The GOP presidential race got much much funner yesterday, as Trump threw his hairpiece into the ring.

Trump‘s announcement speech was a strange amalgam of thinly-veiled bigotry (Mexican immigrants “bringing drugs, bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people”), fear-mongering (Iran is taking over Iraq “and they’re taking it over bigly”), and self-promotion (“I beat China all the time”).

He hit all the GOP red meat talking points — Obamacare is bad, immigrants is bad, other countries are bad, the economy is bad, politicians are bad — but also detracted from those points with non-sensical throw-ins, like how President Obama would be welcome to play golf on a Trump-owned golf course.

Strutting onstage to an unauthorized-by-Neil-Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World”, Trump started with a lie. “This is some group of people. Thousands,” he said, overstating the crowd size by a factor of 10.  “There’s never been a crowd like this,” he then said, which is somewhat true.  A few hundred people, mostly reporters, packed into a small room to make it look more well-attended than it actually was. (UPDATE: Not only did Trump use Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” without permission, but he failed to understand that the song is a lefty tune critical of George H.W. Bush’s administration and its contempt for the poor)

He also told a whopper when he said that ISIS had just built a hotel in Syria.  Way to know your competition, hotel magnate boy.

Mostly, however,Trump did what he does best: He bragged about his success. And the hundreds—not thousands—in attendance seemed to eat it up.  And why not?  They were paid actors.

But he was not teasing.  He officially announced his run, and he even has a logo (well, he’s always had that) and slogan (“Make America Great Again”).  Well, maybe he was punking us again. He could fade quickly back into reality TV, or he could use the auspices of a campaign to promote himself for a few months and drop out before the voting starts. The banners, t-shirts, and bumper shirts at his Manhattan launch event were paid for by an “exploratory committee,” and he apparently hasn’t yet filed his paperwork with the FEC. But Trump insisted that he would file (“without extensions”), and from the Trump Tower he was headed to Iowa and then on to New Hampshire and South Carolina later in the week. So for now, he’s a candidate.

And as of this moment, Trump is polling ahead of Rick Perry, John Kasich, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, and George Pataki—that’s two current governors, two former governors, and a sitting U.S. senator

The Democratic National Committee won the award for straight-faced sarcasm as it welcomed Trump to the race with a statement saying:

Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation.

And the conservative National Review has fun:

On the substance, Trump is — how to put it gently? Oh, why bother! — an ass. Not just an ass, but an ass of exceptionally intense asininity.

China? “China’s leaders are like Tom Brady, and the U.S. is like a high-school football team,” Trump says.

And so, we should do what?

“ . . . ”

Trump’s is a fill-in-the-blanks agenda: He claims to have a plan for defeating ISIS, but he cannot say what it is for reasons of operational security for the mission that exists only in his mind. He assures us the plan is “foolproof,” but whoever coined that word had never met a fool like Donald Trump. Immigration? Build a wall and force the Mexicans to pay for it. How to do that?

“ . . . ”

The one thing worse than Trump’s vague horsepucky is his specific horsepucky, i.e., his 1999 plan to impose a one-time tax — everybody knows how good Washington is about “one time” uses of power — on the wealth of all high-net-worth individuals and institutions. A 14.25 percent tax, he calculated, would retire the national debt. And what about institutions that don’t have 14.25 percent of their net worth in ready cash — to take a totally random example, let’s say a poorly run real-estate concern with a lot of illiquid assets and unmanageable debt payments eating up all its ready cash?

“ . . . ”

Trump says that he cannot discuss the details of his agenda because of — his word — “enemies.”

Who are these enemies?

“ . . . ”

UPDATE:  Crazy endorses crazy:

[fb_embed_post href=”https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10153415084743588/” width=”550″/]

Honest to God, read that second paragraph.  It’s like every GOP snark put into a blender and poured on to a plate.  Like, “unleash America’s entrepreneurial spirit and dramatically shrink government in order to prioritize our nation’s security.”  I know those are things but how does entrepreneurial spirit and a shrunk government help with prioritizing nation’s security?  And can’t you prioritize the nation’s security even with a big government?  Oh, Sarah.  I love you.

AND FINALLY…… a Colbert spoof

VERY VERY VERY LIKE A COUPLA YEARS LATER UPDATE….

Yeah, those people cheering the future President….. they were paid actors: