Even his phone ins to Fox News are low energy and incoherent. He'll keep his devoted base of followers, but it's really hard to see him pulling in anyone else.
he's just been bitching on truth social. The only thing I've seen him do recently was get that cybertruck with his near death experience wrapped on it. I bet that thing is collecting (more) rust as we speak.
I think they are realizing he’s a liability to his own campaign, not sure he realizes it but someone is making the decision not to put him out there. Maybe it’s him. Idk
I mean, this is what he does. This is what he has done his entire life when the going gets tough. He packs up and slinks away while whining about how unfair it is.
Someone else on here was like, he's going to let JD do all the campaigning and he'll just chill at home and spend his time shitposting and occasionally calling into Fox.
If the election was based on his ability or even personality, he would lose but he's got friends in high places so you never know what the devils🤘 😈 have up their sleeves.
He called in to Fox and Friends to bitch about things and lie a little, but he seems like he’s a lil depressed. Remember when he got all down in the dumps after Biden won and stopped dying his hair? Didn’t snap out of it until they started planning the insurrection.
He never really started this cycle. Very low energy compared to 2020 and 2016. But now it's glaringly obvious, and Harris is being smart and highlighting it.
He’s doing one rally a week, tops, while Harris and Walz are all over the place. His schedule was already way less this year than before and I think he was scared shitless by the assassination attempt.
he still seems pretty aggressive campaigning against someone that is no longer a candidate... i guess technically that isn't really campaigning, so yeah
Biden stepping down and everyone rallying behind Harris has really fucked him up. He just can’t conceptualize that Biden willingly stepped aside and got a bunch of respect from everyone.
His “if I were Biden I’d vow revenge and try to run against her for betraying me” rant is evidence.
My impression is that his schedule all year has been like one rally a week or so and filling out the time with TV call-ins, interviews on right-wing podcasts, etc. The RNC was the first real burst of activity they had and right after that Harris took over and made him look WAY worse by comparison.
Probably trying to figure out how he went from, "unleashing HELL" in Atlanta to JDV proclaiming a Walz Vice Presidency would, "unleash hell".
He and JDV are weird that way.
No one is listening to him anymore. I think even the NY Times and Post have lost interest because they can't drum up any drama between him and Kamala+Tim. Drama sells. "Normal" does not.
He and the party are broke.
His campaign thought they had it in the bag against Biden, so they told him to go golf.
Harris ran the tables and now the campaign has to get Trump out there to campaign.
He might be scared of getting shot, but they need him out there.
But... go back to the top.
I got a CT scan Monday. The nurse that placed the IV said, out of nowhere, he was going to vote for Trump and was planning on going to the rally. (I'm in Missoula, rally in Bozeman.) Other nurse, also male, said he wouldn't vote Trump again after his (middle-class) taxes went up the last time.
Other nurse explicitly mentioned that business taxes went down, middle-class taxes went up. I said nothing, not wanting to step on my own dick while I had a needle in my arm. Hell, maybe it even had an impact on Trumper nurse.
I thought you were exaggerating but here's a screenshot of the events page for the campaign website and...yeah, definite sad trombone vibe for someone who's supposedly running for president
He knows he’s lost already. Took all his enthusiasm away. He’ll make a lackluster effort now, just going through the motions until he can start the inevitable lawsuits.
He was already running out of gas before the shooting (only doing like 1 or 2 events a week). Have to assume that knocked the wind out of his sails to campaign.
My dad asked if I had seen any photos or footage of DJT since the shooting. He said, very matter of fact, “He’s done. Same look that Wallace had afterwards. He will never enjoy being in those crowds again. He’s broken.” Dad was 20, I wasn’t born, but I’ll take his word for it.
Yeah. He lived for crowd scenes and shaking hands, and the shooting broke him. I’m not going to feel sorry for the self described “white racist candidate for President” George Wallace, I’m just struck by the similarities between the targets and the shooters.
I refuse to watch him because his voice sets of a trigger in my head that makes me want to throw things, but I can see it in the photos I've seen of him and other people's description.
He has like... pig eyes? I can't get over it. He literally has the eyes of a pig. I hate it. I hate it so much. I hate the sight of him. There's so much else to comment on that it I realize how small and petty it is but still. Pig eyes.
