There’s something really weird going on with Donald Trump’s campaign website
Something strange is going on with Donald Trump’s reelection campaign website. As you would expect with any incumbent, Trump offers a timeline of what he considers to be his accomplishments, beginning with his inauguration. The odd thing is that the timeline sputters in November of 2018 and stops short on December 18, 2018. It is not clear why the timeline has not been updated in months, and none of the possible explanations look good.
When sites stop getting updated, a common reason is a lack of staff. But the idea that the campaign does not have the personnel available to keep the sitting president’s site updated is hard to believe. Each accomplishment on the site is a single sentence, so adding a new accomplishment would only take a minute. Plus, Team Trump has every reason to keep that timeline current, as formidable challengers are throwing their hats into the ring.
Another possible explanation is that Trump campaign staffers can’t figure out how to spin their candidate’s recent shenanigans into bona fide accomplishments. Two days after December 18, Trump “accomplished” getting James Mattis, his Defense Secretary, to resign in protest of Trump’s ill-advised Syria troop withdrawal announcement. A couple days later, Trump “accomplished” shutting down the government, which inflicted widespread pain on American citizens and the economy. In the process, Trump “accomplished” making clear that his promise that Mexico would pay for the wall was officially dead. Although Trump may think all this is tremendous, it does not look impressive on a presidential reelection campaign site.
A third possible explanation is that the campaign came to the sober realization that a few boastful sentences are not going to win over undecided voters. Trump famously said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” The campaign knows that the Trump faithful will vote for him no matter what they put on his site.
Maybe it is time for the Trump campaign to remove the ridiculous greeting that appears at the top of the site: “Learn of the many accomplishments of Donald J. Trump that often go unreported by the Fake News Media as he continues to Make America Great Again.” People cannot talk about accomplishments that do not exist.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month