The real reason Donald Trump is in hiding
Even as Kamala Harris has been barnstorming across the nation this week, Donald Trump’s campaign schedule is virtually empty. Instead it’s JD Vance who has been essentially following Harris around the nation this week, holding a rally in any given location right after Harris holds a rally in that same location.
The strategy is ineffective, and that’s putting it mildly. Harris is drawing massive crowds and garnering positive national media attention, whereas Vance is drawing small crowds and keeps sticking his foot in his mouth.
But the Vance tour has done one thing, which is to take some of the attention away from the fact that Trump has essentially gone into hiding. Either Trump isn’t physically able to be out on the campaign trail right now because he’s old and lost a step, or his handlers pulled him off the road after they saw him melt down on stage about the small crowd size at his last rally.
To be clear, sending Vance out there in Trump’s place is an absolute last resort for the Trump campaign. It still looks bad that Trump isn’t out there. And Vance seems to be costing his side votes every time he opens his mouth. So it’s pretty clear that the Trump campaign has this ineffective doofus Vance out there stalking Harris around the nation because for whatever reason they can’t send Trump out there.
We’ll see what kind of shape Trump is in when he’s scheduled to finally reemerge from hiding on Friday, for a rally in Montana of all places. The official story will be that he’s there to help the Republicans win the competitive Senate race in Montana. But that’s absurd. Trump is already going to win Montana easily in the presidential race. When has Trump ever been known to help anyone else with their campaign when it didn’t benefit him?
If anything it looks like Trump’s babysitters are trying a strategy of gently putting him back on stage in a red state where he won’t have to be flustered by Kamala Harris showing up and drawing a bigger crowd. Trump’s people appear to be coddling him like an ill tempered four year old, when he’s supposed to be running for President of the United States. This is surreal.
