TRUMP ISN'T THE ONLY REPUBLICAN WHO'S ADDICTED TO FAN SERVICE

The Democratic convention begins tonight. What does Donald Trump's campaign plan to do in order to draw attention from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?

Republican Donald Trump will travel to the US-Mexico border later this week, part of a push by his campaign to ratchet up political pressure and steal attention from Kamala Harris as Democrats celebrate her presidential nomination at their national convention in Chicago.

That's the Trumpers' best idea -- a visit to the border, the most boring and predictable political stunt imaginable?

There are a few things the Trump campaign could do that might force the Harris campaign to share the headlines. Trump could dump J.D. Vance and announce a new running mate. He could tell us that he's getting a divorce. He could be the target of another assassination attempt.

But another visit to the border? Nobody cares -- except Trump's base, and the media outlets that cater to that base. The Trump border visit will be the lead story at Fox News, One America News, Breitbart, and Gateway Pundit. Trump needs voters who aren't superfans, but this won't impress them. It will impress only voters who are already on his side.

This is fan service. The campaign is titillating the fans (who get an almost sexual pleasure from hating immigrants) while ignoring the imperative to tell a story that motivates undecided voters to vote for Trump.

You might think Trump is overemphasizing outreach to already committed Trumpers while the people trying to get him elected quietly fume, but check out the rhetoric from the people running his campaign:

“While Harris dodges questions from the press and tries to walk-back her extreme policies like the Green New Scam and bans on American energy, President Trump and Senator Vance will bring their America First message to voters in battleground states across the country,” Trump aides Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

"Green New Scam" is just embarrassing. Trump says it regularly, but apart from politics junkies, does anyone outside the Trump fan base even know what it refers to? Do voters in 2024 remember the Green New Deal, which was widely discussed five years ago and is rarely talked about in mainstream political coverage now? It doesn't matter to Trump's campaign bosses, because grievance-collecting Republican voters still remember. This is more fan service.

And what are Republicans in Congress doing? Even more fan service -- they're talking about impeaching the lame-duck president:

House Republicans on Monday formally made the case for impeaching President Biden, releasing a lengthy report accusing him of corruption and seeking to allow his family to profit off his office in connection with foreign business deals made by his son Hunter, who has been charged with felony tax crimes.

... But the report contains no proof that Mr. Biden, when he was vice president, engaged in any corrupt quid pro quo to benefit his son’s business partners, and Republicans admit they have no direct evidence that he ordered any interference into a Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden.

House Republicans know, or ought to know, that this sort of thing impresses no one other than committed Republicans. The GOP-led House actually impeached Interior Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February, and Democrats paid no price when the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected the impeachment without a trial two months later. But they keep trying the same thing, always expecting a different result. Or maybe they watch the worshipful coverage on Fox and think, The people are with us.

But not all the people. And they never seem to notice.