# How can Donald Trump win at this point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump, kamala-harris\ **Created:** [August 6, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351 "2024-08-06T21:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 40
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/781 "2024-08-16T14:34:21Z")
@Aeschines is correct, in so far that there are serious problems with Trump’s campaign. And that those problems could lead to his defeat. But we’re not there yet, because: > [@DSeid](#): > > Moreover and more importantly the polls are within MOE with forecasts still in toss up range. The evidence does not show a collapse. Harris is running a campaign of joy for the future; let’s not harsh the vibe. But use it to fuel the work we need to do to win. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/782 "2024-08-16T14:40:49Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Oops, Trump has rehired sexual abuser and all-'round scumbag Corey Lewandowski. Another legit move! > > [Who Is Donald Trump’s New Campaign Chair, Corey Lewandowski?](https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-must-be-desperate-if-corey-lewandowskis-back-on-the-team) > > Also, I won’t post the clip since you guys hate most of these videos, but Don Jr. received in his podcast a message asking him to tell his dad to stop with the personal attacks–and he _agreed_ that that was a good idea and hinted that he had already talked to him about it. > > So Trump is desperate, and everyone around him is begging him to get back on message, but the old codger just can’t help it. > > Oh, and Trump held an “emergency press conference today” in which he looked disheveled, out of it, and insane. > > Things aren’t going well. I’ve been disappointed by the reporting on this story. The reporters all mention his extramarital affairs with Hope Hicks and dog killer Kristi Noem and his sexual assault arrest for attacking donor Trashelle Odom. But they’ve all failed to mention his sexual assault on MAGA acolyte and singer Joy Villa. I know it’s hard to keep up but these guys all need to work on their research > **[Singer alleges Corey Lewandowski assaulted her | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/26/politics/joy-villa-corey-lewandowski-police-report/index.html)** > > Singer Joy Villa, a Donald Trump supporter, has filed a police report against former Trump presidential campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who she says sexually assaulted her at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/783 "2024-08-16T15:04:39Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Harris is running a campaign of joy for the future; let’s not harsh the vibe. But use it to fuel the work we need to do to win. Again, this. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/784 "2024-08-16T15:08:23Z")
He definitely deserves credit for all his wonderful assaults! ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/785 "2024-08-16T15:10:04Z")
This is what I find most frustrating. This fact should be shouted from the rooftops, yet I don’t hear so much as a whisper about it in any of the campaign ads I’m seeing (and I live in a swing state). We KNOW the ‘crisis’ at the border is fabricated. How? because Trump himself instructed his Senate toadies to the torpedo bipartisan legislation that would have addressed the issue. It’s clearly something he thinks the country can wait on until HE thinks he’s getting back into office. Yet another example of him putting his interests above that of the country’s. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/786 "2024-08-16T15:25:25Z")
So Trump’s medal of honor comment has made it to Newsweek today: > **[Donald Trump's Medal of Honor remarks spark anger from veterans](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-medal-honor-remarks-spark-anger-veterans-miriam-adelson-1940135)** > > Donald Trump said recipients of the Medal of Honor are "either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead." We’ll see what the blowback level ends up being. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/787 "2024-08-16T15:27:29Z")
I can’t imagine it’ll make the needle even stir. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/788 "2024-08-16T15:38:35Z")
It’s featured on Morning Joe as well: > **[Donald Trump insults veterans yet again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy5VMcQb8WE%2F)** > > Former President Donald Trump lauded a wealthy donor on whom he bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom as having gotten the "better" award compared to th... We shall see. He said it yesterday evening, and this is just getting started… ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/789 "2024-08-16T15:47:37Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > So Trump’s medal of honor comment has made it to Newsweek today: > > It’s featured on Morning Joe as well: Let me know when it’s featured on Fox News, Newsmax or OAN. I’ll wait. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/790 "2024-08-16T15:50:06Z")
So it can have no effect until it is? I don’t see the point. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/791 "2024-08-16T15:59:25Z")
