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Rant-filled rallies, an unpopular VP and lies, lies, lies: Trump just had his worst week yet
By Rex Huppke, USA TODAY,
1 day ago
Former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign capped off a gobsmackingly disastrous week by letting its flawed and aging candidate hold a make-believe “press conference” at his New Jersey golf resort.
The subject, was … maybe something about food prices? Or the economy? Or possibly something about birds getting killed by windmills?
It didn’t really matter. Trump delivered an epic rant-a-thon , nearly two hours of pure, uncut lies, weird tangents and whining ‒ then took a handful of questions, most from pro-Trump outlets basically asking the Republican presidential nominee to explain how he got to be so awesome.
Trump's campaign had an astonishingly terrible week in rallies
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 15, 2024. Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Given the week the campaign has had, it was nice of them to take the candidate out for a little air and a chance to babble at clouds. But Thursday’s event in Bedminster did nothing to quell the rising belief that Trump’s campaign has been a mess since Vice President Kamala Harris rose to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket and surged in the polls .
Supporters watch former President Donald Trump hold a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 15, 2024. Adam Gray/Getty Images
It was at that point that the people gathered on that rich man’s golf property should’ve started slowly walking away, careful to not move too fast and agitate the blathering 78-year-old.
But they stayed. And he continued, saying to no one in particular : “Instead of playing this game with wind that is ruining everything, killing all your birds, destroying the fields, all these gorgeous fields, you got windmills all over the place and you have birds. You want to see a bird cemetery, just go under a windmill. You see thousands of birds dead.”
My, my, my. I’m sure GOP donors are glad to see a campaign laser-focused on windmills and avian safety.
AI lies, a vapid interview with Elon Musk ... and then JD Vance existing?
Trump’s spectacularly not-good week began Sunday when he said, without a smidgeon of proof, that Harris’ crowds at recent campaign rallies were actually AI-generated . That lie sat there and looked dumb for a day or so, and then Trump ‒ whose political advisers must loathe him ‒ hopped on a phone call Monday night with his not-at-all-weird friend Elon Musk .
That alleged “interview” was a glitchy, absurd mess . It likely helped Trump lock down the coveted Musk fanboy demographic, which he already had an iron grip on, but did nothing to drive away the “weird” label Harris’ campaign has stuck to him.
Trump thinks he alone can save his campaign. He's very, very wrong.
Trump ‒ who will soon be saying, “Vance who? Never heard of ‘em” ‒ gave a Wednesday speech on the economy in North Carolina . Except it wasn’t really a speech, more another rant, and it had little to do with the economy.
Just more tired name-calling and now-recognizable lies that he repeats over and over.
And he said whatever this is about China and artificial intelligence : “They’re building a coal plant every week, but now I hear it’s two coal plants a week. And we’re dying for energy. We don't have energy. And they're getting set for the AI because they're gonna create so much electricity and we're not gonna be able to do it, but you'll do it if I have it. Because that's an emergency.”
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That this week in Trump’s presidential campaign hasn’t sent GOP donors fleeing is shocking. That this week of hearing Trump dissemble relentlessly and chatter disjointedly hasn’t led the political press in America to write story after story questioning Trump's mental state and capacity is an indictment on the industry.
Voters saw a lot of Trump and Vance this week.
That’s the best news the Harris campaign could hope to hear.
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