I really, really hate that this is the first thing I've seen that made me actually stop and think, "you know, maybe it WAS an actual shooting and not staged after all..."
First thing my sister (a healthcare worker) said to me after the shooting was that he’d never get over it. She said it would be such a huge trauma for someone of that age that he would never be the same. Interesting.
Seems tautological and yet un informative to say he’ll never be the same
He never HAS BEEN the same
I think the RFKJr story is the fascinating/tragic one: an obviously loved kid who , as pre-adolescents do, tried to fix his family’s horrible tragedy and only got PTSD-like obsession out of it
He doesn't really want to win and definitely doesn't want to lose to the Black/Indian woman. Someone offer him a plea bargain early and he's gone baby gone
He has to win to escape punishment for his crimes, but now he knows he's probably going to lose. I imagine he's entered a fairly depressive state. Good.
Right, but according to the decision anything he did which COULD be seen as an official act should be presumed to be one - and any arguments against it being an official act can't touch on motive.
And any acts deemed official aren't just immune, they can't even be used as evidence
Everybody making jokes in these comments shows a level of confidence I do not share. I noticed too that Trump has severely cut down on campaign appearances. And my thought was that he and his cronies are plotting on how to STEAL and election he now thinks he can't win. I don't know why the
Rolling Stone story on the 70 committed election denialists in positions of power in swing states and Rachel Maddow’s profile of the story isn't getting more news cycle traction. Look! https://youtu.be/of9OP_a6MNg?si=0BNl7uUGCpSooLhY
Bitter rage at having chosen a running mate who immediately became comedic fodder. He can't stand it, but can't get rid of him because he would have to own the mistake.
The judges will still be there and we might end up with someone less likely to fuck it up because they can keep their racist, sexist diseased ego in check. Also, practically anyone else would be able to campaign more than he can right now. But if we're taking last minute quitting? Hell yes, please!
He's already told people he doesn't need the votes. Probably counting on planted election officials (remember what he said at GA rally?) to refuse to certify kosher votes.
He probably spent every moment until Biden dropped out thinking he could just lay back and coast, and now that he suddenly has to work hard he's like "ahh, fuck it".
I really think this was the strategy against Biden. The more Trump talks, the more people remember how incoherent his rants are and the more turned off they are. Many have memory-holed all of the craziness. That's why he's still trying to run against him with his insane posts on social media.
This was supposed to be running up the score. Trump was gonna do an event a week, while nominating Vance and letting surrogates say "yeah, we're gonna ban divorce and birth control and give Peter Thiel your social security and if you are nice about it, maybe we'll leave in 2029"
One possibility is that he's now extremely shaken up by the attempted assassination, and the discovery that his security can't protect him from America's unique brand of psychotic lone wolves.
Maybe he was in shock initially and it took time to set in for him how vulnerable he truly is.
I honestly think, assuming that he doesn’t actually get jail time in the NY case, that SCOTUS already gave him what he wanted out of a second term. I think he still cared when he thought that Biden would be an easy win. But now? Maybe he’s just gonna ride it out and go back to easy-money grifting
He didn't plan to win when he *actually did,* so this 'effort to stay out of prison' might fail. May've(?) been counting on coasting to victory on the fumes of "they took a shot at our beloved leader--" only to discover most people seem pissed the guy's aim was so bad. He's cooked and I love it.
what would they get in return though? he's broke and powerless. sure maybe he already paid them in stolen documents, but it's not like dictators feel obligated to settle their debts
I mean, the CIA et al is incompetent, but 45 isn’t exactly playing 7 dimensional chess, and having a former president effectively defect would be not great for national security.
Call me crazy but I think Trump kinda likes Kamala. He doesn't want to destroy her like he did Obama & Hillary & Biden. He's tired & disinterested so nothing happens
he doesn’t like anybody but he’s like my dog when he runs into a weird new animal that’s clearly bigger and faster than him and all the fight turns into tucked ears and sad growls
It isn't that Trump likes Kamala per se. Rather, in his "cut of their jib" calculus, thru which lens he views everything, she is more formidable than either Hillz or Biden.
