WAS: What Adults are saying about a potential Trump "unraveling?"
Will it get full blown or he pull back?
Former President Donald Trump’s August 8th press conference was the latest in a string of odd campaign activity he’s pursued in recent weeks. Barely a month on from a nearly catastrophic incident where poor aim and a few millimeters combined for his survival, Trump is campaigning a way that often defies rhyme or reason. Now he and political non orthodoxy have long been bedfellows. This in itself should raise few eyebrows. But the intensity and volume of campaign peaks in the five weeks since Butler has been mind-numbing by any historical measure of Presidential campaigns and one wonders what impact that is having.
Consider the sheer psychological strain of surviving an assassination attempt. Trump’s physical injuries seemed minimal and he now claims full recovery. Like most mammals, homo sapiens knows to duck when the bullets come whizzing. Such instinctive behavior saves us. But unlike most of those same mammals, once physical danger clears, we are uniquely left with cognitive responses that brings a different experiential dimension to near tragedies. That too is part of the human condition. For all his unique transactional style, blustering and even potential mental health challenges, Trump is no different than anyone in processing the cosmic relevance of a an aimed bullet clipping one’s ear.
But within hours campaign demands short-circuited whatever amount of reflection and emotional recovery he needed or desired. Shortly after the Butler hospital exit, he winged to Milwaukee on the eve of the GOP convention leading the chorus to “tone down” heated political rhetoric. His party was building strong momentum and heeded the “tone down” plea for all of 36 hours. On the final day Trump took to the lectern with an unusual backing-light reminiscent of the Flip Wilson Show and for 20 minutes emitted heartfelt thoughts about his recent near-miss. Then, he spent the next hour acting like—well—like Donald Trump, thereby setting the foundation to snatch defeat from the jaws of an improbable political victory. Three days later Biden was out and with a response surprising to some (my hand is raised), Democrats coalesced around Kamala Harris with the precision of a military change-of-command.
From there Trump’s slide advanced with a mind-blowing attack before a group of African-American journalists, tweets that appeared more inane and other-worldly than ever and intent for a grandiose campaign stop in that consequential swing state of—wait for it—Montana!
That brings us to the recent presser where again he did what he always does and of course affirmed nothing proactive while demanding (not asking), for our cherished vote. But in this he seemed off. Bloated as ever in his one uniform, the anger-fueled charisma (his go to for the acolytes) was missing. He appeared worn, as though the significant pressures of the year have started to win and looked unusually “small” while darting from one unrelated topic to the next. Beyond Montana he noted, campaigning would recommence after the donkey’s have its convention and that he was busy “filming” new TV commercials “unlike anything you’ve ever seen”—as though Ford or Truffaut were his directors.
As the oddities piled, among this frequent filming, he seemed almost inviting the ghost of Norma Desmond. Perhaps she was waiting in the wings awaiting a set appearance in the event he goes full bat shit, which on this day, he did not. But he surely is inching in that direction and the coming two weeks will bring both the opposition’s convention and its afterglow—things he won’t find as stabilizers. For good measure he returned to his filming with Norma’s ghost as an important resource. Should he approach Mr. Demille desiring to shoot his close-up, we’ll know the bats have won and he’ll turn to the ghost for artistic inspiration as he does the final scene.