"Bottom has started to fall out": Trump campaign aides fret as Election Day "confidence has shifted"

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Salon

Published November 5, 2024 10:57AM (EST)


About a dozen Donald Trump campaign aides spoke to Tim Alberta, a staff writer at The Atlantic, about how their candidate strayed from a hitherto on-message campaign to embark on a series of offensive, threatening and self-defeating verbal adventures that have left his team utterly demoralized heading into Election Day. The former president’s predictions of triumph, the reporter who has covered several Republican presidential campaigns concluded, belie a sense of panic among his subordinates that "the bottom has started to fall out" in their efforts.

In the article, campaign sources explain that Trump's newfound discipline unraveled as he succumbed to agitation over his campaign's cautious approach, advice from impatient allies like Corey Lewandowski and the aggravating itch of his natural impulses. In the space of four months, Trump's aides now fear, the former president had dragged himself from probable victory to an avoidable disaster.

Trump, however, still thinks his chances are the same are great. “He does believe that he’s going to win,” Alberta told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday, adding that Trump "has a pretty distorted view of political reality, I think that’s been the case for quite some time.” The takeaway from his conversations, he said, was that the fall campaign had "been a total train wreck of a fall campaign for the Trump folks."

Alberta's campaign observations were echoed by Wall Street Journal reporter Annie Linskey. She reported that the Election Day mood in Trumpworld has quickly turned sour. "I've talked to some of the Trump people," Linskey told CNN, "They were flat-out optimistic a week ago. I mean, people I was talking to were saying he is the president, [JD] Vance is the vice president. There was a confidence." But, Linskey noted, "That has shifted in terms of the staff members you talk to over there."

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2024/11/05/bottom-has-started-to-fall-out-campaign-aides-fret-as-day-confidence-has-shifted/

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Link to The Atlantic ARTICLE - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-2024-campaign-lewandowski-conway/680456/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. I love stories with happy endings.

[magicarpet]

2. Let trDUMPee be trDUMPee,...

... and rub his dirty filthy adult diaper in your face.

[yardwork]

3. When was Trump ever on-message?

This is who he's always been.

[BoRaGard]

4. Jeez, how were they to know? They got suckered.

Poor bastards. Totally surprised that the draft-dodging, casino-hustling, lying, cheating, adulterous, felon and rapist actually SUCKERED them.

How were they to know?

[Wednesdays]

12. They were certain the leopards would never eat THEIR faces!

[getagrip_already]

5. Let me guess, he stopped paying them about 6 or 8 weeks ago....

About the same time they lost faith in the cpaign messaging.

Ahuh. What discipline exactly was he showing?

[SarcasticSatyr]

6. I guess the young, angry, incel voters just aren't showing up at the polls . . .

Guess they're still in the basement watching porn, with tissues at the ready ...

[pat_k]

7. "hitherto on-message"

WTF?

What fantasy existence do they live in?

DT has never been "on message," unless they are referring to his message of grievance, misogyny, xenophobia, racism, and general hate for his fellow humans. He's been rambling on that message since he rode down his tacky escalator.

[Captain Zero]

11. Yeah right. What was that? The Hanibal Lector shit?

His only consistent message ever was CHAOS.

[pat_k]

13. The Roy Cohn playbook

. . .
. . Cohn imparted an M.O. that’s been on searing display throughout Trump’s ascent, his divisive, captivating campaign, and his fraught, unprecedented presidency. Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19471685

[Klarkashton]

8. The truth about this mess is dribbling out now.

The post mortem is going to be interesting.

[ananda]

9. It was the debate. She wound him up...

and he couldn't stay on message.

From that moment on he was totally reactive,
and his dementia issues made it worse.

[madaboutharry]

10. Why would they have been optimistic a week ago?

Were they living in a bubble?

Maybe they were thinking that Trump wouldn't use the past week to train the spotlight on how gross and disgusting of a human being he is and thought people would have forgotten.

[PSPS]

16. That's what I was thinking.

Trump "won" in 2016 only because of russia with a crucial assist from Comey. In 2020, he was roundly defeated. That was the country's rejection right there after they saw what trump was. Four years later, he's suddenly going to win? Like I said, the democrats could have nominated a ham sandwich and trump would still lose.

[Strelnikov_]

21. I think they were getting high on their own supply

of skewed polls.

KH has maintained momentum since the debate.

[usonian]

14. TRANSLATION: The checks bounced.

Don't overthink things.

[hibbing]

15. "probable victory "

That is a bit of a stretch. When was it a probable victory?

Forward!

[PSPS]

17. They were paid to adopt that stance around trump. He hires and listens to only sycophants.

[FakeNoose]

23. I don't think Chump listens to anyone

They are paid to listen to him, not the other way around. But that's fine with me.

[lees1975]

18. What I want to know was when Trump was ever disciplined, on track or when he ever built up some kind of lead?

No one ever reported any of that. He went off the rails during the first debate, and now has gone completely bonkers.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

19. We can smell a loser

[poozwah]

20. depends

especially when he isn’t wearing his diaper.

[ffr]

22. Not untile every Harris voter casts their ballot.

She deserves a congressional mandate! A supermajority would be terrific!

[SergeStorms]

24. Trump surrounds himself with sycophantic toadies.

He's not mentally capable of handling reality, so the toadies are constantly filling his ears with the lies he wants to hear. Then they all hide in the aftermath of his defeat and never surface near him again.
It's no wonder Trump always thinks he's a winner, because he's never told there's a possibility of him losing. Donald Trump is what happens when you placate a tyrant.
He's a loser, and the winners write history. He'll go down in history as a petty, egomaniacal, misogynistic tyrant.