Karma Comes Knocking for Trump
Triumphalism and arrogance are two deadly sins in campaigns. Donald Trump’s campaign is paying the karmic price for both and has been in absolute chaos for the last 48 hours.
Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee for President. She buttoned up the support of the party delegates, raised $200 million in hard and soft money, and introduced the coconut tree meme, brat, and the Divine Nine to America in two days. It’s a good start, to put it mildly.
Trump’s week so far? Not so great. Consider:
The entire Trump campaign predicate was based on Biden’s age and infirmity. It was the classic strongman, authoritarian trope; Trump found it irresistible, and his followers — a large cohort of whom are non-college white men — found it played to their delicate self-image. “Me strong, you cuck.”
The scope of their investment in “Biden is old and weak” will someday be understood. I spoke with a mole inside a major MAGA political firm working for the campaign, and his/her tone was shocked and dismayed at watching over a year of work pushing Biden’s age just…disappear.
The knives are out for J.D. Vance. Trump is talking to the old 2016 crew, including some who helped him lose bigly in 2020. He’s rage-Truthing like a methed-up tweaker after a successful run stealing catalytic converters. His spawn, particularly Cokely Von Failson, are apoplectic.
Trump’s army of online scamfluencers is road-testing a portfolio of dumb memes and messages ranging from the brilliant strategy of rebooting an old, failed play from 2008.
You guessed it: they’ve gone full birther.
In a fit of roid rage or Constitutional ignorance, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and a dozen other MAGA social media squealers decided that Oakland-born Kamala Harris is not qualified to be President. That’s Oakland, California; the last time I checked, it was in the United States, making her a natural-born citizen. This argument will make it to Trump's blubbery lips and pudgy fingers any moment now.
Others are one White Claw from using the n-word to describe her. When you hear “DEI,” remember that word is what they’re really saying.
They’re already overshooting in their attacks on her mixed-race heritage. This attack failed on Barack Obama and will fail against her more dramatically. They’re bleating about the fact she never had a child of her own but ignoring her warm and loving relationship with her stepdaughters.
In the Leopards-Ate-My-Face category, Fox is so apoplectic that anyone would dare question a candidate’s age and is ever more outraged that the Democratic nominee both laughs and dances. Speaking of felines, J.D. Vance has taken to attacking Harris as a “lonely cat lady.” America’s 38 million cat owners may have something to say about that. Millions of American women of all parties and political persuasions don’t need a lecture on fertility from Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
Megyn Kelly (R-Broken Brain) and Laura “Saw” Loomer are falsely calling her a whore and an escort who “slept her way to the top.” This is migrating into the so-called man-o-sphere, another dead-end strategy a dead-end party uses when its out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas.
Watching the arrogant, snide Trump campaign flail and gnash is a delight. The internal battles to come over who made the wrong calls — that Biden would never quit, that the campaign would be about Biden’s age, and that J.D. Vance would be a good pick for V.P. — will be epic, bloody, and consequential.
And it’s all because Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles were so arrogant and high on their own supply that they sat down with the great Tim Alberta, who captured them at the moment the wax started melting on their wings as they flew too close to the political Sun:
I’ve said this in every campaign I’ve been in: don’t get cocky. The Trump team invited Karma to come in and kick their asses.
Kamala Harris is riding high today, and she should be. The last 72 hours have seen the Democratic Party more organized, determined, and focused on victory than I’ve seen in a long time. Capture and crystalize this moment for the inevitable rough times that happen in every single campaign ever.
Here’s a note of caution about this on our side of the fence, and I say this to prevent the roller-coaster ride of emotions many will inevitably feel as this campaign goes on.
First, the Trump campaign is still armed and dangerous.
Don’t underestimate their cash, cruelty, and determination of Trump to stay out of jail. There is no lower boundary. They can and will fight like the rabid, cornered animals they are. They will lie and lie and lie, and the media will report it in the most both-sided way possible. “Trump today said Harris was a pedophile cannibal alien lizard queen of an underground city. The Harris campaign declined to comment.”
They’re going to spend a lot of money on paid media and flood the zone with anti-Harris ads to bracket and image her on immigration. Don’t pay as much attention to the racist, grotesque online crap. Do pay attention to where they’re spending money.
Second, the Harris campaign and the candidate will make mistakes.
This is inevitable. She will say something wrong. She will get tired. She will forget a date, a name, or a fact. Campaigns are exhausting. Fox and the MAGA media will turn any mistake into a drama, but it only feeds their audience. Play through and embrace Wilson’s Fourth Rule of Campaigns: FIDO. “Fuck It. Drive On.”
Trump is good at converting on mistakes, but not as good as he once was and not as good as he needs to be. When Harris makes a mistake, attack Trump, don’t play defense. It’s a loser’s game.
The media won’t let this run of good news continue.
Be ready and strong when bad news, opportunities, and timing turn the news cycle upside down. The media hated Biden in large measure because he was boring. Trump's novelty as a candidate has always been good for traffic, clicks, and viewership, and the excitement of Trump going completely off the rails is ratings gold.
He knows this and will feed them the lunacy they crave. Harris jumped up so fast they naturally want to take her down a notch, and they will. Expect them to launder some of the more lurid Trump oppo dumps credulously.
The old SEAL axiom that the only easy day was yesterday is a truth written in political blood. Keep up the fight, don’t get cocky, and do the work every day until Election Day.
Run through the tape and keep running.
In the mean time, enjoy watching Trump’s campaign and his febrile brain wrestle with Karma.
Play us out, JT:
"When Harris makes a mistake, attack Trump, don’t play defense. It’s a loser’s game."
Exactly, Rick. Thanks again for all you do and say.
Waiting for the moment that Trump drops the other N word to describe Harris - Nasty - without realizing that after everything his reign of terror has put women through since 2016 - that is something that women now wear with a badge of honor.