He came right out and said he was only running because of the indictments. If he received an inkling that the heat would recede it would be a different race.
I don't think he likes her. I think he's tired. And I think (this is irresponsible speculation on my part) we're starting to see the effects of the assassination attempt on his mental health.
I also think he’s scared of her. He doesn’t know how to campaign against her because she’s not just gonna color within the lines like Hillary & Biden did.
I do think that people underestimate the extent to which Trump does experience sympathy/empathy with people *if* he thinks they are people he's not insulted to be compared to, and he has some level of double consciousness or whatever about how racist/etc he is
I don't know if it's lack of inner life so much as, he's basically one of the main characters of reality, for real, which he loves. he literally modeled himself on Kane, from Citizen Kane. and he has managed to, in many ways, become that
and he respects ambition, and always wants to be liked
He wants everyone to love him or fear him, but he can't abide just being hated and considered a nobody. It's a huge part of his grievances is he was in the orbits of the truly famous and charismatic but they considered him a boring no-taste slob.
reading Stormy Daniels testifying about hanging out with him was what made me specifically come to this interpretation of him
I think that they genuinely connected, as she testified, about the business side of porn. Like he wants to know he's talking to "serious people," in the Logan Roy sense
idk, as someone who *also* watched Citizen Kane and was like "oh wow, I feel so seen" I may be overprojecting - I tend to do this thing where I'm like "my worst enemy and I are foils even though I am just some person" but like... I do think that there's a certain level of inference from the CK thing
like on some level I kind of thing the "but Trump is old" thing gets to him. I doubt he gave any credibility to people his age as contenders when he was Kamala's age
I did not need to learn this Trump psychology lore.
I figured the fact that Kamala is objectively hot would short circuit some right wingers, just like how they can't act normal about AOC. I wasn't guessing Trump would be one of the affected though.
It's funny that you mention AOC because Trump recently "complimented" her in front of that weird seat sniffer dude. He was about to mock her, stopped himself, and then said relatively nice things about her.
Not that Truth Social is reliable about, well, anything, but he appears to be melting down in a way I’ve not seen even him melt down before. Hang on, my Thai food is here!
Ah, there was a thread on here yesterday from that call! It was really good. They're organizing well to talk to other LDS. Seems a lot of them became supporters because of Jan 6 and the values the Harris/Walz hold compared to Donald/DJ.
The side-by-side visuals on TV (about which he cares so much) between him and Harris or even Walz are not good and going to get worse. He's deteriorating in near real time.
His troglodyte brain is beginning to awaken to this.
Trump firmly believes campaigning won't be necessary. He's fully invested in J6 v2.0 (i.e. the part where they force the election back to the 50 State Legislatures through dubious legal wrangling) and having the Supremes back him up on it.
He’s confident his assault on election process is going to be successful, so, he doesn’t have to campaign? He hopes to have all GOP statehouses ignore the vote and certify his electors only, no matter the margins.
This is tangential but he’d normally be in NJ by now, not Florida. I guess he has to be because the campaign is based out of Mar-a-Lago, but I assume the club is closed for the summer and he can’t hang out with plastic surgeons and their patients.
I think he was running to be able to not go to jail for all the crimes, and now that the supreme court ruled that presidents are god-kings in all things his hearts not really in it anymore
An honest assessment is it's a coin flip and I'm sure his advisors are feeding him bullshit about how if you unskew the polls he's way ahead. I don't think he's resigned to losing, there's something else going on.
People have started leaving his rallies early. He rambles longer than he used to and is even less coherent and not even the Red Caps can stand that shit.
He’s probably getting some young blood transfusions and in need of organ repairs after all the adderall while campaign. Sometimes one just needs to dry out for a couple weeks so the meds work again at dosages that aren’t near the LD50.
My theory is that he's sliding mentally. Not sure the medical diagnosis or cause, but I imagine his staff and whatever medical magic they try to conjure up are working overtime to find the right mix drugs to keep him functioning.
He's clearly been losing his fastball for a while, but I think getting shot at really broke him. Shattered the illusion for him that he was untouchable, and now he's scared
Does he have a reason to? Numbers probably won't change. He didn't do anything during his presidency or the 4 years after, other than sometimes campaign to keep funds/out of jail card going. And if he thinks there will be a fix by the courts, why would he bother?
