Opinion Trump’s decline: His interviews and lies get worse
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"This week, I look at felon and former president Donald Trump’s downward spiral, pick the distinguished persons of the week and share some Chicago sites.
What caught my eye
Trump seems unable to handle reality. His opponent is beating him by multiple metrics, especially crowd size. In response, he posted several obvious lies on Truth Social, claiming that “nobody was there” and that photos and video of Vice President Kamala Harris’s crowds were AI-generated (our own reporters were eyewitnesses to the event). As lawyer and anti-Trump commentator George Conway said on MSNBC, “He has completely lost it. This post is, beyond question, delusional. But is was also inevitable because he realizes … he’s not just running for the presidency, he’s running for his freedom.”
Trump’s nonsense is also meant to sow the seeds of doubt if the election does not go his way. He stated in the same post: “This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.” As my Post colleague Philip Bump wrote, “the point isn’t to increase Trump’s credibility. It’s to erode everyone else’s. That way, when they accurately report the results in November, Trump can remind his supporters to reject them if necessary.”
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Trump might be conditioning voters for another “Stop the Steal.” But then again, he might be just losing it.
A glitch-plagued X interview (unable to start for 45 minutes) with Elon Musk, owner of the social media site, only made things worse. People on social media reflected shock at hearing him slur and ramble his way through a softball interview. His obsession with President Joe Biden, who is no longer running, sounds like Trump cannot cope with his actual opponents. A much less alarming performance in the debate effectively ended President Biden’s campaign.
Had the media been conscientiously covering Trump, the public would understand these bizarre outings as part of his noticeable cognitive decline. Trump’s sporadic appearances on the trail alone should be grist for the cable news shows. When they do discuss his mental state, it is often in the context of horserace politics. (Axios commented on his AI delusion: “Trump’s advisers and allies worry he’s spending so much time in an alternative reality that it’s undermining his real-world campaign.” How about asking hard questions about how a party can stand behind someone in an alternative reality?)
If President Biden held a news conference with 162 lies, resorted to laughable fabrications, sounded as bad as Trump did on X and scheduled so few appearances, a swarm of investigative pieces exploring his fitness and commentary asking whether he should leave the race would have ensued. Still, the pretense of normality persists.
It works like this: “Trump sounds nuts, but he can’t be nuts, because he’s the presumptive nominee for president of a major party, and no major party would nominate someone who is nuts,” Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, explained last month. “Therefore, it is our responsibility to sand down his rhetoric, to identify any kernel of meaning, to make light of his bizarro statements, to rationalize.” When not one but multiple rants call “into question not only his fitness for office but his basic cognitive abilities,” the media’s refusal to convey Trump’s unfitness amounts to misleading the public.
With time, Trump’s delusions have gotten wilder, his thinking more scattered. The worse Trump gets, the more untenable the media’s unwillingness to level with voters becomes. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “[The] false claim by Trump that Harris is generating fake big crowds with AI was a true Captain Queeg moment, maybe the most bat-guano crazy thing I’ve seen in 40 years of covering presidential elections.”
Where does this leave Republicans? The MAGA party is caught in a gloom-and-doom loop, forced to run away from the radical Project 2025 plan, defend an increasingly irrational candidate and make excuses for its unlikable, inept nominee for vice president. One wonders when we will hear and see reports about “Republican panic!” or “Could Republicans dump Trump?” Let’s get real: That sort of coverage is reserved for Democrats. Alas, whatever horserace contest the media continues to present bears little resemblance to the jaw-dropping reality before our eyes.
Distinguished persons of the week
Give credit where credit is due: Voters — at least Democrats, Democratic-leaning independents and “Never Trump” Republicans — have decided to engage in politics in a big way. Hundreds of thousands have joined Harris-Walz Zoom calls; tens of thousands have gone to rallies, volunteered or given money. The sense of ennui and fatalism has lifted. The prospect of putting Trump in the rear view mirror has invigorated the electorate.
The media calls it “vibes.” But vibes are actually people — happy and engaged people. “We are living through a season of hope now in America, with scenes of enthusiasm and even joy at Harris-Walz rallies, but hope is also part of a longer-term political strategy,” writes historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat. “Hope means refusing to give in to the fatalism and cynicism that autocrats foster with their messages that they are omnipotent and their victories inevitable.”
For too long, the opposition to Trump imagined he possessed some grand power to sway voters and defy the laws of politics. In fact, he is weak, resorting to increasingly ludicrous lies. That is the power of democracy. Those looking for someone to save us from the authoritarian threat have found that power in themselves.
Something different
Some of you might travel to Chicago for next week’s Democratic National Convention, or at least to watch the events taking place there. Among its many delights (e.g., the Art Institute, the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Lincoln Park Zoo), Chicago is one of the best locales for architecture lovers. Here are three of the best ways to take it in:
Chicago River Tour: Find one conducted by an architecture student. You will get a bird’s-eye view of everything from the original Wrigley headquarters to the Marina Towers to the Merchandise Mart.
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio: A short ride to Oak Park, Ill. is more than worth it. You’ll get a tour of his home and office, a detailed explanation of his work and vision of living and a map of the neighborhood where you will find more Wright homes. (These are private, so you’ll have to enjoy them from the sidewalk.) And if you don’t want to leave Chicago proper, there is the Robie House, a Prairie-style masterpiece.
Centennial Wheel: Go out to Navy Pier and grit your teeth if you aren’t thrilled with heights (the gondolas are fully enclosed, if that helps). It’s worth the look from the top of the giant Ferris wheel for a magnificent view of the city — night or day."
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