I think I see the problem here. They’re trying to erect a foolproof plan, but their candidate is, in fact, a fool.
I can’t help but speculate about your username when I read this post.
I suspect most “undecided” voters are actually Trump voters who are too embarrassed to admit it, and appealing to their bigotry is likely to be effective.
And the same goes for energizing his base; the more hate he feeds them, the happier they are and the more likely they are to get out and vote to see the persecution get revved up into high gear.
He actually didn’t campaign that much in 2016 and 2020, he’s a lazy guy and he does better the less he says.
I agree with the general sentiment in this thread- Trump wants to win, but he doesn’t want to have to work for that win. He’s never had to work a day in his life, why should he start now? He’s got people for that.
As long as he goes out, I’m not picky.
Of course he wants to win. He’s a sociopathic narcissist. Even when he loses, he claims he won or that the other person cheated. He projects all of his failures and worst weaknesses on others. Whenever he accuses someone else of something, you can bet it’s actually something he doesn’t want people to know about him. But winning and wanting to do the job are completely different things, of course.
I think SenorBeef nailed it. In 2016, it definitely was not his desire to win. I also believe the prospect of jail if he loses and killing the prosecutions if he wins is what put him in the 2024 race. He even announced his 2024 run early in 2021 out of the belief that would inoculate him from prosecution. His motivations are staying out of jail, grifting, and revenge. So why isn’t he campaigning? He’s already got his 47%. It isn’t going up. It isn’t going down. He does love his adoring crowds but he’s also a lazy sack of shit so he’ll do his performance art rallies and fleece the rubes some more but beyond that, why bother?
When we talk about the bubble of disinformation that his supporters live in we can’t forget that he’s deep in the center of that bubble. He surrounds himself with toadies and yes men. I’m sure they tell him every day that he’s crushing Harris in the polls. His favorite networks talk about how great he’s doing and how unpopular Harris is. His “human printer” gives him hand-picked polls and news stories showing him cruising to an overwhelming victory.
In short, I think he believes he’s winning by a lot. Or, at least, is able to convince himself most of the time that surely he’s ahead.
Then, too, there’s probably some deep-seated fear that he won’t admit even to himself but surely is affecting him due to the two recent assassination attempts. That’s got to have him dragging his feet on getting out there and campaigning even if he says it’s due to other reasons.
Also, as I’ve said elsewhere Trump has a pathological hatred of being a “loser”, and really, really wanted to get back at Biden for winning by defeating him. But Biden made that outright impossible by stepping back in favor of Harris, which I believe he finds massively frustrating and seems to have great difficulty adjusting to considering how he keeps sliding back to talking like he’s running against Biden.
So he’s stuck in a bind where it’s outright impossible for him to get the “win” against Biden he really wants, while he can’t stop running now without being a “loser” which he hates (plus there’s the legal issues and all that).
Trump is addicted to the attention and adulation. He wants that.
He does in the moment that which gives him the biggest hit of it.
I don’t think he consciously considers if such helps him win or not (but it has worked well for him in the past).
My guess is that if Trump wins (and it seems like a pretty big if at this point) he will resign the day after the inauguration, then President Vance can pardon him and he can finish out the rest of his miserable life playing golf, doing rallies and RV appearances, all the things he loves to do, without having to do all the presidenting.
I’d imagine he’d stay in office for at least a few months so he can personally oversee the arrest and execution of his most hated enemies. But once that gets boring, he’ll quit.
He wants to win because being president gains him adolation, something he has a very massive need for.
He doesn’t really do a lot of the presidency when he’s president. I mean, he kind of does. But I think a lot of the work that president do behind closed doors was not really engaged in by Trump. His staff and administration had to be president for him.
And as you note, Trump may be right. Trump may be playing golf because he doesn’t need to work on increasing his vote count. The election results have already been taken care of.
He’ll stop doing the work but he’ll never quit the job.
He faces state charges, not just federal and can’t be pardoned for those by the president. A state jailing a sitting president, however, is extremely unlikely.
Sure, but he and his DOJ lackeys will laugh those off. Any state prosecutors who don’t immediately drop charges will be charged with treason.
They do when their constituency is stupid enough to believe it.
Trump not only wants to win, he has to win – for his ego, for his continued relevance, to prop up the value of his large stake in Truth Social, and most of all to stay out of jail. What he does not want to do is lead, nor could he even if he wanted to. What he’ll mostly do if elected is the same thing he did last time, spend most of his time playing golf. Only this time is much more insidious because he will, in fact, devote some time to persecuting and jailing his perceived enemies.
He has cases pending against him that will go forward if he’s not elected. Pending sentencing for a case he already lost too. Winning means he won’t face any consequences. Losing means potentially dying in prison (wide variety of potential outcomes, but all worse than nothing).