Trump’s an Old Dog with Old Tricks

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I just saw this. You will be amused.

Is this even legal? I suppose it is. Weird, though.

Here’s something I saw yesterday. It’s from the Wall Street Journal, mind you.

You can read it at msn.com here. 

The rightie author is admitting that 2016 was a fluke. “Why did he win in 2016? Because he was new and up against the most tediously familiar and disliked politician in America. Even then, he only squeaked past Hillary Clinton by a total of fewer than 90,000 votes in the three decisive states.” Because of Trump Republicans lost key elections in 2018, 2020 (except for taking back the House, barely) and 2022. And now 2024 is starting to look iffy.

Trump is not being the candidate Republicans need right now. Some top Republicans have begged him to stop with the ad hominem attacks and name calling and shift to discussing policy. He’s also been told to stop whining. The question is, can Trump discuss policy without name calling and whining? Can he say anything about the econmy that (a) makes cognitive sense and (b) wouldn’t make it worse?

Today Trump is in North Carolina and is supposed to deliver “remarks” on the economy. We’ll see what he says. ABC News:

The economy has been one of the Trump campaign’s central election issues this cycle — the former president often spending a considerable amount of time discussing inflation, gas prices and the job market. …

… On the campaign trail, Trump, even as he rails against the economy under the Biden administration, has announced sparse details on specific economic policy proposals for his possible second administration, often offering his signature “Trump tax cuts,” “Trump tariffs” and “drill, baby, drill” — a boost for the oil and gas industry — as solutions to most economic problems.

Judd Legum writes that Trump has become obsessed with conspiracy theories promoted by Laura Loomer.  Loomer is so nuts she was banned from the 2019 CPAC convention. But she’s had Trump’s ear for years, apparently. And now she’s the one feeding him stories about Kamala Harris’s allegedly “turning Black” after never having been Black previously. She’s also a source of the claim that Harris uses AI to inflate crowd sizes. And that’s what he wants to talk about.

Trump is holding a rally tonight in Asheville, NC. The city of Asheville wouldn’t let him hold his rally until he’d paid $82,247.60 up front. They aren’t fools, I take it. He still owes various municipalities $850,000 for rallies for the 2020 campaign. Also note:

The Trump campaign booked the smaller of two venues at the same complex in downtown Asheville for Wednesday’s rally. The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium has a capacity of just 2,431 people, while a larger arena next door that is not hosting Trump has a capacity of 7,200.

I personally don’t think he has it in him to deliver a talk on the economy or anything else that isn’t going to get him into further trouble. He didn’t know what he was talking about in 2016, either, but at the time he could do a better job of faking it. Now it seems every time he makes a public appearance he just digs himself a deeper hole. He has always been a liar, but his lies are increasingly detached from reality. And this may soon be the narrative adopted by most of the news media. We’ll see.

Regarding Hannibal Lecter, see this piece in the Washington Post. Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, says that Trump is the “crypt keeper for the 1980s,” which was “the high point of his life until he became president.” If you pay attention you notice that Trump’s style and cultural references are nearly all from the 1980s,

“Every time he opens the door, people spill out from the 1980s, whether it’s Roger Stone or Rudy Giuliani, fashion from the ’80s spills out, whether it’s his monochrome tie or suits that invariably are made in two or three different colors … his office decor is still in the 1980s,” he [Tim O’Brien] said. “None of his tastes have been updated in decades.”

The novel The Silence of the Lambs was published in 1987.

The Lecter mentions are a way for Trump to continue “upping the ante” from his previous descriptions of migrants, said Gwenda Blair, another Trump biographer. It’s “not just criminals, rapists, which Trump has already used starting in 2015 … but let’s get cannibal in the mix.”

It’s kind of rich for Trump to be warning people about criminals and rapists, anyway, isn’t it? So we do need to up the ante to cannibals. That’s one thing I can’t say Trump is guilty of himself.

But the point is that Trump is not a flexible person. He doesn’t do pivots. Nor is he rational. He operates out of his id, which is a complicated and dark place. His instincts as a promoter and con man often serve him well, until they don’t.  But he is what he is. Other Republicans may be begging him to update his act, and part of him may even understand they have a point, but I don’t think he’s capable of it.

8 thoughts on “Trump’s an Old Dog with Old Tricks”

  1. Trump is booking the smaller 2,000-seat venue (guesswork) because he (or his people) have no confidence they can get 7,000 people in Ashville to warm seats for Trump. Expect a claim that 100,000 were waiting outside. 

    I read the summaries and most focussed on the lies, like the claim that Trump deserves credit for $35 insulin. Trump got it for a small subset of diabetics and temporarily. Bide got it through law and it includes everyone and nearly all insulin producers. Trump isn't going after Obamacare (until he has something better.) Covid was mostly over when Biden took office. (It was peaking – it declined under Biden because of the vax Trump could legitimately take credit for – but MAGA won't allow it. The high cost of housing is because of illegal immigration. But unless the fake news is suppressing something brilliant, it was a list of lies intended to smear BIden/Harris. Other than terminating the New Green Deal, there wasn't much original substance – nothing that will turn around the race.

