I have a theory. It’s a theory which makes complete sense to me and it fits the facts, so let me run it past you and you see if you feel the same way. Trump got down to the three VP picks, which were Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance. Trump had had the opportunity to pick a woman, Elise Stefanik was salivating for the role. The day will come, if it hasn’t already, when she will thank God on bended knee that she wasn’t chosen. Kristi Noem likewise was salivating. Nikki Haley would have probably taken the gig if offered it. And of course there was Tim Scott, abasing himself (and possibly even marrying) for nothing and Byron Donalds. But Vance caught the brass ring.
And then he proceeded to take that brass ring and turn the 2024 election into a circus. Vance was anointed July 15. It hasn’t even been one month yet and he’s already the laughing stock of the internet and the subject of memes. The word “weird” and “weirdo” is way up in the Google search engines, due to his antics. So why did Trump pick him?
I’m going to tell you. Trump picked him because he needs a surrogate out there on the campaign trail because — follow me closely now — because he can’t go out and campaign because he’s too damn old and worn out! That’s why. Just look at the facts. Trump is not out campaigning like he used to in 2016 or 2020. Nowhere near it. If you ask him he would probably say, like he says about why he wouldn’t debate in the primaries, “everybody knows me.” Maybe they do. But there’s still a lot to be said for that hands on touch, plus, and this is key — Trump loves nothing more than the adrenaline rush of the screaming MAGAs. It fills his empty soul. Or used to. Now, he flat out doesn’t have the energy to get to a rally and when he does get there, it’s the same old tired schtick.
So Trump picked Vance to go out there and be a Mini Mi version of Trump, without being threatening. Trump owns Vance. Vance, on his own, couldn’t get anywhere. Trump’s endorsement got him in the Senate two years ago. And that is Vance’s entire political career, two years. And Trump has four so wow, between them, they’ve got six years and Kamala Harris had six years under her belt how many decades ago?
But I am convinced that I’m right. Let me show you Exhibit “A”, from PoliticusUSA.
It appears @JDVance is being sent to campaign nearby most, if not all, of the events @KamalaHarris and her running mate will hold this week.
Harris and her VP pick will be in:
– Pennsylvania on Tuesday
– Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday
– Michigan and North Carolina on Thursday
– Georgia and Arizona on Friday
– Nevada on Saturday
Vance, so far, is set to be in:
– Pennsylvania on Tuesday
– Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday
– North Carolina on Thursday
The only campaign event on @realDonaldTrump’s schedule is a campaign rally in Montana on Friday.
Kamala Harris will be campaigning in eight swing states in five days. Donald Trump will be in zero. As noted previously by this newsletter, Donald Trump has barely been campaigning since the election cycle started. This isn’t the Donald Trump of 2016, who traveled the country frequently and held events in swing states and elsewhere. In 2024, Trump would rather spend the week at his club, venture out for a 90-minute campaign rally, and then go home.
Republicans don’t want to talk about it, but they have to see it, unless they’re comatose and catatonic. Donald Trump is fading and he physically can’t keep up with Kamala Harris. However, his invisibility on the campaign trail is not the only place where Trump is fading. The numbers also show that Donald Trump is fading.
The numbers are the poll numbers. But I agree with this argument. Vance is out there in the same states for side by side comparison, maybe, except Vance is the VP candidate. And as such, he’s expected to pull his weight in bringing home the election, granted. But he’s not just pulling his own weight, he’s pulling his own and Trump’s 300+ pounds of dead weight.
And that is not the way to win an election. I am dead certain on some level Trump knows this. But he flat out does not have the energy to campaign. Remember a rally that Trump canceled at the last minute, claiming bad weather? It was April 20, in North Carolina, you may recall. There was always something suspicious about that. It was speculated at the time that jury selection had worn Trump out. That was happening in April.
Trump fell asleep in court. Trump fell asleep at the Republican convention. Trump put everybody else to sleep with his acceptance speech. The old guy doesn’t have it anymore. All that he can do is play golf.
And he KNOWS that. And here is the tragic, Faustian bargain. Donald Trump does not want to be president. He never did. He figured he would increase the value of his “brand” found Trump TV, etc. And then like the dog catching the car, he had it but he didn’t know what to do with it. And now he HAS to run for president. Again, I quote Maureen Dowd, “He’s running to run the country that he tried to overthrow when he ran it before because he’s running from the law.” That’s the only reason he’s running at all.
