Trump is a TV President and always has been. He also knows reruns and the one he’s just given is going to eat at him. We have (I hope) a new acronym Trump will hate: OWOW – Old Worn Out Whipped. Trump might see a story about him using it and think it’s praise only to wind up furiously reaching for ketchup bottles. If reminders of his dejected walk from Marine One after his Tulsa rally flop five years ago to his deflated and defeated look exiting Air Force One back at Andrews goes viral on social media so much the better.
A little over five years ago with COVID running rampant Trump decided it was time to contrast himself with ‘low energy Biden campaigning from his basement.’ Against sound advice he decided to get out there and hold one of his signature rallies. It was predicted to and turned out to be a super-spreader event. It even claimed the life of bigly supporter Herman Caine. Alas, instead of a big venue packed with screaming MAGAs it was anything but packed and there wasn’t time to screen off a small area for those who did show up.
From the stage Trump could see vast sections of empty seats and it was exactly the kind of ‘low energy’ event he claimed was the kind of thing Biden would have. If you’ve followed Trump and his rallies over the years the crowd worship, the screaming MAGAs are a drug for him. He’d become a junkie and wasn’t getting his fix due to COVID so he said screw it and organized something big. Sure, plenty of MAGAs showed up but as I said it didn’t come close to being a packed house. Without tons of fellow MAGAs the ones who were there started wondering if maybe THEY should have stayed home and the rally flopped.
Trump knew it. And had the plane ride home to work himself into a major funk which was evident during that walk from Marine One back into the WH later that night. You can see it in the title pic I chose. I thought about how there are pics of him looking the same arriving home from Alaska but I want to emphasize my point that we’ve seen this particular episode of Trump Tee Vee before. His image and ratings never recovered and he got his fat orange ass handed to him in the 2020 election.
There was an awesome video clip mocking Trump over that night. It began with him departing like a hero for Tulsa to the tune of the theme of Jurassic Park – as played by an orchestra. It concluded with that sad-sack walk from the helicopter back at the White House to the same music – played by kazoo or some similar instrument. I tried like hell to find it but it seems to have been scrubbed from the internet. Such is the fear of angering Trump in his second stint as President. There is however an interesting clip from NBC about that walk and Trump’s disheveled and defeated look you should watch:
By the way take note of the banner at the bottom about Bolton saying Trump was unfit. The thing is, everything in that clip is true today, as is the visage of Trump looking like he just got his butt whipped. Which in this case happened up in Alaska. For all the Trump/MAGA fervor about “owning the libs” the plain fact is that just as predicted by all but hard-core MAGAs Trump, and the United States too got “owned by Putin.” Putin got all he wanted and then some. Worse, while it’s hard for Americans to believe the average Russian who is fed a steady diet of Putin directed media still supports the war in Ukraine. Putin will milk this for all it’s worth and it Russia it’s pure gold for him.
Trump as we know got nothing. He knew it I’m sure before his meeting ended and bailed early in the aftermath. Neither Trump or Putin took questions but Putin spoke (first which isn’t protocol as the visitor) for ten minutes to Trump only speaking for three. Trump had people warning him prior to the summit but HE knew better than them all. Combined. But like I said he knew before it was over Putin had punked him. He knew it. We know it and the worst thing for Trump is he KNEW we’d know it. And he had that long, long plane ride back to DC to stew over the whole debacle.
Five years ago after a plane ride where Trump touted an upcoming event and face-planted he looked whipped. And he was. Oh, he’d still have moments during the campaign but he’d opened a gaping wound in his image that wouldn’t heal. Now we are seeing him look the same way because he’s gone and done the same thing to himself. However there’s a difference that could matter a great deal.