The point is, no Trump voter will ever see this news about Trump dissing Medal of Honor recipients. The same way no Trump evangelical voter ever heard that he does not ask God for forgiveness, because he says he doesn’t have much to apologize for. [Trump on God: ‘I Don’t Like to Have to Ask for Forgiveness’ - Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-on-god-i-dont-like-to-have-to-ask-for-forgiveness-2016-1) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/792 "2024-08-16T16:07:35Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The point is, no Trump voter will ever see this news about Trump dissing Medal of Honor recipients. Nor would they care. They’d be a tad unhappy, but they can’t vote for Harris, so that’s the end of it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/793 "2024-08-16T16:32:32Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The point is, no Trump voter will ever see this news about Trump dissing Medal of Honor recipients. Nope, but an undecided veteran who was leaning toward Trump might either swap to Harris or not bother to vote. I’m not sure how many of those people there would be, and maybe not enough to matter. But I’m sure it’s more than zero. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/794 "2024-08-16T16:50:04Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > There is a population of blue, mostly concentrated in the urban centers. But the spreading dems are intermingled with dignity. I’m not sure what happened there, I sort of just fizzled out. Yes, there is a sizeable blue population. The urban areas are more blue than red, but the suburbs are a bit more purple. North Texas in particular is booming, and population growth is staggering. As that trend continues, the blue grows, but the R controlled legislature is gerrymandered horribly and the blue is diluted by the lines in the map. Colin Allred seems to have a shot at Cruz’s seat, I kinda feel like it’s Beto all over again. Sure, the Dems are excited, but any even vaguely conservative leaner is going Red on everything. There are startling few independents who vote mixed party outcomes. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/795 "2024-08-16T17:01:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > but an undecided veteran who was leaning toward Trump might either swap to Harris or not bother to vote. That mythic potential voter is not however watching Morning Joe or reading Newsweek. Neither am I but certainly not them. Maybe they have Fox on in the background. Some things will break through what is the background noise to these less engaged potential voters. This is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/796 "2024-08-16T17:04:25Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Some things will break through what is the background noise to these less engaged potential voters. This is not one of them. You can believe what you choose to believe I guess. I don’t like wallowing in unreasonable pessimism. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/797 "2024-08-16T17:17:34Z")
One person realistic and glaringly obvious assessment is another’s unreasonable pessimism I guess. To me the positive is that good messages on Harris and Walz do seem to be breaking through the background noise. Relative newness helps. Trump not getting much attention, positive or even negative, is A Good Thing. That mythic undecided voter’s baseline is not strongly positive on Trump and their assessment of him is pretty fixed. If other news cycles haven’t made it more negative fairly little will but the undecided person already is not a fan. Continuing to make them positive about Harris-Walz matters much more. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/798 "2024-08-16T17:25:28Z")
I skipped the last ~100 posts so somebody may have already posted about this. If so, sorry for the repeat. Reuters has released an investigative piece on trump’s _de facto_ takeover of the R party all up and down the hierarchy. I suspect this link is free: **[How Trump’s intimidation tactics have reshaped the Republican Party (reuters.com)](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-trump-purge/)**. The central message of the article applicable to this thread is there are loyalists all up and down the federal and state political hieracrchies that extend deeply into the election administration function. And there are plenty of equally loyal stochastic terrorists among the voting public. These folks are fanatically loyal to trump. What’s good for him is what they want and that end justifies any means they might have available to help their god-king. trump did not get too far during his first term in suborning the judiciary. But he did emplace a bunch of people like Judge Cannon, who again place loyalty to trump ahead of any semblance of upholding their job duties responsibly. I do not believe the current SCOTUS is beholden to trump specifically, but they’re certainly able to be bought and sold by other right-leaning entities. It only takes a few hard core loyalists in the right places to create gross miscarriages of justice. IMO _that_ is how trump can, and may well, win. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/799 "2024-08-16T17:36:25Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > > > By contrast, I cannot see any excuse for dissing the Medal of Honor winners. > > Disclaimer: by no means am I trying to defend Trump here. > > I see a possible parsing of his comments as a failed attempt at empathy. A lot is possible. And the purpose was to flatter a big campaign contributor (who is a lot richer than DJT) by saying that her honor was the biggest. So Trump supporters will find a way to excuse it, yes. I think the election will be determined by those in the middle, but that’s hard to prove. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/800 "2024-08-16T17:43:35Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The point is, no Trump voter will ever see this news about Trump dissing Medal of Honor recipients. I will personally ensure this is not true. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351.md?page=41)