The great Loser of Jamaica Estates is headed towards a post-presidential career that features looking like a mannequin stuffed with rancid cheese and wallowing in self-pity:
A cadre of aides and advisers working to tame Donald Trump's obsession with the 2020 election, including his fixation with debunked voter fraud theories and ballot audits, are realizing the task at hand is much tougher than they thought.Over the past few weeks, Trump has faced pleas from inside his orbit to move the ball forward as Republicans approach the 2022 midterm elections, when the party hopes to regain control of both congressional chambers, and brace for his high-profile return to the campaign trail. Several former advisers and allies still close to the 45th President said he is under mounting pressure to concentrate on promoting GOP policy priorities and defining his successor, rather than re-litigating his failed reelection campaign.But the former President has brushed those voices aside, choosing instead to listen to a crowd of characters both on television and in his wider circle who have encouraged him to keep his focus on the 2020 election.Trump's preoccupation with the election is expected to take center stage on Saturday, when he kicks off his first post-presidential summer with an address to the North Carolina Republican Party. The speech, a preview of the campaign-style rallies he plans to start hosting next month, will signal to what degree he intends to ignore advice from those imploring him to redirect his message toward the future. Because it will be his first public appearance in three months, sources close to the former President said the tack he decides to take will be critical in setting the course going forward -- not only for him, but for all Republicans on the ballot in 2022.
If you watch the people around Trump who need to make a living, you can see their flop sweat from a mile away. If he goes to prison, they're screwed. If they cross the wrong kid, they're finished. If he continues to look like a raving and drooling maniac who can't stop listening to fringe lunatics with batshit crazy ideas, well, that's just another day for them.
Behind the scenes, though, there are media personalities like Maggie Haberman who no longer have any relevant access. They have a vested interest in making life easier for the Trump sycophants because that guarantees an open spigot of news that can be published for outrage clicks.
In order to maintain the sickening flow of self-serving junk information, there is a need to make sure Trump doesn't feel like the absolute, total and complete loser that he is. There is an over-reliance on presenting Trump as a figure who has been somehow "wronged" by American political realities and unforeseen events. This is complete crap, of course. The train wreck debacle and fiasco of his four years in office killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and very nearly ended Western democracy. Whenever you see someone talking about Trump as "president" and not "ex-president," you'll know that they are working an angle that is designed to maintain their access to information without angering the loser who refuses to accept that he lost.
We really need to examine the cross-pollination of the Trump employee, the Trump media enabler, and the publications that make money from this incestuous relationship model. My understanding is that this would be abhorrent to the Biden people and so a number of access journalists have been frozen out of the system. Biden's administration is competently led and run and nobody looking to shiv another senior advisor is pushing stories that are blowing up day to day operations.
This is, indeed, a different world and, if you're from the last regime, it has to be terrifying.
