Republicans worry that Donald Trump has PTSD & ‘he’s choosing to lose’

Donald Trump hasn’t been doing well. Many are saying that Trump simply can’t get over President Biden dropping out of the race. Many are saying that Trump isn’t happy about being talked into choosing JD Vance as his running mate. Many are saying that Trump is too stupid, too senile, too old, too racist and too set-in-his-ways to change course now that he’s running against Kamala Harris. Well, Gabe Sherman at Vanity Fair has a fascinating view of what’s going on behind the scenes.

Trump has done the unthinkable, choke a lead: “It’s like he’s choosing to lose,” a frustrated Republican close to the campaign said. Trump has been in a self-destructive spiral since the moment Democrats replaced Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. Trump’s descent began when he made a racist claim at a July 31 conference for Black journalists, saying that Harris changed her identity for political gain (“Now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump claimed).

An accurate summary of the past month: At a rally in Georgia a few days later, Trump ranted for nearly 10 minutes about the state’s popular Republican governor, Brian Kemp, whom Trump blamed for his 2020 loss to Biden. “Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy,” Trump fumed. On Truth Social, Trump floated unhinged, evidence-free claims, such as his theories that Biden might crash the Democratic National Convention to take the nomination back and that Harris and Democrats are running a psyop by creating AI videos and images of the vice president’s packed rallies. “It’s nuts,” a Trump friend told me.

The Saboteur: Republican donors and Trump campaign officials are struggling to understand why Trump seems to be sabotaging his own candidacy. One theory, according to sources, is that Trump has been experiencing trauma from his near-death experience following the assassination attempt at the rally last month in Butler, Pennsylvania. “He’s been watching that seven-second clip of how close he was to getting shot right in the head—over and over and over again,” the Republican close to the campaign said. “He may actually legit have PTSD.” A campaign official confirmed that the shooting continues to weigh on Trump. “He’s been through a lot,” the official said. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Trump can’t let go of the fact that Biden dropped out. “They cheated by swapping Biden,” Trump has told people, according to a person who recently spent time with the Republican presidential nominee. The Trump campaign believed that Harris’s honeymoon would fade, but instead, the opposite has happened: Her momentum is surging. Trump’s advisers have implored him to launch policy attacks on Harris instead of using juvenile nicknames like Laffin Kamala and Kamabla. Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone is among those who want Trump to change tactics. “I do think it’s counterproductive to call her stupid,” he told me. Trump has rejected his team’s advice. According to the Republican close to the campaign, Trump tells his advisers: “I know what I’m doing.”

[From Vanity Fair]

The thing about PTSD and Trump watching the clip… the thing that’s so strange to me is that the Trump campaign immediately made and sold t-shirts of that photo of Trump with a bloody ear, raising his baby fist in the air. I saw a guy in the gym wearing that stupid t-shirt the other day and I almost started some sh-t over it. It could absolutely be both “a trauma” and “a branding opportunity to sell unhinged t-shirts.” They’re not mutually exclusive. But the whole thing with the shooting… I actually suspect that Trump is upset that people thought it was all a stunt and that he didn’t get the sympathy and praise he was expecting. That is bothering him more than anything. As for Trump “choosing to lose…” No, he’s not. I believe a lot of conspiracies about Trump, but I don’t believe his narcissism would ever allow him to capitulate in any way. If and hopefully when he loses, that orange monster is going to try to start a civil war.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

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