Donald Trump just admitted that his criminal trial has turned him into damaged goods

I’ve often said that in politics, if you’re complaining, you’re losing. If you’re ranting, you’re losing. If you’re venting, you’re losing. If you’re lamenting, you’re losing. Why? Because in all of these scenarios, it means your message isn’t getting across – which means failure – and you’re merely expressing frustration at this failure instead of trying to find a new way to get your message across.

I’ve also been known to point out that our side is often more guilty of this than the other side. No matter how well things are going for our side, we too often waste our time ranting or lamenting about how they’re not going well enough, instead of using that energy to try to do more winning. Then there’s the Trump side, where folks are always convinced they’re winning no matter how badly they’re losing. Their side is absolutely worthless, devoid of ideas or morality, yet they’re never short on confidence.

So it’s notable that on Saturday, Donald Trump posted this to social media: “I truly wish people would remember that all of these “trials” are concocted and run by the Crooked Joe Biden White House, and DOJ, for the purpose of Election Interference and damaging Crooked’s Political Opponent, ME, as much as possible.”

Pay attention to what Trump is saying here. Sure, he’s pushing his usual phony conspiracy theories about his trials. But the “I truly wish” part is revealing. Trump (or whoever wrote this for him) is acknowledging that the general public does not see it this way. All that rhetoric from Trump and his allies about how his criminal trials are just a political attack on him? No one outside his base is buying it, and that’s a real problem for him.

When it comes to persuadable voters in the middle (the group that hasn’t decided whether to vote for Biden or stay home, and the group that hasn’t decided whether to vote for Trump or stay home), they’re largely seeing Trump’s trial and guilty verdict as disqualifying. Various polls released since Trump’s felony conviction have shown slight gains for Biden overall, and it’s specifically coming from those folks toward the middle.

So here we are a week and a half after the guilty verdict, the polls (to the extent that anyone trusts them anymore) say that Trump’s criminal trial has hurt him, and Trump is left lamenting about how he “wishes” more people saw the trial his way. This almost reads like a concession speech. It’s the kind of defeatism you express when you’ve given up trying to win and you’re instead settling for getting to feel negative emotions about losing. It’s a place I always caution our side never to go, because it’s a good way to ensure a loss. And yet now Trump is going to precisely that place. Good.