"While some pundits will try to convince you that Trump’s behavior shows he is deliberately trying to lose, consider the possibility that 2016 was an anomaly, and he is simply not very good at this."
He isn't very good at it. He is a person that found himself in the right spot at the right time in 2016. That's it.
"While some pundits will try to convince you that Trump’s behavior shows he is deliberately trying to lose, consider the possibility that 2016 was an anomaly, and he is simply not very good at this."
He isn't very good at it. He is a person that found himself in the right spot at the right time in 2016. That's it.
Most of his Presidency was spent routinely shooting himself in the foot, as is most of his post-Presidency... and his legal issues. The people that love him (for whatever reason) are all in. That is about a third of Republicans. The rest keep getting rochambeaud by him in various ways or they find him disgusting/stupid/crazy. But the extreme partisanship saves him there.
If Donald Trump was actually capable of keeping his mouth shut and behaving with a modicum of decorum, he would have been re-elected in 2020. But he was too busy grandstanding for the people who were already going to vote for him come hell or high water anyway--and giving marginal voters plenty of excuses to NOT vote for him.
He will do the same thing going into the 2024 general election and barring various contingencies, it is likely to cost him the election.
The more the general electorate sees of Donald, the less they like him.
Does anyone have a take on Trump’s conciliatory tone in his post-primary speech? Seems so odd, after wishing his rivals would “rot in hell” as part of his Christmas good tidings. After hearing speech snippets, I wanted to take a shower, it felt so slimy and inauthentic, and somehow calculating.
I think that conciliatory tone vanished today in NY when he unleashed a torrent of "mean tweets " directed at E. Jean Carroll during court proceedings on his broke ass Twitter. Don't know how as electronic devices are not permitted in the court.
Oh thank you - I’ve been too busy to follow the news today. Whew. Now I know all is right with the world if Trump is back to being a vulgar, ignorant bully. That other Trump kinda scared me, for reasons that elude me.
Well that makes the most sense. It would make a good campaign ad for Dems; show the contrast because it highlights the crazy. In general people don’t like unpredictability. Maybe that’s why I felt unsettled at “Nice Trump. Normal Trump.”
I did not hear the speech nor, frankly, do I want to. If he is being conciliatory I would surmise it is because none of these people are now seen as being remotely a threat and so are not worth the time or effort to be mean to... he has too many other things on his plate or eating away at him.
And yes, it is inauthentic as hell. It is another variation on the expression of power dynamics as Trump understands them.
I just heard a couple phrases. It was very ‘kumba-ya’. “Let’s all join together, forget our differences and work as one to solve problems”. (More or less.) The dramatic change made me think his mental illness is worse than I thought. And he also seemed even more orange, if that’s possible.
Haha, yes, that’s very plausible. I had the weird sensation that “normal, gentle, collaborative Trump” was scarier than mean, angry, vulgar Trump. One expects Cruella DeVille to stay cruel!
I am not sure that it is scarier, but it is certainly creepier.
In those situations, it comes across as him doing something he has been told to do or vaguely understands that he should do--only doing it with his weird narcissistic spin, which makes it creepy.
"While some pundits will try to convince you that Trump’s behavior shows he is deliberately trying to lose, consider the possibility that 2016 was an anomaly, and he is simply not very good at this."
He isn't very good at it. He is a person that found himself in the right spot at the right time in 2016. That's it.
Most of his Presidency was spent routinely shooting himself in the foot, as is most of his post-Presidency... and his legal issues. The people that love him (for whatever reason) are all in. That is about a third of Republicans. The rest keep getting rochambeaud by him in various ways or they find him disgusting/stupid/crazy. But the extreme partisanship saves him there.
If Donald Trump was actually capable of keeping his mouth shut and behaving with a modicum of decorum, he would have been re-elected in 2020. But he was too busy grandstanding for the people who were already going to vote for him come hell or high water anyway--and giving marginal voters plenty of excuses to NOT vote for him.
He will do the same thing going into the 2024 general election and barring various contingencies, it is likely to cost him the election.
The more the general electorate sees of Donald, the less they like him.
Yeah, I think there’s a ceiling on the percentage of people you can convince to join a cult.
And the rest of us will crawl through glass to vote against him and Ted Cruz!
Does anyone have a take on Trump’s conciliatory tone in his post-primary speech? Seems so odd, after wishing his rivals would “rot in hell” as part of his Christmas good tidings. After hearing speech snippets, I wanted to take a shower, it felt so slimy and inauthentic, and somehow calculating.
I think that conciliatory tone vanished today in NY when he unleashed a torrent of "mean tweets " directed at E. Jean Carroll during court proceedings on his broke ass Twitter. Don't know how as electronic devices are not permitted in the court.
Oh thank you - I’ve been too busy to follow the news today. Whew. Now I know all is right with the world if Trump is back to being a vulgar, ignorant bully. That other Trump kinda scared me, for reasons that elude me.
Because it makes you wonder if he's actually sane or really, really crazy?
He's really crazy. Don't doubt that.
Prepared remarks. As soon as he went off script he reverted right back to full blown wack job.
Well that makes the most sense. It would make a good campaign ad for Dems; show the contrast because it highlights the crazy. In general people don’t like unpredictability. Maybe that’s why I felt unsettled at “Nice Trump. Normal Trump.”
I did not hear the speech nor, frankly, do I want to. If he is being conciliatory I would surmise it is because none of these people are now seen as being remotely a threat and so are not worth the time or effort to be mean to... he has too many other things on his plate or eating away at him.
And yes, it is inauthentic as hell. It is another variation on the expression of power dynamics as Trump understands them.
He also said that Jimmy Carter is happy that Rosalynn is dead, so there's that.
I just heard a couple phrases. It was very ‘kumba-ya’. “Let’s all join together, forget our differences and work as one to solve problems”. (More or less.) The dramatic change made me think his mental illness is worse than I thought. And he also seemed even more orange, if that’s possible.
Looking at this blind, so to speak, it sounds more like.. okay now everybody needs to get off the stick, shut up and get behind me so I can win.
Haha, yes, that’s very plausible. I had the weird sensation that “normal, gentle, collaborative Trump” was scarier than mean, angry, vulgar Trump. One expects Cruella DeVille to stay cruel!
I am not sure that it is scarier, but it is certainly creepier.
In those situations, it comes across as him doing something he has been told to do or vaguely understands that he should do--only doing it with his weird narcissistic spin, which makes it creepy.
His handlers are having him coopt Biden's positive campaign traits in order to attempt to deflect. It won't work and it won't last.
I truly think his handlers had him sedated so he would just read the teleprompter.
You are not the first person to suggest that he was sedated before the speech. I've read that many times.