Trump squanders his own momentum

After having spent most of the last two years playing golf and dining with his paying fans at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump picked up the pace of his campaign a little bit this past weekend. He met with a Christian group on Friday night and then made two appearances back to back, first at a Bitcoin convention in Tennessee followed by a rally in Minnesota.

You might think that just coming off of the Republican National Convention 10 days ago and after last week's dramatic events in the Democratic Party going to a Bitcoin convention might not be among your top priorities. But Trump is always hungry for money and his campaign's been collecting Bitcoin donations for a couple of months while observing that large cryptocurrency PACs have put over $180 million into some congressional races. So he went there along with some other high-profile Republicans and Vivek Ramaswamy to make a bunch of promises at the behest of donors, which he clearly didn't understand, and make a pitch for votes from people who had listened to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the night before.

He promised to create a “Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council” made up of people who "love your industry, not hate your industry.” When he promised to fire Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, the crowd went wild prompting Trump to exclaim, “I didn’t know he was that unpopular. Let me say it again: On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler.” Look for him to repeat that one on the trail even though your average MAGA follower probably won't know what he's talking about. But there's nothing unusual in that. Gensler is hated by this crew because he has filed lawsuits and fined members of the industry when they put the system at risk, like when one of the founders of an exchange was convicted of fraud and his exchange collapsed. Trump wants to fire anyone who wants to enforce the rule of law against fraudsters, especially himself.

Speaking of enforcing the law, judging from his rally speech in Minnesota and his incessant posting on social media, he seems to think he's found the poison arrow that will destroy Vice President Kamala Harris. Rather than immigration, which I thought they'd emphasize over everything else, aside from some half-hearted slams at her for being the "border czar" he's been attacking her relentlessly for allegedly saying that she wanted to "defund the police" when she was running for president. He's repeatedly posted and reposted a misleading CNN headline claiming that she said it. (What she actually told The New York Times was that she agreed with the idea of assessing “what public safety looks like” and the size of police budgets, “but, no, we’re not going to get rid of the police. We all have to be practical.”)

This might be a good attack line against a former prosecutor and Attorney General if it weren't for the fact that Trump himself is a convicted criminal who has promised to pardon hundreds of fellow criminals he incited to assault police officers on January 6, 2021. Perhaps he would like to explain his own calls to defund law enforcement.

As Steve Benen at MSNBC's Maddowblog chronicled, Trump has nothing but contempt for any law enforcement agency he doesn't see as loyal to him over the rule of law:

Last March his minions in the U.S. House of Representatives did his bidding and voted to cut the FBI by six percent and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by seven percent. They were disappointed it couldn't be more but they have promised to return to it as soon as they are back in power. Needless to say, if they are able to fulfill the Project 2025 agenda of firing all civil service employees who do not pledge fealty to Donald Trump, they will then provide full funding for the new East German STASI-style FBI. Until then, they are an enemy of the cult.

Trump said a few other weird things this weekend. He spoke at a Turning Point Actions conference on Friday night where he offered up an astonishing promise to his Christian followers that they won't have to vote anymore after four years if they elect him:

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If it weren't for his constant praise for dictators and tyrants and his repeated comments that he should be allowed to stay in office beyond two terms, I might be willing to believe some people's interpretations of this startling remark to mean that he will fix everything in four years so they will have no reason to be involved in politics after that. But that makes no sense since unless he means he's not leaving office, people will always have to vote lest their opponents reverse their gains as Trump himself is promising to do right now. No, he said what he said and we know what he means.

He admitted that all that talk about "unity" was just momentary hype.

He must be talking about his campaign. It's understandable that he's angry but he has no one to blame but himself. Despite having been given a priceless gift with that awful debate and an assassination attempt that mercifully missed, he's now slipping in the polls and is saddled with a national joke of a vice presidential candidate. Donald Trump was born lucky but he has a unique gift for squandering it through hubris and ineptitude. And yes, he's gotten worse.