Things have not been going well for former President Donald Trump. In fact, they’ve gone so badly that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says a frantic Trump has been reverting to his “best hits.” Some analyists have compared today’s Donald Trump to the “Fat Elvis,” an aging entertainer coasting on longtime familiar riffs who is not who he used to be.
How bad are things going for Donald Trump?
1. Trump’s appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was a disaster. It made a nuclear explosion look like a fart at Taco Bell.
What was televised was bad enough: Trump acting angry and defiant as three African-American journalsts questioned him…Trump serving up a litney of lies…then questionining whether his rival for the presidency Vice President Kamala Harris was really black or was an Asian who suddenly “became” black for political reasons. MSNBC called it a “train wreck” – which was a compliment to what took place and an insult to train wrecks.
But what came out later was equally damning. Trump blamed his hour delay in appearing onstage on an association audio problem but that (too) was a lie. According to Axios, Trump wouldn’t go on because they were going to fact check him and he refused to be fact checked. They were just about to announce that he wouldn’t be appearing when he walked out onstage. Some attributed Trump’s raising the race issue to impulse, others attritubed it to strategy. It is now a Trump/MAGA riff. Trump is playing the race card.
2. Trump’s poll numbers have been going down since President Joe Biden announced he would’t run and Harris took the torch and ran with it raising tons of cash and talking to wildly enthusiastic, overflow campaign audiences. She has now taken the lead in the Real Clear Politics averge of polls. Can this change? Yes. But for now she’s clearly on the upswing nationally and in many swing states.
3. Trump was sidely condemned for congradulating Russia President Vladimir Putin for making “another great deal” in the major hostage exchange of U.S. and Russian prisoners. This is likely to hurt him with independent voters or Republicans who may be ready to divorce themselves from MAGA.
4. He did a campaign stop in Atlanta and got most coverage for his angry attack on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp because Kemp wouldn’t help Trump overturn 2020 presidential election results. And then, for good measure he threw in some insults aimed at Kemp’s wife and other Georgia Republicans. Trumps track record of being political poison to Georgia Republicans is likely to continue.
5. Trump and the GOP had prepared for a campaign that would hammer away at the issue of Biden’s age, energy, and perceived cognitative issues. Biden received widespread mainstream and conservative media scrutiny. But now Trump is the oldest person in the race and his age and cognitive issues (word salads, slurring, mixing words together or saying a meaningless word) is receiving the scruity. The age issue lives on with Trump, at 78, the oldest Presidential candidate in American history.
6. Trump’s political schtick has gotten old and a feature of his rallies is now some audience members heading for the exits before he’s done.
EJ. Dionne in the Washington Post:
But here is why 2024 may be Trump’s undoing: We have been here for nine long years. When Trump went after Hillary Clinton in 2016, the media didn’t know what to do with him, and Democrats did not know how to respond. Journalists debated for years over whether Trump’s lies should, in fact, be called lies. (Pretty much all outlets finally decided a lie is a lie.) In 2016, Democrats underestimated Trump right to the end. There’s none of that now.
Trump was so novel and such a viewer-magnet that his harangues were often shown in full on cable television. Sometimes, the media preferred showing empty lecterns anticipating Trump’s arrival to broadcasting the words of his foes in either party. And, for a while in 2016, the media occasionally rationalized their decisions by blaming Clinton for not being interesting enough. That’s not happening anymore. Or, at least, not to the same degree because Trump’s act has grown tired and often boring, as his Republican convention speech showed.
Since election night 2016, the greatest fear in the guild of political analysts has been writing off Trump prematurely again. And, yes, the polls show a tight race. But you can’t explain Harris’s surge or Trump’s distemper unless you acknowledge that the world has not stood still since the showman first came down that escalator. Trump and the media will make a big mistake by fighting and covering the last war.
Folks, I think Vice President Kamala Harris has broken Donald Trump.
I mean, it’s fair to say he was already broken – in all ways, really – but since Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee July 21, the GOP’s favorite felon and presidential nominee has been crumbling before our eyes.
Following up his leaning-hard-into-racism moment at last week’s National Association of Black Journalists convention, where he bizarrely suggested Harris only recently “happened to turn Black,” Trump held a Saturday rally in Atlanta that was a festival of ranting and raving, arguably the worst display of Trump’s snarling id we’ve seen in some time.
[…]Then Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris. And people started to realize that Vance is a weirdo. Since then, the wheels have come off the GOP’s wagon, and Trump has backslid into a somehow worse version of the Trump whom voters sent packing in 2020. He’s panicked and flailing. Quicker than ever to default to the racism that has always undergirded his worldview.
The man has been Kamala-cized.
[…]There’s plenty of time for Trump and his campaign to regain footing or for Harris to make missteps that swing things back in the Republicans’ direction.
But it’s clear that Trump is rattled, and that his usual tricks of hurling insults and invective aren’t working. In fact, the smiling calm of the Harris campaign is making Trump’s cruelty look worse than ever. That’s why the label “weird” has been sticking. For many, it’s all getting a bit tiresome.
And that just makes Trump angrier, and worse.
We have a long way to go until November, folks. But where we stand here and now, Trump looks like he’s broken. Broken and running scared.
#NEW @NateSilver538 Forecast:
Chance of winning:
Harris 53%
Trump 46%
.
