Maybe…
I have always thought that Trump operates by instinct and impulse but I think these crazy stunts may actually be a strategy:
Former President Donald Trump posed for photos at his waterfront club on Tuesday with a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist, in the latest in a string of incidents that highlight the GOP candidate’s proximity to fringe figures on the far right.
Liz Crokin, an avid supporter of the far-right conspiracy theory, shared photographs of her and Trump to social media following a Tuesday fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago to combat child trafficking.
“Tonight I had the privilege and honor to speak at America’s Future fundraiser to combat child trafficking. … Some of the topics I discussed were Pizzagate, Balenciaga, and what President Trump’s administration did to combat human trafficking,” Crokin wrote on her Truth Social profile.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory falsely purports that the Clinton family and other prominent Democrats ran a sex trafficking ring through a Washington, DC, pizza joint. It has been widely discredited by law enforcement officials.
Crokin’s reference to Balenciaga comes after the fashion company faced widespread backlash following a recent ad campaign that featured young children cuddling with stuffed animals in fetish clothing.
“President Trump made a surprise appearance and spoke,” Crokin added in a separate post, which contained a video showing Trump delivering remarks at the event.
“You are incredible people, you are doing unbelievable work and we just appreciate you being here and we hope you’re going to be back,” Trump can be heard saying in the clip.
Crokin’s appearance comes two weeks after Trump came under fire for dining with rapper Kanye West and White supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate. Aides to the former president were said to be in the process of implementing more rigorous vetting for the people he engages with around Mar-a-Lago, which has doubled as his private residence since he left office.
I don’t know if he knew the Neo Nazi Nick Fuentes would show up for dinner with Kanye, but we know that he put them out on the terrace where everyone could see them and take pictures. He keeps doing that.
I suspect that Trump is working to make sure the looniest part of his base (which is substantial) is sticking with him. It’s actually a fairly commonplace strategy for politicians to do this sort of hing early in the cycle in order to give them running room to move to the middle. His base just happens to be loonier than usual.
The difference with Trump is that he’s willing to leverage that base against other Republicans in totally ruthless fashion because he has no loyalty to the party. If he has this group in his grip he can threaten to burn down the whole thing, keep them from voting or run as an independent.
I don’t know that he’s thought this through but he almost certainly has advisers who understand the power he has here. Other candidates have had discrete followings within the party but none of them have been as aggressively narcissistic as Trump. The other GOP candidates know he will do it. And he knows they know it. He also knows from ample experience that if he wins the nomination they will all fall in line.