Donald Trump was too afraid of rain to leave his Paris hotel room. Too tied up with tweeting to greet the King of Jordan when he dropped in at the White House. Too tired from his Europe trip to attend the Southeast Asian Summit. Too occupied with who he should fire in his cabinet to visit troops he took away from their homes to sit uselessly on the southern border. And of course way, way too busy to visit American troops overseas.
But there does seem to be one thing that might get Trump out of his PJs and back on the road again. As Politico reports, Trump is ready to launch one last rally of the 2018 season by dashing down to Mississippi to support the lynching-friendly candidate.
National Republicans are mobilizing to shore up a Mississippi Senate seat that a few days ago was barely on anyone’s radar, with the party poised to spend at least $1 million on a TV advertising campaign and the White House weighing a pre-runoff trip by President Donald Trump.
Trump’s failure to appear at memorials, meetings, and day-to-day activities that would normally be part of any executive’s schedule is alarming. His sulk in Paris is getting the media attention, but the snub in sending Mike Pence to Asia—the first time an American president hasn’t been present for this summit—is likely to have broad implications. That Trump would consider shifting his bulk to attend a rally, when he can’t be bothered to drop in on the troops who are missing a Thanksgiving dinner in support of his fearmongering, says a lot about the priority Trump sets on various events. Taking a morning to honor Americans who fell in defense of liberty? Forget it. Spending a whole day running down to Mississippi to join Cindy Hyde-Smith in making lynching “jokes” in her runoff with African American candidate Mike Espy … that just might get Trump’s attention.
What’s more surprising isn’t that Trump would show up for this rally, but that he might not.
Party officials stressed that plans for a Trump rally weren’t yet finalized, but several people involved in the talks said they expect the event to take place on the eve of the runoff.
It already seems obvious that in light of his behavior over the last week, Trump isn’t just shirking his duties, but may be physically or mentally incapable of carrying out his role. If he can’t get his enthusiasm up to scream at people in a state he won by 18 points they might want to turn Mike Pence’s plane around.