For a brief period over the weekend, I genuinely wondered whether someone had hacked Donald Trump’s social media account and started publishing ridiculous messages intended to make the former president appear foolish. As best as I can tell, however, the Republican’s online missives were his own.
Amid messages in which he described Kamala Harris’ wealthy supporters as “STUPID,” and condemned The New York Times as “A TRUE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY,” the GOP nominee also thought it’d be a good idea to feud with one of the nation’s most popular entertainers. The Washington Post reported:
Former president Donald Trump took his bitterness over mega-pop star Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to his social network, declaring in an all-caps tweet on Truth Social on Sunday, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
For the record, that wasn’t an excerpt from a longer online tirade. Rather, the Republican presidential hopeful, before heading out to play golf, thought it’d be a good idea to a publish a four-word, all-caps message in which Trump declared his hatred for the pop star.
To be sure, the importance of the GOP candidate’s hatred for assorted artists is limited, but there is a larger question hanging overhead: With 50 days remaining before Election Day 2024, what exactly is the Trump campaign’s message to voters?
In theory, Republican officials want a campaign focused on the economy, inflation and border security. In practice, the party’s nominee has spent recent weeks focused on:
- His contempt for Taylor Swift.
- Lies accusing immigrants of eating pets.
- Conspiracy theories about his poor debate performance.
- His truly weird fixation on Kamala Harris having worked at McDonald’s (on which he focused over and over and over again in recent days).
- His willingness to bring a “pro-white nationalism” activist into his inner circle.
And did I mention that Trump has also been using his social media platform to promote content related to the QAnon delusion? Because that’s true, too.
It’s difficult to say with confidence how many voters — especially swing voters or battleground state voters who haven’t yet made up their minds — are paying attention to the Republican nominee’s day-to-day rhetoric. But to the extent that the public, with 50 days remaining before Election Day, and as early voting gets underway in several states, is actually listening to Trump, he doesn’t appear to have anything worthwhile to say.
That said, Democrats shouldn’t take too much comfort in this, because we’ve seen similar conditions before.
Around this time eight years ago, as Trump, behind in the polls, raged incoherently, Time magazine published a memorable coverage image, featuring an image of the candidate’s head starting to dissolve. The headline read, simply, “Meltdown.”
A month before Election Day 2016, as Trump managed to unravel in even more dramatic fashion, Time magazine published a bookend cover of sorts, showing Trump’s face in nothing more than a pool of liquid. The new headline: “Total meltdown.”
Four weeks later, he won the presidency.
In other words, it matters that Trump doesn’t have a coherent and substantive message, but Democrats would be mistaken to see this as an excuse for complacency.
