Donald Trump is now officially in hiding

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It’s now fair to say that Donald Trump is officially in hiding. NBC says that he finally held a White House meeting today, but didn’t even allow reporters in for questions. This means he’s doing everything he can to avoid speaking publicly. In fact apart from his brief public appearance at Arlington on Veterans Day, he hasn’t shown his face once.

If Trump were still fighting for the presidency on any level, this would not be his approach. Even if he did think that he could somehow magically flip all these states where he’s already decisively lost, he would still need to sell the American people on the idea that he still wants the job; otherwise the whole thing would be completely untenable.

By hiding like this, Trump is telegraphing that this is completely over, and he really is just doing this as a cash grab. It’s notable that Trump doesn’t even feel compelled to get out there and speak directly to his base, in order to motivate them to line his pockets further.

Donald Trump has all the hallmarks of someone who has simply given up entirely, and is merely going through the motions of one last cash grab that even he’s not enthused about promoting. Even if he does announce a fantasy 2024 campaign, it doesn’t appear that his heart will be in it. After all, that’ll just be another cash grab; Trump is likely just coherent enough to understand that he’ll be in prison before 2024 anyway.