Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.
I’d argue this makes him more dangerous. His bullshit isn’t constantly broadcast, unfiltered, into the homes of undecided voters like it was when he was President. I think the reason people’s memories are warping in real time is because he’s only blasting his word vomit at the people who already gargle it like mouthwash. His campaign knows his best chance is for them to run a disciplined campaign where a media vacuum has to be filled with middling journalists collectively wetting themselves about this, that, or the other Biden problem. When shit goes silent, they start circlejerking about things like Biden’s age while completely ignoring Trump’s, and that kind of myopic obsessiveness actually works in Trump’s favor.
Now I’m certainly sensitive to the counter argument that broadcasting Trump in some ways legitimizes his nonsense, and that kind of uncritical naivety is exactly what fueled his campaign in 2016, but in this case him being more isolated and his campaign playing a relatively muted strategy is pretty fucking strongly correlated with his strangely rising popularity. There’s something to be said for the fact that almost , even if they like the things he does for them, and so showing people how he behaves is likely to actually register with them come election day the way it did in 2020.
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