He used to hide in the White House basement all day if there was a protest within two miles. Coming within two or three inches of getting his head blown off? Looks like it finally sank in to him that he almost died. He's gonna hide at Mar-a-Lago for the next three months.
he has one event in electorally critical *Montana* this week and he's gonna talk to Musk on Monday. He also did an interview (from home) with some weirdo freak YouTuber
Maybe since the presumptive immunity decision came down he's no longer motivated to run. We've been saying for ages that he's mainly running to avoid punishment for his crimes.
He doesn’t like to work, the vote does not matter to him…his plan is to kick back on his fat tush & go for the steal…again … with a little help from his buddies on ‘the bench’!!!
In my idle moments I fantasize that, in some dim recess of his mind, Trump realizes he’s been playing the Useful Idiot for a bunch of shady right wing billionaires and international criminal thugs, his reward might be living his life out behind bars, and it’s sapping whatever energy he has left.
My guess is he’s going through intensive prep with somebody in the GOP as to how to properly dog whistle and not say the quiet part out loud when he speaks about Kamala.
He doesn’t have the juice & he knows it. So he’s going to spend his time finding suckers to enrich himself as much as much possible before November. Seems like him and his sons are letting all the crypto bros sniff their butts lately. In between he’ll just shit post on Truth Social & call into Fox.
World’s Greatest Egotist gets shot and it quickly becomes apparent no one cares, and then learns he no longer gets to run against a corpse. I feel like it broke him.
Someone did a visual graphic of it yesterday. The answer is basically yes. And I didn't realize that it basically dates back months. It seemed recent, but the data shows it's not. Even Biden had more events than he did.
He's basically guilty of what he accused Biden of in '20 [basement campaigning]
he was doing one event every five or six days and post RNC he seems to have toned that down to, maybe, one a week. probably less. i think he's giving up tbh.
Presuming the reported stuff about his being perturbed (as is his way) by subpar attendance at rallies, it might just be pure petulance until the numbers are bigger so it's fun for him again
This is fuckin amazing. He'll just whine somewhere every once in a while the actual election happens between people who want good things to happen and the op Ed column of the New York Times
I think his handlers are watching him decompensate, and looking at his flailing performance at his rallies and the related enthusiasm decay among his followers, and realize that every public appearance makes his electoral prospects just that much worse.
I do actually think the assassination attempt rattled him, and the constant cocktail of adrenaline and cortisol and sugar and whatever the fuck else he's taking might finally be pooping out.
but mostly: he's old. And sick. I do think he's not well. Physically or mentally.
If he's watching TV all day, is he not even getting the message on how it's going?
Is he just calling around to all his buddies complaining about how it's going?
i think it’s probably a combination of getting shot and no one giving a shit plus vance being such an incredibly bad pick, but he’s not having fun anymore and doesn’t want to do it
yeah for years in his mind this was a bad ppv where two way-past-their-prime boxers trying to go three rounds and win it on judges points and he was up for that, it’s not fun when you’re suddenly getting clobbered by a last minute swap in who can not only go all 15 but is in it to win it
Oh that's a great way to phrase it. Trump wasn't gonna win win, but the judges seemed happy to call his flailing slaps more effective even if Biden's hit harder because they're in a slap fight. Harris is throwing haymakers all day and the judges can't paper that.
It was the Last Boomer Battle — I know Biden’s not technically one — to see which side would get the last word after 30 fucking years. And maybe Biden already did.
He’s literally sitting at home writing fanfic about Biden hitting Harris with a steel chair at the DNC and rejoining the race. It’s legitimately hysterical
i think this is a big part of it. it was fun for him when he could get revenge on biden for beating him the first time. now it's a lot harder and he's not really a hardworking guy who gives a shit about anything.
It doesn’t seem real that he was shot at. I’m sure it happened but he’s staged so many bullshit displays with props and fake binders and bibles that it’s just another Wednesday for anyone that doesn’t believe god came down and saved “Our President”
"I could be sitting somewhere in a beautiful home, but I'm out here to save our country and to stay out of prison and to avoid that scary stare that Melania gives me."
