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Has the Trump Meltdown Begun?
Many pundits wondered what would happen if Trump fell behind in the polls. Would he mellow a bit, lash out, or meltdown completely. Now that Dr. Ben Carson is running neck-and-neck with The Donald and has led in several surveys, we’re beginning to see what a desperate Trump looks like. According to Washington Post reporter Jenna Johnson, the marathon speech he gave in Fort Dodge, IA, Thursday night was something to behold.
Donald Trump looks and sounds exhausted tonight. Voice is scratchy. This is his fourth state in four days.
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
At the last few rallies, Donald Trump has been more controlled and composed. Not so tonight. He’s on a tear — one angry rant after another.
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Donald Trump in Iowa: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.”
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Here’s how Donald Trump says he would fight the Islamic State: “I would bomb the [expletive] out of them.” Then he would take their oil. [unredacted link]
More foreign policy: Donald Trump says if he is president no one will dare touch the United States “because I’m so unpredictable.”
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Trump debates aloud if he should share more complaints about his rivals. Crowd cheers him on. First up: Marco Rubio, “weak like a baby.”
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Hour and 20 minutes into Trump’s speech, stage audience gives up and sits down on risers: pic.twitter.com/eV8zQD7cs3
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Trump moves onto Ben Carson: “If you’re pathological, there’s no cure for that.” Then compares being pathological to being a child molester.
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Donald Trump says Ben Carson’s story about a belt buckle stopping a knife he stabbed at a friend doesn’t make sense. He then acts it out.
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Donald Trump acts out Ben Carson’s alleged stabbing: “Anybody have a knife and want to try it on me?”
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Trump on Carson’s changing stories: “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of this country to believe this crap?”
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Hour and 35 minutes after starting, Donald Trump is done. He promises to visit again soon. That was like sitting through a therapy session.
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) November 13, 2015
Either Trump was having an off night, he popped an Ambien before the speech, or the meltdown several people predicted has begun.
The question is, do his polls shoot up five points or 10?
Published in General
So, you’ve gone over to team Jeb! I see, Gabriel.
Always a winning strategy with voters: “How stupid are the people of Iowa?”
Good Grief! This is the man whose sound judgement we’re supposed to be impressed with?
Let the meltdown continue. I’ll pop some corn and watch the butter melt down right along with it.
Thanks for the post, Jon. You’ve made my night.
Sounds like a lot of wishful thinking to me. Lots of pundits have been predicting the collapse of the Trump campaign Any Day Now for the last several months.
For good or ill, it looks like he’s going to be hanging around for awhile. I think, too, that Daniel Henninger might not be far wrong.
Eric Hines
“I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.”
How did that happen? Did he check out a book from the library?
That’s the only reported comment that concerns me. Too close to Obama’s “I’m a better x than my x advisors” riff.
Also, on Special Report tonight Trump told Bret Baier he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline and take 25% of TransCanada’s profits. Okay…banana anyone?
That was in Fort Dodge? Tactical brilliance, baby!
The people who love Trump are going to continue loving him, regardless of what he says. Unless he calls Ben Carson the “N” word or says that Carly Fiorina is going to menstruate all over important legislation (I stole that line from an old article in The Onion) his fans are not going to turn their backs on him.
Because that’s what they are: fans.
More likely, he was stablemates with Al-Baghdadi and then they were on the same television show in different segments that were filmed in different continents on different days. In that case, he’d have ‘got to know [ISIS] very well.’ I bet the ratings were yuuuuuge, too.
Or maybe he just misheard Bill Clinton talking about what the meaning of IsIs.
Bravo.
Liz Mair was kicked out of Walker’s campaign for similar statements.
One man’s “meltdown” is another’s performance art.
Trump angers serious political reporters, who leave journalistic dispassion behind when it comes to him. Trump’s digs and the occasional tirade are intermittent. The journalo-pundits have sustained their hate for months: for some, every word tries to bring the man down. It’s like Order in the court! You’re in contempt! Get off my lawn! How dare the polls ignore our dismissal of this interloper! Banish him!
