It sure looks like someone is thinking about it
Things aren’t going well in the Trump campaign. And, as has happened in both of his previous campaigns, he’s likely looking to fire someone:
Donald Trump has privately expressed faith in his campaign leadership and no firings are currently expected, but senior advisers find themselves in the most vulnerable moment as they struggle to frame effective attacks against Kamala Harris, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The past month, starting with Joe Biden’s withdrawal and his endorsement of Harris to succeed him, which propelled her to draw roughly even in key swing state polls, has easily been the most unstable moment for the Trump campaign since its formal launch in late 2022.
In that period, Trump has often committed one unforced error after another as he tries to frame arguments against Harris, struggled to break through the news cycle hyping Democrats’ enthusiasm, and suddenly found himself on the defensive with a narrow window left until November.
The sudden difficulty for the Trump campaign to lay a glove on Harris has led to Trump’s allies seeing an opening for the first time to openly challenge decision-making by senior aides and privately challenge whether some advisers should remain in their positions or be sidelined.
And the past month has been bad enough for the Trump campaign that advisers have taken those challenges – whether from enemies real or perceived – as serious threats or slights that necessitate devoting time and effort to slap down.
In a statement referring to the campaign chiefs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, a Trump spokesperson said: “As President Trump said, he thinks Ms Wiles and Mr LaCivita are doing a phenomenal job and any rumors to the contrary are false and not rooted in reality.
Uh huh. Sure.
Trump doesn’t really seem to be engaged enough with his campaign to care to tell you the truth. He’s obsessed with his assassination attempt and the fact that Joe Biden isn’t his opponent anymore. To the extent he cares at all, he’s convinced that he can persuade the courts that the election was stolen and take power whether he wins or loses. Or maybe he just wants to whine about the election being stolen and hold court at Maralago with the ragged remainder of his cult until the end of his days.
Honestly, I’m not convinced he really wants to be president again, he just wants to prove that he isn’t a loser. Now that he knows he can convince nearly half the country of that without having to prove it, he may just be satisfied with saying that he won without having to actually do anything. He is almost 80, after all.