Getting a narcissist to do something that makes them look bad is very difficult, and right now the campaign looks bad so getting Trump to want to grind at it will be difficult. Which in turn makes the campaign look worse, and now it's a cycle.
I'm not sure that he ever actually wanted to be president to begin with, and he certainly only ran again because he has an inescapable need to not be a loser + a very practical and increasing need to keep the legal hounds at bay.
So yeah -- this sucks for him! He's having a bad time! People aren't coming out to his events, his VP is an unctuous little fuck up, he got shot in the ear and nobody really cared. He's almost certainly dealing with some PTSD, on top of being tired, old and washed
Honestly, it's probably mostly just getting shot at a campaign event, period. He liked the rallies because he got to feel adored by thousands of screaming fans; now he has to think about getting killed at one.
Plus USSS probably insists on more security prep now, which probably slows things a lot.
i'm a dumbass but i am now fully in on the idea that we can win big this election in a way basically no one thought was possible three weeks ago. there's not a ton of room to win unanticipated Senate seats but the House could go crazy
AND he figures his A1 Super Cyber Ninja Legal Strike Force Team will steal it for him, no matter the vote outcome. Just get any kinda BS case in front of the InJustices™️ and boom, victory
I’d say not to put too much stock in it because august/between conventions is usually a pretty fallow time, but given the dems, this is a thing you need to be able to adjust on the fly and they just…haven’t. Trump is still yelling about Biden for gods sake.
Giving up, no. Despairing & disengaging, on the other hand... Gets you to the same place, but the former is deliberate, while the latter is something you just kinda fall into
I guess he’s banking on friendly local R officials doing just enough fuckery to force the election into the House and the courts where he’ll have an edge?
Yes. He's cooked. I think the relentless focus on Biden was successfully distracting, plus people mistake the constant belligerence for real energy, but he's...very tired.
Ever since the new york criminal trial decision came in he's been slowly dropping off. It just sped up post shooting and is becoming really noticeable now.
It's funny because I think campaigning was the one thing he genuinely enjoyed about all this. He'd go in front of a crowd, they would love him, he'd do his riffs, it was all good. Now the crowds are small and not reacting and someone shot at him and it's no fun any more.
it was working because Biden was even worse, but now that he's up against a real campaign I think he's simply not capable of matching that level of energy anymore
I'll push back on Biden being worse per say, (there was a rally that was really good for him) but you're right Biden didn't like doing the kind of events that would show how bad trump was, and he was clearly not able to do what Harris is doing so well.
i don’t agree that biden was worse, i think biden just got exponentially more coverage, but i do agree that trump can’t compete with a younger and more energetic competitor (who, fortunately, does not also have to do dual-duty as president at the same time)
Biden was different but not worse. Biden’s decline is (mostly) superficial. His age exaggerated his stutter and lifelong habit of gaffes, but his ideas were still solid.
OTOH Trump is like a bad AI app that can confidently spit out words but they were all over the place and the facts were all wrong
IMO the biggest problem with Biden — which he is absolutely accountable for, but doesn’t have much to do with actual presidenting — was the moribund campaign.
It’s bad that Dems couldn’t figure out how to change the campaign without changing the ticket. At least they changed it.
Yeah this. Biden was better but on the order of 20%more energy. Harris is 10x or 1000%more energy and it's very obvious trump lost it. (Numbers for vibes not accuracy idk how you measure that)
I think the election is likely going to be close in a handful of key states, again, and I would sure rather be on the side that is capable of holding a ton of rallies in short order and actually has a ground game when it comes to those last margins
whole thing is always in those margins and that really had become a problem for biden, now it’s trump’s problem and I truly can’t imagine a solution he’s physically and mentally capable of executing
Don’t you think that he’s afraid of being shot, too? I think that plays into it. He’s terrified of not being popular and in the limelight but he’s more scared of dying. I think he’s only going to do inside rallies from now on.
I think w his narcissism he won’t ever believe that. More likely imo that he believes some rightwing conspiracy about the secret service not protecting him sufficiently.
Yeah, he's great at saying the sky is actually orange and having the media repeat it, but having packed crowds of energized Harris and Waltz rallies contrasted with his sparsely attended routine he's been doing for 9 years isn't going to be easy to con everyone about.
