Trump's crowd-size self-obsession manifested itself when he claimed the media misrepresented the number of people attending his inauguration. Trump spoke at CIA headquarters and said that "one of the networks" had shown "an empty field," while he saw a crowd that "looked like a million-and-a-half people" and "went all the way back to the Washington Monument."
In the wake of the August mass shooting, Trump visited a hospital in El Paso, Texas, and proceeded to brag about the crowd size at an earlier campaign rally, saying, "the place was packed... that was some crowd and we had twice the number outside."
Trump's lies, delusions and tantrums reveal a fragility that dominates his decision-making.
He's not even trying to hide his self-pity, tweeting, "there has been no President in the history of our country who has been treated so badly as I have": it's his panic, masquerading as strength.
Trump revels in his own claim of celebrity, fame and wealth. The prospect of him losing the 2020 election would be a public rebuke and humiliation, that he could never allow to happen.
Trump has already made it clear that he would not accept the results of the 2020 presidential election if he were to lose.
July 30 tweet: "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history," Trump tweeted. "It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"
Do you really believe that he didn't have a nefarious strategy if he thought his DeJoy Post Office rigging the election wasn't going to work?
Trump, who has said that he could only lose if the election were "rigged" against him, would never, ever accept the results of an election he lost.
The Biden campaign needed a strategy (conspiracy) to keep him in check because it wasn't that long ago during one of his public meltdowns that The Donald tweeted about the possibility of "a Civil War like fracture" if he was impeached.
Trump is so full of himself it never occurred to him that Biden might be behind a conspiracy to make Trump believe he could easily win, "by a landslide."
Can you imagine what Trump would have done if the Biden and Harris rallies were full of the enthusiasm and cheering crowds not seen since the election of Barack Obama?
The crowds at his rallies in key swing states convinced Trump and his supporters that the polls showing Trump trailing Biden were wrong again. They decided that all they needed to do was to tell his supporters to vote in person, take over the Post Office and destroy the mail-in ballots.
Eric Trump, not that bright, dismissed any idea that Biden could win because he was sure that enthusiasm is all that mattered. He points to Trump's massive crowds in key swing states as evidence that they will win on November 3. Eric Trump told a rally crowd in Michigan the following day that he predicts a bigger win for his father than in 2016, based on "enthusiasm."
"The enthusiasm is unlike anything that we've seen before," he told a crowd of hundreds of people. "I'm telling you the polls are wrong. I am telling you they're going to get it wrong again."
I bought into the enthusiasm factor and thought Biden needed to infuse his campaign with more energy.
So where were Biden supporters before November 3? You know the ones dancing in the street, not just in America, but all over the world celebrating President-elect Joe Biden's victory over The Donald.
Biden made sure they stayed home and out of Trump's sight.
While Trump was holding sometimes 2 or 3 rallies a day, Biden made sure that everyone knew he was at a really small-scale, socially-distanced event. [2]
The Biden media offered the lame excuse, but admitted his approach was intentional, that Joe was showcasing his respect for public-health guidelines.
The approach was intentional, but it had nothing to do with COVID-19, health, but everything to do with Trump's mental health.
The Trump supporters watched Biden talking to four steelworkers wearing masks in their backyard and believed the low turnout meant Trump was by far the more popular presidential candidate. Facebook users speculated that the low turnout revealed Biden was unpopular.
The Donald bought this fake news as well.
The experts knew something was wrong: Newsweek's analysis: It's impossible to know how direct an impact the rallies will have on the election. Enthusiasm may not be enough to treat Trump's campaign wounds.
Notice that while Trump was confident and bragging that he was going to win, Joe on the other hand with the polls in his favor looked cautious and not so confident. Trump even joked that he would leave the country if he lost.
Fortunately, Trump doesn't do any research or listen to anyone, or he would have known:
- Why the polls were wrong in 2015 but accurate in the 2020 election and
- The enthusiasm factor would not stop the Trump Haters from voting for anyone but the most vicious, cruel, incompetent leader the United States has ever seen. They would do anything to make sure he left the White House in January.
The Biden campaign strategy worked; it convinced Trump he could Make America a Nightmare for four more years.
There was a conspiracy to make Trump believe that he was going to win because the real danger in 2020 had nothing to do with public health--it was the Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADs).
During the Eisenhower administration, PEADs were put in place to ensure continuity of government in case the Soviets launched a nuclear attack.PEADs are draft executive orders, proclamations, and messages to Congress that are prepared in advance of anticipated emergencies. The government PEADs are kept from the public but the PEADs drafted from the 1950s through the 1970s were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
COVID-19, PEADs: Connect the Dots
Let's say the crisis at hand is, say, a nationwide coronavirus pandemic. The president can activate laws that allow the executive branch to take extraordinary action under specified conditions, such as war on the coronavirus and domestic upheaval from nationwide social-distancing and lockdown orders to contain the pandemic, regardless of whether a national emergency has been declared.
The PEADs would not only have authorized martial law but suspended habeas corpus, revoked Americans' passports, and allowed the roundup and detention of "subversives" identified in the Roger Stone "Security Index," and you guessed it, suspend the 2020 Election.
The rule of law, the Supreme Court, Congress, the Senate, and for sure Bill Barr would not have been able to save us from King Don Jon-ump. The only person who will get to decide if Trump can expand some of the more oppressive features of the PEADs is ... you guessed it, Attorney General William Barr. [2]
Trump was destined to lose the election even before he mishandled the virus and the economic meltdown.
Do you really believe that Trump would not have declared an emergency for the sake of holding on to power and keeping him, and his family, out of jail?
Yesterday, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo flippantly told reporters "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."
Fortunately for us, The Donald alienated the military when he disparaged John McCain and called Americans who died in war 'Losers' and 'Suckers'; they won't be helping him if he tries to declare himself King of the United States of America.
I'm Fred Gransville and I approve of this conspiracy theory.
Footnotes
[1] Despite happy to hear Trump is seemingly doing better, Biden did however note that he fears Trump's message to not fear the coronavirus sends the wrong message to the American people.
"I hope no one walks away with a message thinking it's not a problem. It's a serious problem," he said.
Because Trump has been criticized for holding in-person rallies with maskless crowds, Holt questioned whether Biden was surprised to hear the president contracted the virus.
"Quite frankly, I wasn't surprised," Biden said, adding that it's not shocking should someone test positive if they don't have a mask on or do not social distance as the CDC guidelines state. "Masks matter. These masks, they matter. It matters. It saves lives. It prevents the spread of the disease."
[2] The modern constitutions of many other countries specify when and how a state of emergency may be declared and which rights may be suspended, but the few paragraphs in U.S. Constitution dealing with threats are assigned to Congress, not the president. There is no comprehensive discussion for how to deal and govern during an emergency.
When Trump decided that he was in charge and not the governors he was attempting to exhibit leadership on a scale equal to Franklin D. Roosevelt's internment of U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese descent during World War II or George W. Bush's programs of warrantless wiretapping and torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