And J.D. Vance has been pulled in as the understudy of this mad carnival show. It’s all a gamble. And it’s already a gamble that is not paying off. Vance is weird. He’s not helping Trump’s cause but Doug Burgum is not MAGA and Marco Rubio would have used the experience to campaign for 2028. You know it, I know it, and Trump knows it.
And the same can be said of Stefanik, Noem, and Haley, Haley especially. Stefanik and Noem would have done the MAGA pitch but again, they’re women and Trump hates women.
So that’s Trump’s *secret.* Except it’s becoming more and more obvious. Trump is going to go down in history again, as the candidate who did the least campaigning and chickened out of debates. And then there’s his beloved wife and is she on the trail like Doug Emhoff? Puh-leeze.
He picked Vancer the Chancer because Wile E. Coyote wasn’t available
How DARE you!!!!!!!
Wile E Coyote would NEVER associate with the likes of Donald Trump. (Especially after he learned that Acme was merely one of Trump’s MANY businesses. How else do you explain the shoddy results of all the company’s products? We never saw any of them even demonstrated as working as intended.)
Vance had the added advantage of that sweet, sweet Tech Bro money. I’m sure Peter Thiel told DonOld he would only ante up if his boy Vance was the VP and Elon made pledges that he has since walked back. It didn’t hurt that Vance had already sucked up to the drooling brothers, Jr and Eric, and had their endorsement.
I want to know who did the vetting – Susie Wiles has been blamed. I find it hard to believe that someone w/ her track record could not have uncovered all the oppo that was just sitting out there in plain sight.
Oh, I think Wiles and LaCavita knew all about Vance but his “issues” weren’t the issue. Ursula’s right. Trump ain’t got it anymore. He’s simply not up to the demands of campaigning. Joe Biden was running the freaking country and quelling multiple diplomatic fires (and well) and still able to make as many appearances as Trump! Also, as I wrote about recently there have been a handful of articles (lost in all the greater noise) that Trump’s own internals saw continued slippage of white male support. His MAGAs and he needs each and every one of them ramped up and raring to vote. And to prod others to do so. Even a million or two lost votes from these white guys could make all the difference in some crucial states. Granted it’s turned out to have more staying power and in a bad way than they figured on but even the (alleged) couch f**king would actually score points with the white MAGA males. They’d guffaw and point out (truthfully for a change) Vance never wrote any such thing in his book and try to turn the joke back on people who teased them – and dig in even deeper in their support.
Vance was picked because as dull as he is in front of even small crowds he’s still younger and more energetic than Rubio or especially Burgum. Vance was to be Trump’s stand in and he’s proven woefully NOT up to the task. Not to mention being the butt of so many jokes and all his ‘he said WHAT?’ comments. “Little Marco” was never going to be what it was assumed Vance would be with white male MAGAs. Nor was Burgum. Old and boring. If Trump himself wasn’t out their mainlining the crazy and hate into MAGA at rallies then it was assumed Vance could do it for him. He can’t. That leaves Trump in a helluva fix and that would have been the case had Biden stayed in.
Now there’s the stark contrast between Harris and Trump so Team Trump’s problem is even worse. At this point their only hope I think is to effectively deploy their strategy of denying certiffication of the vote in counties or even entire states to prevent Harris and her running mate from getting to 270 electoral votes. That would throw the election (for President – the Senate would pick the VP) to the House and due to gerrymandering the GOP could likely have the votes. Each state’s House Delegation gets one vote and no matter how many votes Harris wins by nationally or even within certain states a GOP gerrymandered Congressional delegation could say f**k you to the voters and install Trump as President.
Denis, it’s not merely their only hope: it’s their Plan A. Corrupt officials are already in place in swing states, just itching to do the dirty on election night and refuse to certify the votes. They’re wetting themselve over the rewards they’ll get from president Lardass, in the bright future they’ll be making for themselves.
Thiel always makes the mistake that he thinks money can buy anything. It’s why, like Trump, he’ll die alone.
This sounds about right.
I am convinced of it. He needed a MAGA surrogate to campaign in his stead. Actually Elise Stefanik could have done the MAGA schick and she has the advantage of actually having a track record in Congress. But I guess it had to be a guy and we saw the three guys he got down to.
A ship of fools either way.