Donald Trump just stepped in it
Because Donald Trump “won” in 2016, there’s a temptation to believe that there’s some kind of successful method to his madness. In reality he ran an ineffective campaign, targeted the wrong states with the wrong message, couldn’t even conspire with Russia effectively, and only got bailed out by the last minute Comey letter. Worse for Trump, he’s now at least half senile.
So when we watched Donald Trump make a feeble racist remark toward a reporter today before tepidly walking out of his own press briefing, that old temptation comes back to try to find the method in the madness. Perhaps this is part of some evil genius plan on Trump’s part to turn things around. Well, no, not really.
Trump’s former ghostwriter Tony Schwartz put it best:
It is really dangerous for the White House to put Trump out in front of the press. He can barely hold it together now even when he isn't challenged. If he is challenged, as he was today, he instantly goes into full meltdown mode.
— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) May 11, 2020
.
Donald Trump is simply falling apart at the seams. His campaign can’t put him out there without risking a disinfectant meltdown, or whatever it was that we witnessed today. Yet the campaign can’t not put him out there, because he’s losing too badly to just sit part. Trump stepped in it today by holding that press conference in the declining condition he’s in, and his handlers stepped in by not finding a way to stop him from going out there.
