Trump calls Iran threat to L.A. proof he protects it, blames a Trump voter for heckling him.

…(cont) On Oct. 1, the president told Time he had "created peace" by annihilating Iran. By Oct. 7, the Post and RTE were both reporting that the White House was bracing for the Nobel committee to disagree and hand him the snub instead. Is that the same number, run twice in a week — the thing that was done, counted as the proof that it worked?

Here's what I actually called about. Ken Paxton, running for Senate out of Texas, told donors at the end of September, on tape the Times published, that the president's big Dallas convention "dropped our numbers." His word was "dropped." Paxton skipped Vice President Vance's rally the next day, then showed up for the president's anyway on Oct. 1, at a manufacturing plant, where the president called him a "pain in the a--" and told the crowd to vote for him regardless. On Oct. 4, the Guardian reported that some Republicans now worry the rallies themselves have become the liability — and that when bad weather grounded Air Force One in Texas, the president had the motorcade cover the 85 miles to Oklahoma at nearly 100 miles an hour rather than skip the next stop. Does a schedule driven that hard sound like one anybody treats as optional?

Wednesday was the next stop after that. The Hill reported that the president told the Texas crowd Iran could hit Los Angeles or San Diego, and then — this is the Hill's phrase, not his — added that the United States would not let that happen. NBC's account of the same speech has him saying, afterward, "we protect our cities." The danger, the promise the danger won't happen, and then the promise standing in as the proof it already hasn't. Which of those three was supposed to be the news?

It reminds me of the toll plaza on the turnpike, where the sign says the toll pays for the road's upkeep, and the pothole that just knocked my fan belt loose gets held up as the proof the money's working. Does the sign explain what just happened to my car, or does it use what happened to my car as its own evidence?

Then the hecklers started. The Examiner counted about a dozen of them and reported the president's phrase for them: "paid protesters." The Post was there too, and has him saying of one, "His mom voted for Trump." A mother protesting at his own rally, whom the campaign itself later confirmed had voted for him. If a paid protester and a Trump voter can be the same woman in the same breath, what's left standing in the word "paid"?

One more thing, since you're still on the line. Mr. Paxton's own tape says the September convention cost him votes. The president went back to Texas anyway on Wednesday and called what happened there proof that the city is protected. So here's the actual favor: is the campaign that Paxton's own numbers say he lost ground on in September the same campaign the president is calling proof, in October, that nobody needs to worry? Because from where I'm standing it's the same state, the same candidate, and the same man at the podium, and nobody who covers this for a living has told me yet that I'm wrong.