The Tribulations of Trump are continuing to descend into the Mariana Trench of political campaigns. His polling has remained steadily behind Joe Biden for months. In fact, he has never led. And on top of the widespread disapproval and personal disgust that Americans have for Trump, he is demonstrating his notorious inability to manage anything competently.
In a flurry of frantic morning tweets - more than 60 before noon - Trump rambled incoherently on on a variety of subjects. More often than not he retweeted others who were adopting the primary theme of Trump's 2020 campaign: Fear and Racism. Among these tweets were a couple that were attempts to respond to recent reports that his floundering campaign financing was going the same route as his four bankrupt casinos. Which may explain why Trump recently pulled his advertising in critical battleground states.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, just collected a record $364 million in donations in August. And he is outspending Trump for ads by more than 10-to-1. These facts triggered Trump's anxiety which led to a defensive tweet saying that...
That is wrong on so many levels. First of all, the Trump Virus could not have cost his campaign anything. More likely it saved money because he was unable to hold his massive cult rallies. Furthermore, he should not be spending campaign funds to counter reporting on his failures in office. Those are official duties, not election activities As for having more money than he did in 2016, that's only because he relied on a compliant and irresponsible media to cover his every word, which is not happening (as much) this time around.
It should be noted that Trump's promise to "put up" his own money is a lie he has been telling for years. In his original candidacy announcement he bragged that he didn't need any donations at all because he would self-fund his campaign. He didn't. While he did loan the campaign some money, he paid himself back all of it with funds from his donors.
The real reason for Trump's financial woes is his own incompetence and inability to manage anything bigger than a lemonade stand (if that). To start with, Trump's mobster mentality has resulted in his tendency to skim profits off the top of all monies received. At least $17 million of donors' contributions were paid to Trump owned businesses since 2016.
There have also been bizarre and self-serving expenditures that could not be justified in any reputable campaign operation. For instance, Trump's campaign bought more than $1 million in TV ads to air in Washington, D.C., where the he has no chance of winning. These ads were bought only to pacify Trump who needs to see himself on TV as much as possible.
In addition to that, there was a "six-figure purchase of magnet-lined pouches used to store the phones of donors during meetings so that they could not record and leak the president’s comments." In other words, Trump is spending his donors' money on his own paranoia and fear of people hearing what he actually says.
No wonder his campaign is going broke at the most critical time. And no wonder he hasn't even released his August financial reports. Politicians don't delay good news, so draw your own conclusions as to why Trump is holding back. None of this looks good for his future reelection prospects. However he still has weapons in his arsenal. Like sabotaging the Postal Service and suppressing the vote by closing polling places or dispatching "poll watchers" to intimidate voters.
Which is why Democrats need to remain vigilant and energized in order to achieve victory. Trump is capable of anything legal or, more likely, otherwise. It will take nothing less than total participation, determination, and concentration to get across the finish line first. And we'll need a landslide to avoid Trump's post-election shenanigans. So no let up is allowed, people. This is for real!
