t know. That’s a tough one.”
To which Patel absolutely obliged.
“For me, a first-generation Indian kid whose parents fled a genocide in East Africa to become the ninth director of the FBI, I’m living the wildest dream you could possibly imagine, sir. But it’s thanks to you.”
I’m living the wildest dream you could possibly imagine, sir.
FBI Director Kash Patel
Tim Pugh, co-owner of Pugh’s Earthworks and Pugh’s Florist:
“Thank you for saving Memphis.”
Dalisia Balinger, Memphis resident who once said she was fired from The Tri-State Defender for thanking Trump for the Task Force last year.
“Thank you for saving Memphis.”