Donald Trump's campaign is now such a wreck that we're reduced to having roundups of all the ridiculous things that have happened each day. This is our lives now. This is what passes for a Republican presidential nominee now. Yikes.
So let's just jump into it. Here's your Today in Trump. Your Trump, Abridged. Your Trump Dump.
• Today's big event was Donald Trump reading a speech from a teleprompter without going off the rails. The speech was supposed to delve into the details some of Trump's economic proposals; the not-quite-details presented turn out to be precisely what Republican granny-starvers like Paul Ryan have been demanding for years. Tax cuts for the rich; estate cuts for the rich; deregulation of industry because screw you, that's why, and so on. The event was more noteworthy for the dozen-ish interruptions by protesters then by Donald Trump's low-energy reading skills...
• But that didn't stop Trump from using his teleprompter-word-reading-good event as fundraising fodder. "We stayed on message and delivered our positive platform to America." Good for you, sport—reading from a prepared script has long been derided by conservatives as something only loathsome politicos would do, but you managed to turn it into something worth an ice cream treat afterwards. Now that's lowering the bar!
• Trump's behavior has been so odd that it's spawned ongoing armchair efforts to diagnose just what the hell might be wrong inside the man's head. The American Psychiatric Association is warning their members not to play.
• Fifty Republican former national security officials denounce Trump, writing that he "lacks the temperament to be President" and "would be the most reckless President in American history."
• Meanwhile, try to imagine a Republican Party of say, even ten years ago employing an adviser who went to Moscow to praise Putin and condemn American foreign policy against Russia. Can you imagine the scandal? Golly, Donald Trump really is remaking the party in his image.
• Republican Conspiracy Fetish Theater #1:
Mind you, this is sincerely, dazzlingly stupid idea. Next up: Did Hillary Clinton's emails shank a guy in prison?
• Republican Conspiracy Fetish Theater #2: The Trump campaign continues to sell the notion that if they lose in November, it can only mean voter fraud. It continues to not go well.
• Republican Conspiracy Fetish Theater #3: Republicans are still running with another campaign-pushed theory, that a negotiated settlement to Iranian funds frozen during the 1979 hostage crisis, announced last January, is a "secret" "ransom" to Iran. Aside from the "secret" part, and the "ransom" part, of course.
• Attempts to stop the down-ballot bleeding continue, with Republicans now considering whether to run advertisements presuming a Trump loss.
• Plan two would be to de-Trump Trump. Towards that end, Sen. McCain is begging Trump running mate Mike Pence to try to curtail Trump's erratic, "squabble"-seeking campaign behavior and focus solely on Clinton. Apparently he is under the impression that Donald Trump gives a damn what Mike Pence thinks.
• But wait! Who is that, off in the distance? It appears the "Never Trump" Republicans have finally settled a bold, dynamic candidate to run against Trump: Everybody put your hands together for Some Guy 2016.
• Republican Ted Cruz critics plan payback for Cruz's convention speech.
• Ivanka Trump's Republican convention speech was billed as boldly pro-working-women. This led reporters to wonder if the Trumps put their wallets where their mouths are, and you can guess the rest.
• CNN continues to do yeoman's work for the Trump campaign—and, coincidentally, continues to be unwatchable. The weekend's efforts included a panel discussion comprised entirely of Donald Trump supporters complaining that the media was biased against Trump. Because having someone on the panel suggest that maybe Donald Trump is not a victim of a media plot against him would, apparently, have been a media plot against him.
• The man who literally wrote the book on Trump, and deeply regrets it now:
That'll do, Trump. That'll do.