If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true
Rachel Maddow has a slogan that I’m fond of repeating in the right circumstances, Don’t watch what they say, watch what they do. And never is there a better time to put that into practice than when observing Traitor Tot.
Trump’s bid stunk of con from the start. First, it was absurd on its face. We hadn’t even held the midterms yet, and His Lowness started dropping 10 gallon hints for a campaign 18 months down the road. His rollout speech was pathetically produced and performed, before a far from full rom. But it did accomplish 2 things. It allowed him to start fleecing the sheeple for his reelection, and it allowed him to play victim if the DOJ came after him with criminal charges.
That’s not to say that there aren’t real, tangible advantages to an early declaration of a run for an office. It is usually found for incumbents, especially 1st term incumbents who may lack name recognition that are fortunate enough to be running unopposed in the primaries. There are 3 main advantages to the early call.
First, as Trump is doing, it allows you to start fundraising for the general election. 2nd, while the other side is busy mauling each other in the primaries, you can be putting up puff pieces re-introducing yourself to constituents. This is critical, since by the time your opponent finally emerges, your narrative is firmly established in the public mind, harder for your opponent to attack. And 3rd, it allows you to attack your most likely opponent in the primary, nicely bloodying him up for the start of the general campaign.
Trump himself is living proof of this theory. He actually announces in front of a rented crowd of supporters in June of 2015. He used his audacious announcement to immediately start hitting FUX and Friends on a daily basis, before most people were even out of bed, and made some nonsensical, inflammatory statement that immediately set the national media coverage agenda for the day. Nobody else in the field could get a work in edgewise in front of a camera. And The Mango Messiah wasn’t shy about throwing shine on his opponents.
Notice anything missing here? Let me ask you this. Trump’s name wasn’t even on the ballot in 2022, but over the last 14 months, how many totally useless road trips did he make to allegedly rally for his chosen candidates, and instead spend 1.5-2.5 hours fluffing his own duff? Trump wasn’t even on the ballot, yet he was the dominant GOP force in 2022.
So, where the hell is he?! Right now, The Cheeto Prophet is giving 3rd rate candidates like DeSantis, Rick Scott, Cruz, Noem, Pompeo and Pence the greatest gift he can give them. The gift of time. Nobody else is ready yet, Trumpenstein has a clear field. And he already has plenty of money. Why in the hell isn’t he on the road on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, holding rallies. Trump doesn’t need to re-introduce himself to his base, But he does desperately need to buck up their morale. He has taken a lot of hard knocks lately, and has been largely ineffective in his response. He needs to show them that he’s still the same filthy, racist nut puncher he’s always been. And what better way to do it than to maul every potential opponent he has regularly, and tar them with the GOP primary voters before they can define themselves?
This is clearly Trump 2.0. Trump 1.0 was a deft, instinctive street brawler who instinctively knew when to move in for the kill. Trump 1.0 is distracted by a million different things at once, and he’s lost his edge. As a declared presidential candidate, he no longer has access to his $100 million leadership PAC, so he’s got to swerve away from that and start mooching for donations to his general election fund. He is also trying trying t Spackle the cracks in his mental Ultimate Winner defense shield. And the legal walls are closing in on him. His beloved flagship company is now a convicted criminal entity. The Manhattan DA is showing renewed interest in prosecuting him. The NY AG is preparing for trial in the state civil suit early next year, and the DOJ and Fulton County DA are full speed ahead, and likely heading for indictments. Trump is purely transactional, and having his feeble mind bouncing like a ping-pong ball among all these distractions is making him well under way to be the worst GOP candidate for office since Herschel Walker. And that’s saying something.
“fluffing his own duff?” I’d say it’s more like male monkey’s at the zoo beating themselves off as the kiddies stare at them the flinging the “results” at them! Well, maybe that’s how it used to be. So far it seems like he’s unable to produce any “results” to fling.