TRUMP SEEMS TO THINK HE CAN HAVE HIS PREFERRED OPPONENT BACK AGAIN, IF HE JUST BELIEVES

When Lenny Bruce did his first comedy show after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the first words out of his mouth were: "Poor Vaughn Meader!" Meader was a comic who had impersonated Kennedy on an album called The First Family, which went to #1 on the Billboard chart and sold more than seven million copies. A sequel, The First Family, Volume Two, was released a few months before the assassination. Meader was a huge star while Kennedy was alive, but now his career was effectively over.

Donald Trump's obvious distress at no longer having Joe Biden to run against reminds me of that. Poor Trump! He has all this great material about Biden and he can't use it now -- except he's still trying to use it:

Trump polls his Montana audience on which attack line he should use on Joe Biden, who he’s no longer running against pic.twitter.com/IgW8d38cgR

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 10, 2024

I have a theory about this Trump post at Truth Social:

I don't think Trump is just trying to stir the pot. I think Trump -- a lifelong believer in Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking -- is also comforting himself with this scenario. I'm not sure he thinks it's possible, but he wants to believe it's possible. Hey, it's what he'd do if he were in Biden's position.

In Thursday's Mar-a-Lago news conference, Trump said that "the presidency was taken away" from Biden (even though Biden is still president, though I'm not sure Trump realizes that, because he knows so little about how the government works).



And last night in Montana, he was still complaining about the Democratic swap and predicting that Biden will bum-rush the Democratic convention:

Trump is pleading for Joe Biden to get back in the race pic.twitter.com/JKnzkzQd1i

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 10, 2024

Trump calls the swap "unconstitutional" (the Constitution says nothing about how parties pick candidates) and a "coup." "Coup" is obviously Trump saying "I know you are, but what am I?" to critics of his efforts to steal the 2020 election. But I also think he really wants Biden back as an opponent.

Trump was a middling real estate mogul who became a middling reality-TV star. He went into politics and was lucky to run against charisma-challenged primary candidates (Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz) and then a Democrat who's never been a natural politician. He beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College. Four years later, he nearly beat Joe Biden -- who's also not exceedingly charismatic and whose best days as a public speaker are behind him.

Can Trump fire up a crowd? Well, he's better at it than Biden. He's not better than Kamala Harris or Tim Walz, and he knows it. Plus, he has so much Sleepy Joe/Crooked Joe material that doesn't really work anymore! It's so unfair. But maybe Biden will get the nomination back if Trump just believes.