No, Donald Trump isn’t really running for reelection. Here’s what he’s up to.

| 2:31 am EDT August 22, 2017
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Donald Trump has been periodically holding “reelection” rallies which have caused quite a bit of confusion and consternation among those who are seeking to get Trump ousted. They worry that he knows something they don’t about 2020. But here’s the thing: it’s not at all what it looks like. Trump isn’t out there campaigning for reelection. This is nothing more than a short term cash grab, and it’s already been exposed as one.

Nine weeks ago it was widely reported that Trump used money from his supposed “reelection” fund to pay his son’s legal bills in the Russia scandal (link). That alone tells you what this is really about. As long as Trump is out there creating the appearance that he’s running for reelection, his base will continue funding his supposed reelection effort. Nevermind that he’s just pocketing the money instead, because that news either isn’t reaching them, or isn’t impacting them.

It doesn’t hurt that Trump seems to genuinely enjoy the opportunity to get up on stage and make inappropriate ad libbed speeches to crowds of fawning fools who cheer his every random and incoherent word. But that part is just a bonus to him. This is about pilfering, like it always is for him. Campaign finance laws are notoriously toothless, and he’s finding ways to get away with spending his supposed “reelection” funds on himself and his family. The very worst that could happen to him is that the FEC eventually forces him to pay some of it back, and he’s betting that by that time, he’ll have found some other Peter to rob so he can pay Paul.

That’s not to say that if Donald Trump somehow lasts through this term without being impeached and removed, he wouldn’t decide to try to run again. Who knows what he would do at that point. But as of now, this supposed “reelection” campaign is nothing more than a cash grab and a sham. It’s not even a particularly well disguised one. He’s not running for anything. Don’t let him fool you.