Donald Trump is self destructing before our eyes
Donald Trump ran a stupid, listless, and ineffective campaign in 2016. He and his rotating cast of inept henchmen didn’t have a strategy, couldn’t figure out how to help themselves, treasonously cheated and still lost, and only got bailed out by the last minute Comey letter fluke. But while the Trump 2016 campaign was a weak and ineffective one, it was nothing like the flaming, sinking, imploding ship that is Donald Trump in 2020.
Donald Trump won Ohio in 2016. He needs Ohio again in 2020. He probably can’t win the election without it. Trump is slightly behind in the polls in Ohio this time. So what’s he doing to try to close the gap? He just announced that no one should buy tires anymore from the Ohio-based Goodyear. He just put a whole lot of Ohio workers’ jobs in jeopardy, and threatened to tank the state’s economy.
Some observers always want to try to find some logical strategy or secret evil genius plan in every move that Donald Trump makes, no matter how erratic or stupid or incoherent or self-defeating that move might be. But the reality is that Trump heard the news that Goodyear wasn’t allowing its employees to wear MAGA hats to work, and so he threw a tantrum about it. Nevermind that Goodyear isn’t allowing any partisan political attire. And nevermind that Trump just hurt himself in a state that he absolutely must win.
Donald Trump is self destructing before our eyes. He’s making one self-defeating move after another, because he’s too lacking in self-control to help it, or too senile to know what he’s doing, or both. Trump did little to help himself in 2016. He’s doing much to hurt himself in 2020. This represents an opportunity for us to double down on voter registration, turnout, phone banking, and volunteering, and run up the score in a way that sends Trump packing for prison forever.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report