Comedians, meanwhile, love Trump. Like Leno used to say about Clinton’s sex scandal, the gift that keeps on giving. To the audience, the feuds and the narcissism are a small price to pay for the entertainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US621qT4S44
Sadly I believe that Trump does know more about ISIS than the generals. But that speaks more to our generals quality under Obams’s leadership then Trumps knowledge.
This is roughly the twenty-seventh prediction of the last zero Trump meltdowns/collapses/fades/etc.
Perhaps one of them will be correct, sooner or later. Or not. Keep hoping.
But imagine how well Trump would be doing if he’d only demonstrate a passing familiarity with his own proposals, or learn a little bit about the government.
I take Trump and his popularity as a sign of just how despised the GOP establishment has managed to make itself. To quote Mike Murphy (again) the base always shows up.
Until now. This is the fruit of thirty years of establishment contempt for the base, blooming right now.
Have a cold one, establishment. You’re a not just one man of genius, but a whole stinkin’ bar full of liquored up geniuses.
Trump doesn’t have the physical or mental stamina to do 2 hour debates and daily campaign appearances. He’s wearing down.
No, he read about it in the Wall Street Journal.
p.s. google HRC, Cattle Futures
Clearly, demanding to know how stupid Iowans are is Trump’s attempt to raise his numbers in Iowa.
What makes you think he would read a whole book?
He sounds like a b-tchy little girl. If he is not fading, he really should be.
Well, they reelected Obama. Just how smart can they be and still choose to reelect Obama?
I will wait.
Donald Trump is all theatre and no substance. If the voters elect him President we deserve to lose what freedom we have left. And we have multiple serious candidates to choose from. I don’t think Carson is ready to be President but he would be better than this Barnum & Bailey act.
We are upset with Republican leadership, that’s true, but Trump is not the answer.
If Obama was on the ballot a 3rd time (not a forgone conclusion he will not be) he wins in a walk.
I agree, but I am not sure I see the answer in this crowd. I think we are about to see a turn for the worse from Cruz and Rubio when their latest tussle expands.
I wish this were true. My feeling is nothing, absolutely nothing, this man could say would turn away his supporters. It doesn’t matter what he believes, what he would do, what he thinks, what he says.
Anyone who continues to support him at this point after all the crazy and stupid and ignorant and mean and self-aggrandizing and untrue things he has said is probably in for the duration. Has there ever been a candidate with any substantial following less suited for the presidency?
Hmmm….
I was wrong about Obama being unelectable twice. Back in 1980 I had qualms about Reagan’s electability.
Now that I’ve established that you’d be better off examining the entrails of a goat than listening to my opinions about anybody’s electability you’re about to get my opinion regarding Obama’s chances for being reelected a third time. Twenty second Amendment aside, I doubt it. Because Obama is term-limited he has been uninhibited about alienating voters and his unpopularity shows it.
That said, knowing he could be elected to a third term Obama might have behaved less offensively had the 22nd Amendment not been ratified and, conceivably, be reelected yet again.
God I hope he’s through. Let it be. What an unbelievable ass.
LOL, why do people take this moron seriously? It’s amazing.
Who said anything about being reelected?
Can’t he just wait until the ninth inning, call his own number, issue an executive order, and move back in?
WARNING: Sports metaphor alert. I’ve probably bungled it.
JH, I think much of his behavior has endeared him even more to his base and to date I’ve not seen a credible alternative on the right, some good folks, but nobody we are willing to die for in the voting booth.
If/when Hillary is indicted at Obama’s direction in late summer 2016 look for another crisis, most likely financial, and all heck breaks loose. Obama magnanimously agrees to run again – it isn’t like he’s adhered to the Constitution or been held accountable by Congress for 8 years – every snowflake at Mizzou etc. drops the protest signs and runs to vote for him. Combined with the typical left constituencies and he retains the White House.
Do you expect Ryan/McConnell to impeach or SCOTUS to
reignrein (h/t Mama T) in the terror?Yes – Obama.