But what if Biden kidnaps Harris the night before the convention and then puts on a Harris disguise on the nomination day that he rips off after he's nominated and screams, "NO TAKE BACKS!!!"
But his adoring chud crowds are the only part of this he even comes close to enjoying (besides the numerous grifts, obvs, but those will never stop anyway)
this could definitely be the thing he believes but I’m asking for a little bit of grace here when I say this because I know what happened to the last legal strike team he banked on to pull this off: I truly question if he has anyone willing to sign up for that suicide mission a second time
All I can hope for is the FBI is alerted and stay on top of it. But... This is going to be home grown domestic terrorism and idk who is monitoring what in our homeland.
He clearly wants it to happen a step earlier. Much better to have your idiot lawyers defending a crooked denial of cert by radicals on an election board than trying to reverse a legitimate certification
I'm less concerned about the post-vote count shenanigans than I am about a potential GOP-controlled Congressional chamber refusing to certify and throwing the election to the House
Never a shortage of available suckers, but them stepping up probably depends on how openly the Supreme Court signals -- in advance-- that they plan to intervene and hand it to him. If they think the fix is in, they'll feel froggy enough to jump. If they're not sure, I think they fold.
Also, not to pretend there's no danger, but it was probably much easier to run this play when Trump was the actual president. A Biden who isn't running and is still president in November/December still has a lot of power to affect the outcome
if it's a blowout and Harris has a solid win, it's way less likely - they need another Florida in 2000 - one state and a very small margin of votes - to get SCOTUS to stick their neck out
everyone involved, including most of the democrats, seemed to think it was all over but the shouting, that's why the events of the last couple of weeks have really got Trump and his creeps on their back foot
It seems it would be prudent for Dem attys to make it be known to these local hot shots, should they try this BS they will be buried in legal turmoil and they will push as hard as possible to have them held personally, criminally responsible.
(ala Cochise Co, AZ)
every lawyer involved in the 2020 attempt (who hasn't made a plea deal) has been disbarred and/or bankrupted (and remain unpaid for their services) so I could see how it would be hard to get more lawyers to step up for that, even if they are aligned with his fascist intentions
The Christian Right has bottomless pockets and owns entire lawfirms, not to mention the whole supreme court. They're also significantly more organized this time and have had years to plan. I'm not trying to be a doomer, but we have to be aware of that.
That is my assessment too and I hope the D’s have a plan to deal with that. Probably wise of them not to share what it is ahead of time, but dang I’d better start chewing antacids
That’s going to go interestingly given he’s not at all subtle about it. I’d never say it’ll go well or badly for him, I have no idea how that’s going to play out, but it’s definitely going to be, uh, interesting.
I don't want to make certain statements but I don't *think* it could get to the Supreme Court giving him the election because it would, well, probably make a lot of people feel justified in going all Talking Heads on them. But only as long as turnout and percentages are too big to deny.
it's been clear since the RNC declared their intention to gut the actual competent workers and funnel all money to Trump personally and "an army of 100,000 lawyers, election workers, 'poll watchers,' etc" that that has been the intention.
Still weak because you'd still want ALL your options covered
Despite genuinely believing they are all in for a blatant power grab no matter what, it's still a sign of weakness they're not -also- going for the old numbers in rallies, turnout, etc. He would if he were capable, I'm sure. He's really not.
as for gutting the RNC of talent and looting their coffers, that's pure cult shit. There is a genuine cult of personality even within the GOP itself, even the ones who are cynical opportunists (many), because they still ACT like cult members, the result is the same. Loyalty > efficacy.
We're getting some good dunks off, and I don't think anyone anticipated the Couch Hyperstition becoming canon, but in general I think the choice to throw-in with the SV people was the ultimate "fuck it, we're robbing" choice.
I think the SV money was important because no bag is too small for Trump. But I think he's a bit paranoid (as all autocratic personalities are) and having a former GOP primary rival as next in-line was too dangerous for him.
Wasn't the Carlson and Don Jr counsel mostly that?
He is/was counting on base activation, which is how he won in 2016. He depends on the awful weird white guy vote.
