In a third run for the Oval Office, Donald Trump is seemingly failing at the one thing that should come almost naturally by now, actually running a campaign. He has more practice than anyone else and yet if he were to lose – a 50-50 possibility, he will have no one to blame outside himself and his own campaign. October is supposed to be the month during which one shocks the nation by unloading something tawdry about the other side. Instead, Trump’s October surprise is the fact that he simply cannot get out of the way of a good self-own.
He was one hour late to a hastily-called press conference that happened to be held in his own house, and that mistake for an otherwise live television ad in the guise of a presser won’t even make the list. If Kamala Harris pulls this off, Trump will forever be able to look back at Sunday night’s Madison Square Garden massacre and wistfully contemplate what might have been had they decided to not offend every Hispanic in the nation just one week prior to voters heading to the booth.
It is not like they didn’t see this coming. As noted by Joe Scarborough and the staff at Rawstory, the campaign actually fought about whether to allow Tony Hinchcliffe to lob the “joke” that might sink all that is MAGA. Picture this, it would have only taken one guy to pull off a slice of pizza while saying, “Do you really think we ought to be calling Puerto Ricans trash right before election day?” and that would have avoided the single most devastating “surprise” in recent campaign history. Instead, according to Scarborough:
“The Madison Square Garden mistake with a guy that trashes Puerto Rico, and nobody can act shocked about it. Donald Trump stayed on stage and talked for a couple of hours, I guess. Never once said, ‘Oh, we don’t like that joke, how dare we bring that up tonight.’
To be fair, had Donald Trump apologized or said that he didn’t like the joke would have… We don’t know what it would have done because we’ve never seen it. I actually believe that Trump’s October surprise could have – and probably should have been – showing one act of humble self-regard, some sort of introspection in which he comes across as someone who is thinking hard about all that remains on his shoulders. Alas, he just doesn’t have that club in his bag and continues to pull out the driver:
The reason why, there were three NBC producers that saw [Hinchcliffe] the night before his routine, knowing he was going to be on that night. He did the same Puerto Rican joke — I mean, that’s part of his act. He told people, ‘I’m going to say this tomorrow night,’ and the Trump people knew it. They had him on, it took them three hours. The crazy thing is, there were fights inside the Trump campaign on whether they should correct it or not.“
Who else would have loved to have seen those fights? I want to know who it was who might’ve been saying, “Damn, there is one way to make this worse and that’s to not have Trump say a thing about it… ” Only to then get shouted down. To be fair, the campaign itself did create some space from the “joke” but it means nothing about nothing if it doesn’t come from Trump himself.
The whole Sunday night thing at MSG was a big mistake. Just because Donald Trump isn’t a “regular politician” doesn’t necessarily mean that regular political results don’t follow stupid mistakes. At a time when he should have been courting moderates, they went full-afterburner MAGA, thus creating new palpitations in those few folks who might’ve been waiting to see if something positive happens. It is like the campaign held a meeting in which the goal was to find a sure fire way to lose as many purplish voters in purple states possible.
And so here they are. Election Tuesday is now only six days away and the Trump campaign cannot even hold a presser on time. The one thing that Trump should have had down by now is actually running for president. This is not to say that he’s going to lose, not at all. But instead of continuing to trend up on a positive vibe, the campaign finds itself apologizing to people instead of courting them. Never a good sign, not as seen from their view – but it’s the only view they’ve ever had.
It probably shouldn’t be all that surprising. Donald Trump has spent his entire life needing to apologize and refusing to do so. It has endeared him to almost half the nation. Almost. The real October surprise might have otherwise been him seeming gracious to just over 51% – but that club never got him elected before and it damn sure won’t do so now.
Trump remains who he always was. It was good enough once but it sunk him on the back nine. It may be good enough again. We move to November, wondering if there is one more surprise in that bag. He could apologize – or pull out the driver again, and again, and again… We’ll see. He’ll keep swinging anyway, unsurprisingly.
God Bless:Â I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
The Madison square garden Nazi rally was always a plan to be full on Nazi, a replica of the Nazi rallies in the thirties. He wanted that. He was letting people know exactly who he is just like his telling of the snake story – you knew what he was when you picked him up.
Is Trump the serial killer at the end of his long reign of terror, where even he knows how sick and depraved he is and must be stopped? Or perhaps LaCivita and Wiles are throwing the election on purpose, for the same reason. Or, more likely, megalomania and dementia are locked in the death throes of the final battle for dotard’s gray matter. Whatever the cause, the orange-faced shit-gibbon is losing this election, and will soon lose his freedom when he finally answers for his many crimes.