last week It was cruel For Donald Trump.
The weekend didn’t bring him any rest.
President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in a move that shocked everyone, including Kamala Harris’ campaign.
“We never thought there’d be a news show about cat lovers,” a Harris campaign aide said. Said The Washington Post. “This is happening naturally without us pushing for it. … I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s very strange.”
The campaign aide was speaking specifically about Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, but really, the entire campaign. Trump is not only under attack from an energized Democratic base and a media that has become surprisingly competent at covering the campaign overnight. In addition, he is under attack from: culture. The campaign has become a meme, with Trump and Vance the butt of laughs.
So let’s take a look at President Trump’s fun and brutal weekend.
Trump spoke on Saturday at a Believers Summit in Florida, organized by evangelical Christian group Turning Point Action. He told attendees “You don’t have to vote anymore. Four more years and it’ll be all right. No need to vote anymore my beautiful Christians,” the comment said, and it went viral.
This is not the first time Trump has made such comments, he said it on June 22. To tell“Go out and vote, just this once. You don’t have to vote in four years, OK? You don’t have to vote in four years. I don’t care. But it makes all the difference because it settles everything.”
The difference is that on June 22, the media was overly preoccupied with Biden’s age and the growing voices of leading Democrats urging him to drop out. Now, the media has returned to covering the broader campaign, and Trump can no longer escape scrutiny.
But beyond that, his words are becoming more frightening, menacing and authoritarian by the day. On June 22, he seemed to be saying, “I don’t care about voting unless I’m on the ballot.” His Republican colleagues were sure to be happy to hear that. But the new phrase is basically, “Stop voting.” Trump can no longer keep it to himself. The broader electorate is finally starting to take notice.
What’s even more odd about this poll is that 12% Republican I’m crazy about Harris. Hello Nikki Haley supporters! Come on in, the water is warm!
There’s plenty of real material to work with, and Vance has been criticized on policy issues. But surprisingly, he’s also been the butt of some completely unrelated jokes. The couch jokes and memes? They were based on a Twitter joke about Vance writing in his classic novel, Hillbilly Elegy, that he had sex with a couch as a kid. It wasn’t true, and was quickly proven false, but it didn’t matter. The meme and joke makers got to work, and the results were devastating for Vance.
John Oliver said, “If someone told me the reason I find coins between the couch cushions is because J.D. Vance always leaves tips, I’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s true.'”
This culture is devastating Vance (and Trump) and there is nothing they can do about it.
Bonus Viral TikTok Videos here.
The poll, which tracked the candidates’ favorability ratings in key Midwestern battleground states, was not good news for Trump.
Former White House aide Keith Boykin was right: Trump had completely lost his mind.
Trump yelling “Ignore the fake polls unless they’re in my favor” was the funniest thing I’ve seen this weekend.
But glee at other people’s misfortune aside, the merits of this poll are crystal clear: It’s not a head-to-head poll, but favorability ratings matter, and the reason Harris has soared in these key battleground states is precisely because she provides such a stark and refreshing contrast to Trump.
An astounding 66% of her donors were first-time donors, and I would estimate that the majority of them were small donors nowhere near the limit. She could easily double (if not triple) that amount in the coming months. The Harris campaign is not going to be in financial trouble.
Plus, her campaign announced it had signed up 170,000 new volunteers, which is just as important, if not more important, than cash. A lot of that money will be wasted on TV ads that do nothing to move the numbers. But what about volunteers? That army wins elections.
Speaking of culture: Her TikTok account We gained 2.7 million new followers in one day. In a close election, everyone counts. But with young Gen Z voting, it doesn’t make a difference.
new ABC/Ipsos Poll In poll results released over the weekend, Harris’ favorability rating now sits at 43% favorable and 42% unfavorable – a staggering net increase of +12 points in just one week, compared to 35/46 a week ago.
Any talk about Harris being a particularly unpopular politician is outdated. Meanwhile…
among them Same votePresident Trump’s approval rating went from 40/51 a week ago to 36/52 today, a net drop of 5 points.
Seriously, this is unprecedented. Candidates always gain momentum at party conventions (not to mention Assassination attempt). Trump somehow missed both opportunities: His net favorability rating of -16 is well below Harris’s net favorability rating of +1.
Vance strangeTrump strange.
The only insult worse than “weird” would be “creepy,” but that’s exactly how both Republican candidates are.
After decades of trying to figure out how to label Republicans as effectively as Trump did “Hillary Crick,” the Holy Grail has been found. And the problem for Republicans is that it’s true. Their obsession with sex. teeth Strange. Their Outdated ideas about women’s roles And the autonomy they have over their bodies is strange. Their affair The association with white supremacists and Nazis is odd. Love for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin Strange. Their Hysteria over the Paris Olympics That’s strange. Project 2025 is strange.
Yes, they are clearly dangerous, but weird captures the zeitgeist far more than any alarmist term (no matter how justified).
On Monday, this email arrived in my inbox:
Biden withdrew a week ago, and the Trump campaign is still running fundraising calls attacking “Sleepy Joe” (as if they wanted to “match” that ridiculous camo hat). This is not operating at full speed, nor is it adapting to the changing realities on the ground.
Harris’ campaign team was the same as Biden’s. It was the same people who were doing all the campaign stuff. But What a difference The candidate does.
The Biden campaign two weeks ago:
Harris’ campaign this weekend:
One campaign sounded like it was still running straight from the 1980s, while the other was tapping into the cultural zeitgeist and inspiring the memes and narratives that currently define the race.
If Harris’ audition for the vice presidential spot teaches us anything, it’s that we have a deep talent pool and a wealth of incredibly talented surrogates.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said:
Or Minnesota Governor Tim Walz:
Or Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear:
Oh, that was so good! Anyone Harris He was chosen as her running mate.we’ll be in great shape.
These bullet points are not exhaustive. Republican efforts to rebrand Harris continue to fail. They are clearly trying to attack her for being joyful.“Laughing Kamala”) has not landed. And Trump supporters are distracted by their new toy: the Paris Olympics. Being a conservative can be exhausting, moving from pointless rage to bland rage to self-defeating rage. And Great economic news.
The consensus is that this euphoria will not last: Eventually Trump will find the magic insult, the media will turn their guns on Harris, and her rise in the polls will come crashing down to reality.
But if that do not Will it happen? Why should it happen? Trump gives us new material every day, and clumsy Vance is the gift that keeps on giving. Harris is off to a strong start, but her campaign is still in the works. We haven’t seen her fully in campaign mode yet.
The nation’s attention will be focused on the Olympics, and we’ll be excited to see Harris announced as vice president (and, as mentioned above, all of the leading candidates are great). Democratic National Convention The election is coming up and ours will be a legitimate political party, unlike the dreary and boring election run by the Republicans.
Then September rolled around and Harris dominated the news for six full weeks. Will Trump debate Harris? If he doesn’t, the media and memesters will have even more ammunition to attack him with. If he does, the contrast will be brutal. Either way, Trump will lose.
And all the while, Biden will be able to continue making popular announcements from the presidential podium, giving Harris an extra incumbent-like boost.
So what can Trump and his allies do to change course? Either they resort to sexism and racism, or Harris “EmptyAre they calling her “” just because she’s a woman?
Folks, not only do we have a chance to win, Big victory. And winning big doesn’t just mean nipping a second Trump insurrection in the bud: it means lifting all the electoral boats: Senate, House, governorship, Congress.
Yes, Trump had a bad weekend, but we’re just opening ourselves up to the possibility of what could happen.
Help keep the momentum going by donating to the Harris campaign. Donate now!