There weren’t as many Obama/trump voters as the media pretends. He got enough terrible rust belt racists who last voted for Reagan to come out. For that, the incel is a great VP choice.
we're just gonna have to win fuckin Alabama then. Pound them into the dirt. Bury the fash so deep it takes another eighty years to show its face again. No mercy.
This is my guess right now. He's realized that he can skip the whole "campaigning" thing if he can just focus on stealing the election. Unless something dramatic happens, it seems like he's got GA in the bag no matter what the vote totals are. He just needs to do that in 1-2 other states.
Now that you mention it...
JD Vance has been the face of the campaign recently.
He's unlikeable and bad at campaigning, and yet they're letting him be the face of Trump-Vance 2024. At least for now.
What must be going on for them to go with that?
yeah man I dunno it really looks like all the eggs went in the egg boy basket to go out on stage and do the heavy lifting while they coasted and then well things happened that absolutely demolished this strategy. and for whatever reason they can’t go back on it
It could be a lot of things, but my guess would be that him being an inch away from being assassinated by one of his own loser lunatic supporters probably has him terrified. The pure adrenaline of the "FIGHT FIGHT" photoshoot moment has worn off and the reality of the situation has settled in.
Trump has definitely been slogging through this campaign, but at least he thought he’d win.
The energy of the Harris campaign has got to be a gut punch — imagine he’s unable to do more than obsessively watch the polling data and self-soothe with too many hamberders.
Even so, they need a baseline in the vote totals to make such a plan work.
If Trump loses, the bigger the loss, the harder it'll be to steal.
We saw that in 2020, as his evident plan for the whole election to come down to Pennsylvania and steal the state got thwarted by Arizona and Georgia.
*can’t get therapy. Narcissists can’t seek help. It’s nearly impossible for them. When he’s dead, he will be the textbook case study for NPD for the entire western hemisphere’s medical establishment.
Feeling scared after someone takes a shot at you is very reasonable, but doesn't pair well with the "I'm so tough, I'd even take a bullet for you, just look at this photo" messaging.
He thought he could coast and now that presidential candidate is a job that requires work he’s not interested. Like he was as president - you want me to WHAT?
Trump is all for instant gratification. Which works for the opposite too: he hates going out in front of a crowd visibly smaller than his opponents', so he stays home, even if long-term he must do the rallies doggedly if he's to stand any chance.
Could be aftereffects of the shooting? Trump has always clearly loved the rallies, and now the nagging thought that one of his own crowd tried to to kill him might have ruined that rush for him.
Trump always used to say that his huge 2016 and 2020 rallies were an indicator of his popularity. His latest at GSU was not as well attended as VPKH's there, and she's drawing huge crowds in Philly, Eau Claire, and Detroit (the last based on reported RSVPs). His metric's failing him and he knows it.
I think he was counting on running against Biden, and just phoning it in with canned rallies and echo-chamber press coverage until the fall. I don't think he's up for a real campaign.
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I haven’t seen any news of him leaving the country since he left the White House
https://bsky.app/profile/drobertsimg.bsky.social/post/3kz3cfkcfp22z
JK he wasn't really wounded.
undecided voters say WTF hell no.
His “if I were Biden I’d vow revenge and try to run against her for betraying me” rant is evidence.
He and JDV are weird that way.
https://www.rawstory.com/montana-cities-waiting-on-trump-to-fork-over-50k-after-stiffing-them-for-costs-of-rallie/
They are so fucked
His campaign thought they had it in the bag against Biden, so they told him to go golf.
Harris ran the tables and now the campaign has to get Trump out there to campaign.
He might be scared of getting shot, but they need him out there.
But... go back to the top.
He's out-strategizing us, boys! Cross Montana's 3 EVs off the board.
For to throw the hooliihan.🎶
We should keep a running list of places he CAN’T escape to. I’ll start:
Canada
Mexico
Ireland
New Zealand
Australia
Germany
Greenland (!)
