The real reason Donald Trump is hiding out in Montana

| 5:10 pm EDT August 5, 2024
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If you had to start naming states in order of competitiveness in presidential elections, you’d go through dozens of them before you got to Montana. Yet the only campaign event on Donald Trump’s schedule this week is on Friday in Montana. So why is he hiding out in the deeply red state?

I believe the reason is pretty straightforward. Trump tried to directly compete with Kamala Harris by holding a rally in the same Georgia arena where Harris had just drawn a capacity crowd. But Trump’s rally came up short, and he was so agitated by all the empty seats that he ended up attacking the university that hosted the rally.

So now, instead of holding rallies where it matters, Trump is limiting himself to holding a rally in a state where he knows Kamala Harris can’t compete. Trump will draw an adoring crowd in Montana, and then his handlers will be able to tell him that Harris was afraid to follow him to Montana, and Trump will get to feel good about himself. Trump’s handlers really do seem to treat him like a baby in need of coddling, and this appears to be yet another instance of that.

Trump’s people will give the official reason that he’s going to Montana in order to try to help the Republicans win the competitive Senate race in the state. Democratic Senator Jon Tester is exceedingly popular in his home state, and so the race will be close. This would be a valid argument for Trump holding a rally there, if it weren’t the only rally on his schedule this week.

The reality is that Trump is hiding out in Montana because he’s too fragile to go out there in swing states, where by definition, he’s no more popular than Kamala Harris. Trump is in the fight of his life. He goes to prison if he loses this election. Yet he’s so far gone, he can’t even get out there and put up a proper fight. So be it.