Donald Trump was pummeling Joe Biden in the polls three weeks ago, a horrible Biden debate making the GOP presidential nominee seem like a powerhouse of aggression and mental acuity, no matter what he said about sharks and electrocution (see below).
People are standing outside in hundred degree heat in Las Vegas to hear Trump babble on and on about sharks and batteries. He doesn’t talk about you, or what he’s going to do for you, or your future. It’s always about him, or meaningless nonsense. He’s a complete waste of time. pic.twitter.com/djdZ2YUHyI
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) June 9, 2024
Then a seismic shift occurred, to which neither party has yet fully acclimated. Enter Kamala Harris and a groundswell of Democratic — and potentially Independent — enthusiasm, and Trump’s presidential race pole position suddenly looked a lot less assured.
In response, Trump — taking a cue from Bruce Springsteen — has decided to revisit those glory days of just last month and continued to fight Biden instead of Harris — and her new sidekick Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
It doesn’t matter to Trump, evidently, that the top billing on the fight card has changed, he is still throwing roundhouses at “Crooked Joe” as he puts it.
The Biden punches have been effective for Trump in the past, so until he nails down a new strategy aimed at Harris-Walz, he’s telling his followers that Biden is going to try to sneak into the Democratic National Convention and steal back the nomination.
Trying to throw the focus back on Biden, an unpopular figure nationally, Trump’s conspiracy theory doesn’t entirely ignore Harris — it implicates her (and powerful Dems like Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer et al, each given insulting nicknames) for staging a coup against Biden. In Trump’s scenario, Biden is King Lear on the heath, and he wants his throne back.
Here is the text of a recent post from Trump on his Truth Social network, in which the former President asserts that Biden has “historically tragic” regrets and will try to take back the nomination from Harris, while claiming that Biden wants to challenge Trump to another debate:
‘What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!”
Donald Trump
Trump misspells Barack — the first name of his predecessor in the Oval office — and also continues to refer to Harris as “Kamabla” — showing a kind of disrespect to a political opponent that was largely unheard of pre-Trump, but is now common practice in the MAGA-dominated GOP.
Trump had previously hinted at the “big movement” to “bring back Crooked Joe.”
One problem with Trump’s Shakespearian portrait of Biden’s alleged regret and revenge is that there is no evidence that Biden could or would try to regain the nomination, especially after giving a gracious speech about passing the torch.