Trump was lazy and incompetent as well as stupid in his first term. It seemed clear during Biden’s time he was devolving from an already low level. He’s continued to devolve at an ever accelerating pace since being back in the White House. Again, everyone around him and on Capitol Hill and in GOP circles knows it. And Trump knows they know it. Worse for him is that he can’t shake off the Epstein scandal. If anything he keeps making things wors for himself. Between that which is actually starting to measurably hurt him with MAGAs his tariffs continue to drive up prices.
He can fire professionals that know how to collate and publish accurate data on the economy. He can say everything is great but people know how much money they have coming in and they know how much they have to pay just for basic living. MAGAs might not want to admit it but they know the promises Trump made about the economy aren’t being met. That and Epstein have caused his approval to crater and it’s even slipped among Republicans. It’s still strong but it’s less than it was and unlikely to recover. His grip on power is still strong but he’s politically bleeding and he IS old. And clearly not up to the job and the people he has around him this time aren’t capable of covering at least the worst of his screwups.
He can threaten Martial Law and not having the midterms but I’m not sure he could get away with it anymore. The whole world saw him arrive home looking like we all did leaving the movie theater after watching Old Yeller. Trump wasn’t able to recover from a similar walk five years ago. He’s far less capable of doing so now and with the U.S. position in the world already badly weakened and the economy on the brink the unthinkable might be happening – finding a way to do to Trump what Democrats did to Biden and force him out. It’s the GOP’s only chance to avoid an electoral bloodbath next year.
Trump is broken this weekend and he knows it. The question is does he have enough left in the tank to still inspire the fear that has given him so much undeserved control over the GOP, our country and the world. Just as some people in sports never rebound from an epic fail, Trump might finally be so weak in body and spirit HE can’t rebound. He’s gotten what he needed already by getting a second term – avoiding jail and getting actually rich enough with a revenue stream that will keep him comfortable till the day he dies. And, as I keep saying he’s a heart attack or stroke waiting to happen.
Even a minor one (or faking one) would allow him to “reluctantly” step aside. And allow him to be feted by Republicans in a nauseating send-off. It would be awful but some of the “thank you” comments would although being music to Trumpty’s ears actually be incomplete – the second part after ‘thank you’ wouldn’t be spoken or written but would say/mean ‘for handing over power and going away.
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Losing loser continues losing.
No signs at all of losing stopping, losing expected to continue by ‘World’s Biggest Loser â„¢ ‘
it’s already has been 10 years of Trump this Trump that since 2015, tack on another 10 years since inauguration and what another 10 or 20 years before midterms? hurry up already!!!!
Ts newly catalogued OWOW classification, appears to be based mainly on public evidence, where he: can’t self regulate; complete a thought that’s logical; maintain a clear coherent narrative; refrain from spewing homogenised verbal vomit word salads; display personal honesty and integrity. Where there’s OWOW smoke there’s OWOW fire, on this OWOW matter.
Maybe not dead but certainly incapacitated in two years to the point he’s unable to carry out even minimal duties of office. In his last days, Brezhnev’s aides literally had to stand on either side to keep him from keeling over. Donnie’s may have to nail his shoes to the floor, like Monty’s parrot. Karoline will assure us, “He’s just restin’.”
OWOW wins, the more so that it start sounds like an admirer’s approbation. That rose hase a lethal thorn built in. Well done.
on another point, I don’t think T is a resigner from a position where he is a loser, even under cover of a health complaint (wrong for his image). There’s just a chance he could have a “victory” somewhere (where, given the projected messes that abound?) that would allow him to go out on a high. In reality, if we did find a “victory”, it would only re-energise him and his self-image. So, cancel the retirement script.
My preferred script is Democratic delivery in ’26, the ebbing of power/influence such that enough Republicans turn on the ’25 project and T AND that he remain in sufficient health to carry on for a long time watching it all crumble around him, led by MSM and former acolytes professing they had nothing to do with the MAGA period, now dishing the dirt and evidencing the impeachment of (probably) literally everyone in the present administration. And long enough to see a post ’28 root and branch reform of the Supreme Court rolling back so much of the damage done. May he live to 100.