Gabby Orr’s May 20th piece for Politico opens with this: “The Trump campaign has an order from the president: Find a way to get him back on the road and into megarallies to re-energize his base.” The pandemic has brought a temporary end to satisfying his need to “connect with his ultra-loyal fans.” I was drawn to this focus through Joshua Holland’s May 20th piece for AlterNet examining recent Trump raging.
What I find puzzling is that first line from Orr’s article. Does his base need re-energization? Haven’t we seen their recent energy directed with screaming fits at governors continuing shelter-in-place policies? Hasn’t defying those policies with church gatherings and nail salon traffic exhibited abundant energy? In fact, hasn’t all of the hysteria been a result of Trump playing his base? Or, more precisely, special interests in seeing the economy reopen, such as Convention of States, partially funded by the Robert Mercer family foundation with ties to the current Federal administration through individuals such as Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development? As Isaac Stanley-Becker and Tony Romm observe:
“A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.”
The child in the crib is raging. But whether or not his rage is as organically and deeply frustrating to the child as the strings of his base, his separation from the campaign trail is an ominous sign that his re-election strategies are failing. For those of us not tied to the Fox News propaganda cord, he was unable to sustain daily COVID-19 briefings because the public began to see that he did not have a handle on the situation. “It will go away, just stay calm” was a statement Trump made on March 10, 2020, citing the statistic of only 26 deaths compared to “the flu for this year, we’re looking at 8,000 deaths.” As early as February 10th he began this refrain. And by April 30th he had repeated it to the press far too many times (see link below for the video compilation by The Washington Post). By April 30th, the death toll had reached above 60,000 in the United States. Not quite the match for the flu, then?
This rage is all about re-election. The rage the child directs toward the United States Postal Service. His fulminations against Nevada’s sending of ballots ahead of the June 9th primary and Michigan’s mailing of ballot applications to all of its registered voters. He is consumed by re-election. Although I doubt that the child understands election mechanics well enough — after all, he voted fraudulently with an absentee ballot from his Mar-a-Lago address for the Florida Republican presidential primary (see Schwardon link below). The Republican Party, the party of voter suppression, more than compensates for his ignorance with sustained action ergo the railing against mail-in balloting.
But the child perceives the implications of not connecting with his teething ring base. With the current number of COVID-19 cases and deaths and the attendant astronomical unemployment rate (see Lambert link below), the child’s chances of re-election are grim. Only the warm smiles and receptive body parts of his fans can energize him now.
Orr, ” ‘A moonshot mission’: Trump campaign eyes a return to megarallies”; https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/overwhelmed-and-losing-trump-is-melting-down-in-a-narcissistic-rage/
Holland, “Overwhelmed and losing, Trump is melting down in a narcissistic rage,” AlterNet; https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/overwhelmed-and-losing-trump-is-melting-down-in-a-narcissistic-rage/
Stanley-Becker and Romm, “The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping,” The Washington Post, April 22, 2020; https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-conservative-networks-backing-anti-quarantine-protests/2020/04/22/da75c81e-83fe-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html
26 deaths: President Trump: It will go away, just stay calm,” C-SPAN, March 10, 2020; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZgJZgFZbU
Washington Post, “13 times Trump said the coronavirus would go away,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8yOv4PwttM
Terry H. Schwardon, “Trump’s Florida voter registration trips ups (sic) his Mar-a-Lago plans,” AlterNet, May 17, 2020; https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-florida-voter-registration-trips-ups-his-mar-a-lago-plans/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4546
Lance Lambert, “38.6 million have filed for unemployment during the pandemic—greater than the combined population of 21 states,” Fortune, May 21, 2020; https://fortune.com/2020/05/21/us-unemployment-rate-numbers-claims-this-week-total-job-losses-may-21-2020-benefits-claims-job-losses/
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