If it wasn't clear before -- and I'm sure it was -- it is now an avalanche of blatant: Trump doesn't have a clue how to campaign for MAGOPs in the Mid-Terms, and their candidates don't know how to campaign with him as their long-enabled leader.
Consider that yesterday it was reported Trump is going to use a lot of his massive $400 million war chest -- not to promote candidates, but instead -- to air TV ads promoting his own record. (And no quips about how 10-second spots save a lot of money.) Because, hey, that's exactly what lame duck candidates not on the ballot, who have a 32% approval, are supposed to do, right?!
Mind you, it's possible Trump may also give some campaign contributions to MAGOPs running. (How much, of course, remains a separate question, since Trump is notoriously a world-class hoarder when it comes to money he controls.) But if that financial "support" is counter-balanced with Trump Trump Trump ads, the very thing most MAGOP candidates seem to be trying to avoid, that sort of neutralizes the donations. Sort of a "Gee, thanks for the help, but..." kind of thing.
And that's another big muddle to consider. It's not just that many MAGOP candidate don't want Trump in their districts and haven't invited him -- but some are actually starting to wipe their connections to Trump off their websites. Just this week, MAGOP Kentucky 6th District candidate Ralph Alvarado removed articles about his praise of Trump. The problem with this, of course, presumes that voters en masse read candidate websites. In fact, the people who most-closely read candidate websites are their opponents, who have already saved the since-deleted images and loving stories of Trump.
And the added problem for MAGOPs trying to scrub Trump from their campaigns is that they've spent the past year-and-a-half (or for some, 10 years...) heaping praise on Trump and doing all they can to inform their constituents how much they enable him. It's sort of difficult to say, "Please disregard all previous praise of Trump. My website, my newsletters, and my life have been hacked."
And you can be sure that their Democratic opponents will keep reminding voters relentlessly. In their ads, in their stump speeches and in their debates. Even if the MAGOPs don't show up.
But it's Trump himself being totally lost on how to campaign and how to help others in his party (a concept alien to him) that leaps out the most. And far beyond just his taking out TV ads about himself.
For one thing, the White House Twitter account posted a tweet yesterday with a list Trump's "successes". The damning problem with doing this, though, is pretty obvious -- given that he has a 32% approval. Seeing a list from Trump saying what he's done can only serve to get two-thirds of the country to immediately sit up, stunned at the brazenly false bravado, and send letters of encouragement:
"Cool, this is how MAGOPs should campaign! On how great Trump is!!! Even though his approval is 32%. -- and plummeting -- they should talk about Trump. And keep telling Americans that "affordability" is a hoax. And that AI data centers are actually great. And how people are losing their healthcare. And that we really did win his Iran War five months ago! And 50% tariffs imposed on our closest neighbor and second-best trading partner is a good thing despite raising prices and inflation. You go for it!!!"
But what stands out even more than things like that, which at least address "issues" (no matter how problematic for Trump) are the utterly infantile AI graphic memes that the White House keeps putting out and are getting creepier by the day.
First (well, okay, it's not "first," since these dismal graphics have been going on for quite a while now, but first this week as his problems are ratcheting up and the election nears), there was the AI-generated image he posted on social media -- so mind-numbingly wrongheaded that Jen Psaki devoted a segment on it Tuesday: Trump as a thin, 4-star general standing in front of Generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur.
Among the many problems with this -- which is saying a lot -- is that it causes far more damage than any benefits the deeply-needy Trump requires in his malignant narcissism and dementia. It reminds people that Trump not only didn't serve in the armed forces, but he got out by using a mystical "bone spurs" deferment. And it reminds people that he started a totally unnecessary war against Iran that is undermining U.S. security, has raised gas prices, made Iran stronger, and he has no strategy and no way out of the war. It also reminds people he hasn't looked like that in probably 40 years, and is now 80 years old and appears to be in bad health.
But it's the AI-generated meme he posted soon after, as they come pouring out of the White House, that really puts in focus how delusional Trump is and has absolutely zero idea what is troubling the country, or why he has a 32% approval or what on earth to do about it, just weeks before early voting starts for the Mid-Term Election in some states.
This graphic is a message that Trump wants to send out to voters. Americans who are struggling with buying groceries, high gas prices, losing their health care, seeing Trump start a war he said he wouldn't do, watching brutal and often murderous immigration tactics by federal officers against almost anyone who even just looks Hispanic, and more.
And this is what Trump wants voters to think about, heading into the Mid-Terms.
I swear this is true. A svelte, barefooted Trump -- walking on water! -- with a shining cross over his shoulder, surrounded by an armada of airplanes, ships and soldiers, against an ominous cloud-filled sky.
Jesus Christ. And I don't mean that pejoratively, but a description of how Trump sees himself and how he wants voters to see him. Voters. Y'know -- the American public that has given him a 32% approval.
But the point here isn't just that image. Or the other image. Or all the other images and infantile videos. Or the tweet about his record, when he's not running. Or that he wants to put out campaign ads about himself, when he's not running. Or that MAGOPs don't want to campaign with him, but can't get away from him after having enabled him every day since he took office.
It's that this is how Trump and MAGOPs are campaigning. And it's all they've got. Which is...nothing. And they clearly don't know what else to do. Which is what happens when you've got nothing.
And the thing is, it’s only going to get worse for Trump and his party – because he has dementia which is degenerative. And he’s going to keep tripling down and flailing. And trying to convince the American public what he's long-since convinced himself in his delusion, that he's like God. But not actually God -- because, to Trump, that would be a step down.