    The fact that Trump is IN North Carolina underscores that it's a toss-up in the polls and potentially a disaster for Trump if it further erodes because a blowout puts the steal beyond Trump's reach. 

    In the Musk interview, Trump suggested that if he lost the election, their next conversation would be in Venezuela. (DOJ, pay attention!) Today Trump said that only the US can refine oil from Venezuela. (false) So that country seems to be on Trump's mind. 

    Trump's comments were supposed to be about the economy to counter remarks that Harris will make tomorrow. IMO, I hope Harris will extend what Biden began by applying anti-trust laws where price-gouging is apparent. The "inflation" that's clobbered your pocketbook coincides with record profits on Wall Street. Real inflation squeezes business with higher costs that drive down profits – that does not describe the "inflation" Trump says is Biden's fault. Nor has Trump suggested any link between high gas prices and record oil profits.  I HOPE Harris explains that gouging, price-fixing, and anti-competitive monopolies with NOT like her administration. It's a very real factor in the economy, the one voters care about.

    Harris never asked any of her top staff to draw up a just-in-case platform so she could take over for Biden if he stepped aside. Harris (as far as I can tell) has been a loyal VP, not competing with her boss in those instances she disagrees. (My guess – I'm not in cabinet meetings.) Most of the Harris platform will look like Biden's but Harris may want to declare, she's not Biden's clone any more than Biden was Obama's clone. So what would ordinarily be hammered out  18 months before the election over a considerable time is being written in a period of weeks. The press will tear into inconsistencies, so the speeches have painted the platform with VERY broad strokes. Harris will be doing interviews this month – real ones, not the circus Trump was ringmaster of in Mir-A-Lago. 

    The press loves a Cinderella story almost as much as they like tearing Cinderella down at her peak. Get it right before you meet the press, girl.

    Maha got it right – the question is IF Trump can make a pivot to reverse the trend. He HAS occasionally managed to read almost all of a speech that isn't a concentrated stream of lies and grievance. It's good for three days max and Trump blows up everything that the media said was so "presidential" about Trump. 

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  2. The stressors keep mounting on Trump and even the Wall Street Journal is taking note of his flight to fantasy. Shortly we have the convention and his sentencing date.  This should be enough to get Trump to kick in afterburners on his flight.  We may see levels of weird never seen before.  It seems like the trend line.  Get to totally warped speed. 

      

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  3. Trump is the crazy old bullshitter great uncle.  Not much into getting you to pull his finger, but you dare not sit on his lap.  And you definitely don’t ask for wise advice, since his memory is shot and his bullshitting skills are in steep decline.

    But I like seeing him standing “unbowed, fist raised, front and center” as their only possible guy.  I also like the growing number of prominent still-Republicans and even still-MAGAs fighting over each other trying to give him campaigning advice.  Because I'm hoping that eventually even the most apathetic of independents will notice.

  4. Someone on the Morning Joe show said the word weird is becoming overused.  This is true.  Trump's trend line is getting weirder so at some point the word weird needs to be changed to something like uber-weird.  Now with J.D. Vance weird is close but perverse rings the bell.  Perverse is like weird that makes your skin crawl.  J.D. gets to that level of weird a lot.  No wonder young people have a visceral level of aversion to him.  I would give an example but then you could end up having to wish you could un-hear it.  No one has time for that.

    • I disagree. Repetition is key to making something stick. We can stop with "weird" in November.

      “But her email” is a classic example.

  5. I wish the Harris campaign would develop the following campaign ad:

    "The company You Keep"

    Start the ad by showing video of Stump and Paul Manafort, then show Manafort's Mug shot with the caption "convicted felon sentenced to 7 years". Then show an ad of Stump with Roger Stone then show Stone's mug shot with the caption "convicted felon sentenced to 3 years". Then show the infamous video of Stump dancing with Jeffery Epstein, show Epstein's mugshot with the caption "convicted child molester died in prison". Then end the ad with Stumps mugshot with the caption "found liable for sexual assault, convicted on 37 felonies counts awaiting sentencing" The company you keep, is this the man you want to send to the White House?

    I think the ad would be devastating and would send Stump and his enablers in the media into a tailspin!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEfGIGVteo

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  6. The overuse of words and rhetoric really only becomes annoying to those capable of reason, and trendy fashionistas always looking for the next big thing I guess.  Many want to chant with the crowd. 

    “Lock Her Up” was more popular then “Drain The Swamp”, possibly implying that many (definitely not all) prefer to target an individual or group instead of some nebulous idea.

    World class weirdo Trump wouldn’t have been nearly as successful at marginalizing lesser weirdos like Ted Cruz or Nikki Haley had he not used repetition.  It seems that maintaining an aura of success, such as wearing expensive suits and constantly cheating on one’s own golf course, is an important part of successful repetition.   Had Hitler not gone Hugo Boss and instead maintained the brownshirt boy scout look, his repetition might not have been taken as seriously by the tribal mob.

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