Why Isn’t Trump Out Campaigning?

Back in 2020 Trump kept talking about Joe Biden campaigning from his basement. Of course, as is always the case with Trump it was bullsh*t. While then candidate Biden didn’t keep a typical campaign schedule, he did hold events where social distancing could be maintained while Trump made a point of packing people in to super spreader rallies. In the middle of a pandemic that would claim well over a million lives mind you.  Now, even before his first criminal trial Trump wasn’t making many campaign appearances. And in the past two weeks? None at all. One might reasonably say Trump’s doing his 2024 campaign from his basement at Mar A  Lago!

The place of course doesn’t have a basement. At least I don’t think it does.  If so it would be small as building one in a property that close to the ocean would be crazy tough to do. But I digress. The thing is, for all the “sleep Joe Biden” cracks Trump started with back in the 2020 campaign since formally (filing the actual federal paperwork) declaring his 2024 candidacy Trump hasn’t been out there on the trail all that much. He’s crashing weddings at Mar A Lago, doing short drop ins at fast food shops and so on but there have been what, a rally or two per month?

During the first week of his trial which was just jury selection Trump was the sleepy one. Literally. He kept nodding off to sleep. And credible reporting say he was audibly farting too!  Since the beginning of the trial he’s scheduled exactly ONE actual rally style event. In Wilmington, NC. He does after all have Wednesdays and weekends off, and since that was set as the trial schedule well beforehand he had time to plan. So he’s got a jet (a 757 so plenty of range, and comfort while flying) and three days a week and he only schedules ONE campaign event?

Then, he bailed on it at almost the last minute. A half hour before he was supposed to appear the sound engineers patched him through to the crowd so he could tell them sorry but the “weather” made it too difficult for his plane to land.  Granted, I live a couple hours northwest of Wilmington (in the Raleigh metro area) but over towards Wilmington any weather or projected weather was well within the ability of a Boeing 757 to handle. I’m convinced Trump simply didn’t feel up to going out and speaking. AFRAID he wouldn’t be able to scream and shout for an hour or so.

Yet, according to son Fredo 2 aka Eric Trump in this Newsweek article Trump is “feeling great.” Yep, ole dad is fired up and ready to go. I realize “Dumber” of “Dumb and Dumber” isn’t the brightest bulb in the Trump family tree but even he should be able to see the actual evidence tells a quite different story. His pops looks like hell, grows increasingly incoherent, sleeps and farts his way through court and even before that wasn’t out and about all that often. Sorry dude, but crashing events at your club or drop ins at food joints for ten minutes of photos with “real people” (who are almost always local organizers who set the whole thing up!) isn’t campaigning.

What has Trump actually done with his days off from his trial? Gone golfing!  No grandstands (even small ones) set up at the courses (which he owns) for even a mini-rally even!  The aforementioned crashing of food joints and weddings/parties. And making videos in some darkly lit room, whether at Trump Tower, Bedminster or Mar A Lago. Remember how I began, talking about Trump’s mocking of Joe Biden campaigning from his basement four years ago.

Well, PRESIDENT Joe Biden is, every day doing more in a single day than Trump ever did in any given month of his own time in the White House.  Biden’s dealing with multiple major international crises, actually running the government (and damned well), working with Congress every day, AND hitting the campaign trail several days a week. The contrast is stark and Trump isn’t smart but he’s media savvy. Even he knows making cracks about Biden and basement campaigning will invite all kinds of media speculation highlighting a comparison that won’t play well for him.

The plain fact is that while both Biden and Trump are up there in age, Biden still has a spring in his step and a sharp mind. Trump is literally old and worn out. And stupid. He knows nothing but grievance and with his limited vocabulary can’t even express THAT well. Worse, even the MAGAs out there don’t “get” it but they realize that it’s the same old Trumpy stuff they’ve gotten before and it’s gotten stale. So they don’t show up at events in anywhere near the numbers of even four years ago, much less in the glory days of 2016. And they often start walking out (and in large numbers) long before he’s finished speaking at the relatively few rallies he’s had in the last six months!

Trump simply doesn’t have the energy to be out there campaigning. I don’t think he’d have it even if not dealing with the stress of this trial. One final thought. I don’t think the Trump campaign has the money to engage in a full campaign schedule. In addition to the cost of maintaining that 757 it costs well over $8k per flight hour (plus fuel) to use it. And the places Trump wants to hold events have learned their lesson. Get the money (for venues and other rentals, private and local govt. security, cleanup afterwards etc.) upfront. Several (or more) days before the event or no permit.

The owners of the major news outlets who desperately want a close election (for their own bottom lines) can engineer a measure of covering for Trump while this trial goes on. It will however end sometime in May. Even if convicted Trump won’t go to jail right away. (Well, maybe for a few days or weeks but that’s a separate story) What then?  If Trump is only holding a few (if that) of his signature rallies a month how can they keep covering for him? Especially with social media mocking major news outlets as much as they are Trump over his “hiding in his bunker.”

I think the title pic is something that could turn into a theme. It SHOULD already be one. TRUMP is the one hiding out – even from his own MAGAs because he just doesn’t have the stamina to stand there for an hour revving them up anymore. At least nowhere near as often as he used to.