This is another one of those Only Seeing Is Believing moments. I have never seen anything even close to this in previous elections, not even in the ones that Donald Trump has run in. He is truly running on empty, and his campaign has given up. You recall that Trump was in Georgia yesterday (and no, Brian Kemp did not show up, late or ever.) Trump was scheduled to speak on the tax code and manufacturing. Instead he ranted on his usual grievance topics, the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, the migrants, the transgenders, all of that.
Other appearances were announced for this week on Monday, all of them with specific topics that Trump was supposed to speak on. This was in contrast to the weekend, when Trump had only the Indiana, Pennsylvania rally on schedule and the rest of the week was blank. Clearly, the campaign doesn’t know from one day to the next what is going to happen, because I check the Trump Events page every day to see what’s up.
And today, yet another big change. If you go to the Trump event site today, it has radically changed from yesterday. No more references at all to specific topics that Trump (or Vance, for that matter) will speak on. I can only assume that after weeks of Trump being scheduled to speak on different topics and failing to do so that the team has simply given up. So what’s over there now on Trump’s site is that he will “deliver remarks” or “hold a town hall.” That is it. There isn’t even the pretense that Trump is going to speak on taxes, trade, manufacturing, foreign policy, immigration, abortion (beyond his patronizing all-caps screed that he will “protect women”) or any of the rest of it.
Now this is significant for a few reasons:
- Team Trump is obviously tired of being embarrassed. Every single time Trump is supposed to speak on a topic and shows up and goes off script, the media reports it and he looks stupider than ever.
- It’s apparently a capitulation to “let Trump be Trump.” This would tend to imply that Corey Lewandowski has an outsized role in the campaign at this time, which has been speculated would happen since he rejoined Trump during the summer.
- It’s a disastrous move to make, because Kamala Harris is rolling out policies and plans right and left. So while Harris is presenting a vision for America going forward, Trump can’t stop looking in the rear view mirror and doing the same tired old spiel. It’s a devastating contrast.
- Devastating or not, that’s the state of affairs. There is no indication that Trump is going to talk about anything specific on a given day, as was the case as recently as yesterday. All that has been abandoned.
- And the plan extends to J.D. Vance as well. Vance’s calendar has him scheduled to “deliver remarks” or “hold a rally” as well. He’s not talking about policy and specific topics, either.
40 days before election day and literally overnight, Team Trump has decided to forego any pretense of the Republican ticket discussing policy. They’re just going to get up there and wing it and I guess Trump/Vance will win on charm alone. Lots of luck with that.
And get ready, folks. Today is the 25th of September. On October 1, we have a debate for the ages, I suspect, when Tim Walz faces off with J.D. Vance. Everybody’s favorite teacher versus a baldfaced, flip flopping liar with eyeliner and lip gloss. I can’t wait.
I’m guessing that no one in his campaign has told him about the goings on in DC with Judge Chutkan. If it was explained in a way that he could understand, I’m sure he’d be freaked out. Best to just let him do what he likes to do seems to be their strategy.
They may have given up since he won’t take direction. They may just be looking for their next gigs and figuring, hey, we gave it our best shot.
“…Team Trump has decided to forego any pretense of the Republican ticket discussing policy…”
1. All the while screaming about how Harris/Walz aren’t presenting any policies!!!
2. Corporate media [formerly known as msm] continues to avoid reporting on the literally drooling mess with orange hair, blue suit and red hat & tie up there on stage. Thanks to PZ for posting clips on a regular basis. One of these days I’ll have the nerve to turn the sound on, but the visuals are bad enough. 🙂
Your first point is the comedy of all this. Harris/Walz is dripping with plans and Trump will not talk about anything substantive — and denies his association with Project 2025.
I’m with you, I can’t stomach the sound of his whining voice nor the content of his incoherent rantings. Bad enough just to look at him: he makes my skin creep.
If evefe existed a “Father if Lies” in he flesh, we see him every time hos shows his bloated face and opens his increasingly sleazy mouth. I can’g see Trump attracting a single voter who has at least a thread of conscience left. Bot then, scriture tells us that in the last daus, even he very elect – whoever they are – will be deceived. What a tragedy for everyone else.
Looks like Trump and Vance are now experiencing their ‘40 nights’ in a political desert of their own making, eh! Camouflaged by a weak and ineffectual strategy of made up “deliver remarks” and “hold a rally”
Policy?
Anyone who’s seen their only published policy, Project 2025, (AKA Project 18525), will know they can’t campaign on that and expect any votes.
1825.