You really think that I want to be president, really?
He wants to lose. There can be no other explanation. And, the more you look into it, the more obvious that it is that this is the only thing that makes sense.
Going back to the primary, the Republican party continually bragged about having the strongest field of contenders ever. Most of those contenders were also Republican insiders who greatly misjudged the mood of a tea-party riled electorate who had voted for the Republican party strictly for social wedge issues for so many years while the Republicans buried them underwater economically with tax giveaways for the rich and tightening the purse strings on hand-ups for the poor and middle class.
Along comes Donald Trump. Narcissistic and emboldened by the surprising adulation that he had gotten from his first “REAL” introduction into politics with birtherism in 2011, and yearning to prove that he could get back that adulation, he jumped in.
Most likely, it was not that serious of a candidacy. After all, he had no policies, he had no record to run on (heck, on social issues, he had been pretty liberal for a while), and he had a HUGE number of skeletons in his closet that he did not want revealed. I’m sure that even he was surprised at the poll numbers. Combining the large amount of support that he got from the racist, sexist deplorables, with the “real” people who wanted a person who would fight for them economically without the political correctness that they hated, and topping it off with the skill that he had developed over the years to manipulate a media that yearned for ratings and sensationalism. It was the perfect storm, he won the Republican nomination.
And, now what?
He knew that he couldn’t back out. He couldn’t be perceived as a quitter, and he definitely didn’t want to be seen as a loser because of what it could do to the TRUMP brand. So, the best option was to go through with it, hope it was close, and lose by a few points. That way, he could blame the sane, knowledgeable, truly panicked Republicans (who didn’t support him because of the very real threat that his presidency could cause) for the loss, never have to have those nosey reporters or congressional democrats dig up those skeletons, and probably make a fortune on speeches/media surrounding his unlikely candidacy in the process.
Every time it gets close, he does something reprehensible to make people think he is insane (as an aside, I think that it was a HUGE mistake on the part of the Clinton campaign to label him as crazy, because the bar couldn’t be lower...literally, if he acts as sane as a 6 year old for more than a day, then he exceeds expectations and rises in the polls - personally, I think it would have been a lot better to label him as a LIAR, and what a liar he is!).
You can see many examples of this. After the Republicans convention, he rose to almost even in the polls, and he immediately self-destructed by inexplicably talking about Judge Curiel’s mexican heritage and criticizing the Khan family who had made the ultimate sacrifice to our country. As it started to look like a Clinton blow-out, he miraculously started to become more disciplined again. He held his tongue and twitter for the most part (at least above the Clinton bar of being insane), and robotically read teleprompter policy speeches that you could tell that he couldn’t be less interested in. With Clinton’s horrible few days: the Matt Lauer emails attack, the deplorables comment, and the fainting, Trump once again started to rise in the polls. And, predictably, he is now self destructing once again.
I don’t think he is as dumb as many think. I think that he is self-aware enough to realize that his platitudes about destroying ISIS in a few weeks, creating a 4-5% GDP growth every year, deporting 11 million Mexicans (depending on the day) within the first few hours, building the wall, banning Muslims, singing “Kumbaya” with Putin, cutting taxes while simultaneously eliminating the deficits and stopping all trade deals is not possible. He knows that his poll numbers will tank instantaneous when he actually has to govern instead of just talking. And could you imagine the investigations if the democrats get in charge? Combining that with the evidence that he doesn’t really like politics that much, and his love of the Trump brand more than anything (see birther stunt at his new Trump Hotel from this morning), it is the only thing that makes sense.
With all of this being said. I do believe that Hillary Clinton is going to win the election. However, I am very concerned with what Trump is willing to destroy in the process. I am trying to be cautiously optimistic that the only thing that will be destroyed is the Republican joke of a party whose intransigence over the last 20 years is what created the monster that is Donald J. Trump.
