If President Trump seems resigned to losing November’s election, he has good reason. The strategy he is pursuing–and it’s generous to call it a strategy–is premised on the idea that he is going to lose. His own advisers acknowledge that there are very few people who can be persuaded to vote for him, and his aim therefore is to do whatever he can to hold his strong supporters while reducing the overall level of turnout.
Trump’s team feels confident that approximately 40% of the electorate supports him and notes his approval rating has remained unusually stable during his term. The president’s campaign advisers believe it comes down to getting a bigger proportion of the smaller group of people who love Trump to turn out than the larger group of voters who express tepid support for Biden.
Some people realize this is not going to work, but when they offer alternative strategies they just sound like morons:
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said Trump can win with “a little more message discipline” and a focus on policies that separate him and Biden.
“Just make it more about policy and less about your personality,” Graham told reporters.
Asking Trump to stop being a narcissist is some kind of psychiatric malpractice, since a narcissist isn’t free to think about other people. Asking him to talk policy is laughable. And to ask him to debate policy with a man who has spent a lifetime in the Senate and White House is a suicide mission. Lindsey Graham might as well advise Trump levitate while farting firecrackers.
His advisers are too optimistic in any case, since Trump has fallen below 40 percent in several recent national surveys, and in many new battleground state polls. Fox News now has him down by a point in Texas. If you’re being honest, there’s no reason to see the present as some nadir or low-water mark for Trump. There’s virtually no reason to think he’ll suddenly become a more effective crisis manager or that the current crises are about to lessen in their severity. If he’s down in Texas today, he’s likely to lose there. Hoping for some miracle on Covid-19 is not a medical or a political strategy, and it’s clear that the outbreak is as bad today as it has been at any point so far. This is going to prolong and deepen the economic damage.
Trump seems to have realized this, which is why he said on Wednesday that Biden “is going to be president because some people don’t love me.” For once, he’s probably right.
God, he’s going to start whining about his loss 4 months out, isn’t he? Then never stop.
What a whinny ass titty-baby.
Sporadically, at least. He’s going to start the blame game now.
Martin, I’ve wondered for awhile whether Trump would try and negotiate some kind of resignation-for-immunity deal before the election, if it looked like he was going down in flames. I have no idea if this is even possible across federal and state jurisdictions, but it seems like he must be really worried about prosecution if he loses the election.
I think Trump is really tired of the presidency, and would love to not be president, but for the fact that the presidency is the only thing standing between him and criminal liability, and he doesn’t want to be bested by his arch rival Obama. He can whine away justifications for the latter; the former is a real problem. Although that depends on whether the democrats will once again, declare to “look forward” rather than deal with the potential criminal liabilities of Trump, Barr et al. And there’s a good possibility he could strike some kind of deal with them, i.e. I’ll give you Barr, just let me sunset with my golf clubs at Mar a lago.
He should gamble on Democrats wanting to “move forward” than “dividing” us more. Because I’m pretty sure that is what is going to happen if he loses. Again.
At the time, I understood when the Obama administration and Dems in Congress took that path. I now think it was a mistake and I’m going to be actively pushing to hold people in Trump’s orbit criminally liable if he loses.
This is exactly how I feel – I was a neophyte to the political history when I supported Obama in ’07 and throughout his presidency and saw the past as a distraction. I never realized how fragile the Obama wins were, and the power that still lay latent within the GOP and the justices who have helped to protect bad-faith executives. No more, we need to prosecute if not to deter future such actions but simply because THE SAME BAD ACTORS KEEP COMING BACK (Barr, Acosta, and on and on).
Trump is a psychopath, subset: stupid psychopath. I’ve said for four years that to understand Trump see him not as a politician, not even as a human, but rather as a shark – great killer instincts, very little brain. Instinct is not intellect. Instinct is rigid and limiting.
I’ve also maintained for years now that his best option would end up being: 1) Arrange for Pence to pardon him. 2) Resign. 3) Flee the country ahead of a deluge of state charges and civil suits. That’s still his best play, and I think there’s a non-negligible chance he’ll do just that.
He just might be too stupid to resign. He so likes to bully and call people names. And he can’t see himself losing, especially to Biden. I think he is very much like an eight grade tough guy.
He has a consistent history of quitting, it’s what he does. Definitely a non-negligible chance.
Perhaps but what more does he need to resign and how do we get there? Things are pretty well eff’d up now with Russia paying to have our soldiers killed, the EU hanging out the not wanted sign and the disaster he wrought with the virus. Every day he seems to screw up something else and just keeps on moving along, The man seems not to care since he loves his throne more.
After November, with the democrats in power, it wouldn’t surprise me if the entire family departs for Putin’s Russia.
Trump seems to have realized this, which is why he said on Wednesday that Biden “is going to be president because some people don’t love me.”
Wow. Putting it that way says a lot about Trump and his mental state. In place of “love” typically you’d see in a statement like that from a politician the word “support.” Also speaks to the fact that, contrary to Graham’s advice, everything for Trump is personal.
No doubt, Trump’s raising by his parents left him a truly effed up human being. In place of love, he was taught vengeance above all else, and to be feared. Still, that a man could have spent the last three plus years doing all he did, and the way he did it, and then seem almost incredulous that it didn’t translate into “love” is testament to a truly psychologically damaged person.
Yes, the man obviously has deep early wounds. So often it’s no picnic growing up rich because being wealthy doesn’t mean you’re not fucked up. When people are fucked up and rich, the wealth becomes a vector for creating more harm. Not that it’s fun being poor either. Psychologically healthy parents are the best foundation a kid can have. More than wealth or anything else.
The 8th grade president.