Saturday, September 5, 2020

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied to his supporters about what he was "focused on" today.

Trump tweeted a video of what appears to be a pro-Trump "boat parade" today, adding, "Wish I could join you, but totally focused on November 3rd."

There was indeed such a "parade" today, at Lake Travis in Texas. It's just as well Trump didn't join them—a number of boats sank. (Fortunately, nobody was hurt.) 

But Trump's schedule was empty today, and what he was "focused on" was golfing. 

Trump clearly likes the idea of flotillas waving Trump flags, and has encouraged boat owners to organize more of them. It's not clear how well this is working from a campaign standpoint: while it's certainly true that Trump does better with Americans wealthy enough to own (and sometimes sink) pleasure boats, they're not going to help him much at the polls, especially in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. 


It's also unclear how "focused" Trump is on the campaign, even though he's reportedly finally begun to understand he could lose. His campaign is pulling television ads off the air in states, like Arizona and Michigan, that he cannot afford to lose—a good sign that he's running low on money right when he needs it most. The Trump campaign has avoided releasing their most recent fundraising numbers, likely because they will come in far lower than the Biden/Harris campaign's shocking $364.5 million in August donations. For comparison, Hillary Clinton and Trump combined raised $233 milllion in August 2016.

None of which is to say that Trump is not working on trying to remain in office; just that he hasn't been able to muster up much energy lately for trying to get re-elected.

Who cares?

  • It's a little hypocritical to ask supporters to give time and money to a campaign you're less interested in than golf.
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