Electoral votes:
Harris 282
Trump 255— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) August 5, 2024
#New General Election Poll
? Harris 48% (+4)
? Trump 44%Last poll – ? Harris +1
Morning Consult #C – 11,265 RV – 8/4
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) August 5, 2024
.?@danpfeiffer?: “Donald Trump lost a step since leaving the White House. He is more incoherent, speaks more often, and confuses names and titles with greater frequency.” https://t.co/umNaq8h4Ij
— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend) August 4, 2024
Republican women seem upset https://t.co/EureynDhjv
— Mike Madrid (@madrid_mike) August 5, 2024
At this point it’s pretty clear: the one time excitement that Trump was able to create that dominated the air waves…is now experiencing death rattle. The “magic” is gone. The excitement among his base is no longer authentic. You can tell; they’re desperately clinging to memories…
— Jack Hopkins (@thejackhopkins) August 4, 2024
Bruce Springsteen SLAMS Trump ? pic.twitter.com/ErbXWbRPJH
— Faith Back Rub (@FaithRubPol) August 5, 2024
Standing beside the young, energetic @KamalaHarris, the 78-year-old @realDonaldTrump, with his blatant ineptitude and retrograde beliefs, will look even more decrepit, notes @JoinTheUnionUS President @reedgalen. Full commentary at the link for free. https://t.co/AnEzrkfnYW
— Project Syndicate (@ProSyn) August 5, 2024
NEW national poll (UMass Amherst)
Harris-46%
Trump-43%In their last poll (January), Trump had a four-point lead over Biden. pic.twitter.com/gOYf2iMmrZ
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 5, 2024
NEW national poll (UMass Amherst)
Harris-46%
Trump-43%In their last poll (January), Trump had a four-point lead over Biden. pic.twitter.com/gOYf2iMmrZ
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 5, 2024
Traitor. Filthy, low, repugnant traitor whose grave will smell of piss for a thousand years. https://t.co/z9vMbNyPjo
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 4, 2024
.@Polymarket – 2024 Presidential Election Winner:
PENNSYLVANIA
Harris 58% (+16)
Trump 42%
.
MICHIGAN
Harris 57% (+14)
Trump 43%https://t.co/ifkXXe8hDH https://t.co/yht8hsmHJ2 pic.twitter.com/T2GHLECFGm— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) August 4, 2024
BREAKING: In a stunning interview with Nigel Farage, Donald Trump says he likes Vladimir Putin and that should be considered a good thing. Trump continues his un-American celebrating of foreign authoritarians like Putin. Retweet so all Americans see this.pic.twitter.com/KG1MDTSDlK
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 4, 2024
Donald Trump is really trying to build unity in Georgia by attacking the sitting Republican Governor whose ground game he will need to win and also that Governor’s wife. FFS he can’t help himself. And if he loses, it’ll be because of this stuff, not a stolen election.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) August 3, 2024
Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune @Patbagley #BabbleOnDon pic.twitter.com/WKBYLJVskN
— Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) August 4, 2024
After eight years of covering Donald, too many journalists have gotten into the habit of seeing strategy in his crude and instinctive behavior. The truth is quite simple–Donald can’t help himself. When it comes to him, we shouldn’t overthink it. He is exactly what he seems: a…
— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) August 4, 2024
Elderly candidate Trump has no policies; he simply vomits insults.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 4, 2024
I was a Republican for 37 years, serving as a lawmaker and as Chairman of the state party. Now I am proud to support VP Harris because she is better than Trump on national security, better on the economy, and unlike Trump, she will stand with the Constitution and the rule of law pic.twitter.com/Dhcd0VTMAq
— Chris Vance ???? (@Chrisvance123) August 4, 2024
Politics is weird. 20 years ago, Republicans in Congress literally forced the in house cafeteria to refer to "French fries" as "freedom fries" b/c the French weren't on board with W's Iraq invasion and now the GOP leader praises Putin for a hostage exchange and they all cheer him
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) August 4, 2024
Lindsey Graham is on Fox News Sunday desperately trying to sane-wash Trump congratulating Putin for the prisoner exchange pic.twitter.com/WqWG6ISid6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2024
Former GA Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on Trump: "We have to call him out for what he is. He's a felonist thug who walks down the street & throws sucker punches at people like Brian Kemp, like African American journalists … the GOP is content watching it happen & not calling him out." pic.twitter.com/TiQSPo4yng
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2024
No candidate for President of the United States should ever congratulate Vladimir Putin for anything.
— Andrew Weinstein (@Weinsteinlaw) August 4, 2024
I've been in campaign meetings when you had no idea how to respond to an opponent who had momentum and a message. There are always terrible ideas thrown around as a solution. Usually they get killed.
This one didn't.
Trump-Vance is a campaign that is lost. It's possible they… https://t.co/MqFvZrzd54
— Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens) August 4, 2024
BREAKING: Donald Trump’s latest performances have been so bad, pollsters are now testing to see Vice President Kamala Harris vs. JD Vance in case Donald Trump chooses to drop out. Kamala Harris is currently leading both candidates. This is huge.
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 4, 2024
Retired FBI Assistant Director ?? pic.twitter.com/dLUdpZp2d5
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) August 4, 2024
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