Trump's vibes-driven victory narrative crashes and burns

A bizarro town hall with dog killer Kristi Noem fell apart, as people walked out. Harris is showing she's fearless, going on Fox and pummeling Trump in rallies, as Trump fumes in fear.

Well, that didn’t last long.

The Trump campaign late last week began acting as if the election was pretty much over and Trump had won. It was the typical manipulation of “vibes”—using the pliable corporate media—by promoting a couple of public swing state polls that showed Trump up a point or two and releasing questionable “internal” Trump campaign polling, which I wrote about on Friday.

As I said, the corporate media—which makes polls and the horse race the news, rather than Trump’s authoritarianism and radical policies—played into it. One national poll by NBC over the weekend appeared to show the race a “dead heat," tied at 48-48, though NBC reported “registered” voters rather than likely voters, which is what most pollsters report at this stage of the election. (In a separate story that few might see, NBC explained that a “turnout model” showed that if Harris’ voters come out—which no one is expecting won’t happen—she wins by three points.)

But then a CBS poll and an ABC poll, reporting likely voters, showed Harris still leading Trump slightly, by two points and three points, respectively.

Oh, and that New York Times poll on Saturday claiming Black voters were “drifting” away from Harris? It was countered by the CBS poll showing Harris getting the same huge share of the Black vote as Joe Biden in 2020.

In other words, the race hasn’t changed.

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And soon the Trump victory vibes evaporated, not just by the actual reality of the polls but by his own lunacy and feebleness—and by the fearlessness of Kamala Harris.

Trump spent the weekend pushing Nazi propaganda—yes, real Nazi propaganda—at his rallies and interviews inside the MAGA media bubble, praising people with “good genes” and saying that if elected, he’d use the military against “the enemy within,” which he describes as including the “radical left.”

This completely comported with the report on Sunday from Bob Woodward’s new book, in which the now-retired General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, called Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person in the country.”

Harris scorched Trump in a rally on Sunday night in Greensboro, North Carolina, focusing on his comments over the weekend and on General Milley’s statements.

She also taunted him at the rally and in an interview on Monday with Roland Martin for canceling a sit-down with “60 Minutes” and not releasing his medical records, as she had done over the weekend.

She called him “weak and unstable,” which, just like in the debate, was masterful baiting. True to form, Trump lashed out in an incoherent tirade, claiming that he’s “far healthier than Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, but especially Kamala,” but that he’s “far too busy campaigning to take the time” to actually show records or whatever. It showed him once again to be what she called him: weak.

Then Harris’ campaign announced she’d be going on Fox for an interview—another fearless move. That made Trump apoplectic. He attacked Fox on social media for interviewing her, saying Fox had “lost its way.” (There’s even talk of Harris going on Joe Rogan’s podcast.)

Trump had previously criticized Harris for supposedly not doing media—while he’s the one who’s been running scared of major outlets. Now she's going on Fox, into the lion's den, and he's criticizing Fox for interviewing her. That’s a very scared candidate, running from media himself and also trying to stop his opponent from getting any exposure either.

Then last night at a packed rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris was on fire, ripping into Trump for his threat to use the military against American citizens—the “enemy within.” And she brought receipts. After stating how she’s told people to just go to one of his rallies to see how dangerous and “unhinged” he is, she then said I’m going to show you one example and then said, “Please roll the clip.”

The audience then let out stunned gasps as Trump popped up in video clips on giant monitors in the arena, railing against the “enemy within” at his rallies and in interviews.

It was brilliant, and you can watch it here.

Meanwhile, Trump held a town hall in the Philly suburbs—with the dog-killer, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem—that completely fell apart as people had medical emergencies because there were no air conditioning.

Trump, showing his cognitive decline, told people to go out and vote on “January 5th.”

Then, after becoming kind of frozen, he stopped the question and answer part, as people were leaving, and just weirdly danced on stage—for over 30 minutes!

This was a disaster for his campaign, which was there to try to persuade suburban voters that, really, Trump isn’t the weird person that Tim Walz says he is. Talk about backfiring spectacularly.

The Washington Post, in a piece headlined, “Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in an unusual town hall episode: Vice President Kamala Harris has called Trump, 78, unstable and questioned his mental acuity.” explained what happened:

The town hall, moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. Donald Trump offered meandering answers on how he would address housing affordability and help small businesses. But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention.

And so Trump, after jokingly asking the crowd whether “anybody else would like to faint,” took a different approach.

“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said.

For 39 minutes, Trump swayed, bopped — sometimes stopping to speak — as he turned the event into almost a living-room listening session of his favorite songs from his self-curated rally playlist.

As Harris has said, Trump is an “unserious man,” who is "weak,” "unstable,” and “unfit” to serve as president.

This week Harris is doing interview after interview, going on outlets to reach Black voters, men, women, everyone. All while Trump is in hiding from the media, fuming in fear, and having embarrassing town halls when he’s not spitting out fascistic rants at rallies.

But even if Trump is trying to hide, America is seeing him—because Harris is focusing on it—and they’re seeing Harris, a true leader. The Trump victory vibes were fake, like everything Trump. There’s no question that the election is close, and anything can happen. But Harris is on a roll, showing courage and pummeling this befuddled dictator-in-waiting, as we’re three weeks from the Election Day.