Poland
Qatar
Ukraine
. . .
https://www.threads.net/@kamalahq/post/C-YnxhMM6fr/?xmt=AQGzMEyxQoG8PpCZsSi0O_oJgYV1Y_lOkOL-rEomczo-fw
He never HAS BEEN the same
I think the RFKJr story is the fascinating/tragic one: an obviously loved kid who , as pre-adolescents do, tried to fix his family’s horrible tragedy and only got PTSD-like obsession out of it
And any acts deemed official aren't just immune, they can't even be used as evidence
broke
fatigue/old man tired
paranoia about lone gunmen
relying on the supreme court to steal the election for him
WE CAN BULLY HIM OUT.
Completely defuse another coup and watch the cult crumble... why wouldn't we want him to just fucking leave?
Without the cult, they'd be cooked.
That or he's scared of getting [redacted] again.
https://bsky.app/profile/cafetelaviv.bsky.social/post/3kz7acxeowc2x
Maybe he was in shock initially and it took time to set in for him how vulnerable he truly is.
Why do you think he hasn’t left the country in 4 years? Have any of his kids left the US? They are targets
I mean, the CIA et al is incompetent, but 45 isn’t exactly playing 7 dimensional chess, and having a former president effectively defect would be not great for national security.
and he respects ambition, and always wants to be liked
I think that they genuinely connected, as she testified, about the business side of porn. Like he wants to know he's talking to "serious people," in the Logan Roy sense
i think he loved omarossa
I figured the fact that Kamala is objectively hot would short circuit some right wingers, just like how they can't act normal about AOC. I wasn't guessing Trump would be one of the affected though.
https://www.rawstory.com/news/kamala-harris-mormons/
His troglodyte brain is beginning to awaken to this.
There. Finished your sentence.
Kamala has six campaign events this week.
He is old and exhausted.
He's got that montana rally but... what else?
I can't remember.
Also had thoughts of the (was it Katy Perry?) dancing dolphins
Did I do that right?
Doesn’t help that his VP is getting way more attention than he is, even after getting shot at
/s
He's basically guilty of what he accused Biden of in '20 [basement campaigning]
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4812402-harris-campaign-mocks-trump/amp/
but mostly: he's old. And sick. I do think he's not well. Physically or mentally.
If he's watching TV all day, is he not even getting the message on how it's going?
Is he just calling around to all his buddies complaining about how it's going?
It's a little surprising.
Me, 5 seconds later: well, it’s not like he understands that
I'm hitting the golf course until the come put the cuffs on me.
He doesn’t know much, but he knows optics, like how weird and awful they looked on Jan 6.
Plus USSS probably insists on more security prep now, which probably slows things a lot.
okay probably not but the man's brain is mush, he could be "thinking" anything
Is it that he’s giving up, or that he’s giving up on *campaigning*?
Because I fear that it’s not so much accepting defeat as turning their full attention to (illegal) behind-the-scenes strategies.
He will not be back in '28, whatever happens.
If he wins, he’s good.
If he loses, he throws enough chum in the water that any case goes to SCOTUS, where his minions toss it.
He just needs to stay in the game through November.
nyt:
nyt: this is bad for biden!
OTOH Trump is like a bad AI app that can confidently spit out words but they were all over the place and the facts were all wrong
It’s bad that Dems couldn’t figure out how to change the campaign without changing the ticket. At least they changed it.
I think the election is likely going to be close in a handful of key states, again, and I would sure rather be on the side that is capable of holding a ton of rallies in short order and actually has a ground game when it comes to those last margins
I think that's Trump's new idea.
(ala Cochise Co, AZ)
Looking forward to that Oct Scottsdale release !
Still weak because you'd still want ALL your options covered
Wasn't the Carlson and Don Jr counsel mostly that?
There weren’t as many Obama/trump voters as the media pretends. He got enough terrible rust belt racists who last voted for Reagan to come out. For that, the incel is a great VP choice.
JD Vance has been the face of the campaign recently.
He's unlikeable and bad at campaigning, and yet they're letting him be the face of Trump-Vance 2024. At least for now.
What must be going on for them to go with that?
The energy of the Harris campaign has got to be a gut punch — imagine he’s unable to do more than obsessively watch the polling data and self-soothe with too many hamberders.
If Trump loses, the bigger the loss, the harder it'll be to steal.
We saw that in 2020, as his evident plan for the whole election to come down to Pennsylvania and steal the state got thwarted by Arizona and Georgia.