Do You Think Trump Is Even Trying to Win Anymore?

[Doctor Jack]

There were times during this campaign where Trump seemed to be trying his Trumpiest to win the election. The polls even got somewhat close a month ago. But his behavior since the first debate and especially after the tape was released has become extremely unhinged and frightening. He is down bigly in the polls and seems to be doing absolutely nothing to assure voters that he is both mentally stable and a good person anymore. He seems to be doing whatever he damn well pleases and is hemorrhaging support from swing voters.

To me, it looks like he has given up and doesn't give shits anymore. But I do wonder what you fine folks think. Do you believe trump is still trying to win this election or has he given up and is just out to get revenge from the people that he imagines have wronged him?

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. He is trying to win. He just does't live the reality the rest of us do.

[Doctor Jack]

3. I can't tell if his current behavior is mostly revenge because he is going to lose

Or if he has slipped into a state of delusion like Hitler in his bunker in '45. Trump clearly has severe narcissism and losing on the word stage, very badly, could explain his violent and erratic behavior. Then again, he could also be very aware that he is going to lose and is just trying to take down as many people with him. Either way, its destroying whatever minuscule chances he had left to win and his career is likely damaged beyond repair. Whatever his motivation is, it seems to be reaping unfathomable rewards for our side, so I'm not all that concerned.

[Agschmid]

19. Yup.

[rusty quoin]

2. There is some consensus he creating a media network

and to corral those millions of his crazies to buy his bullshit into the future.

[ailsagirl]

4. I just don't know

because, seriously, it's difficult/impossible to know what's going on in his crazy orange brain

Maybe at some point we'll see what drove him, but probably only in retrospect

[Doctor Jack]

5. We will need the people inside the campaign to talk after the election

They always do. By mid-November we will know whether he had completely lost his mind or if he just has the attitude "if I'm going to hell, I'm taking you all with me".

[tblue37]

7. He imposes ironclad nondisclosure agreements. nt

[ailsagirl]

17. That figures

[NanceGreggs]

6. I don't believe he's ever wanted to win.

He doesn't want the job that goes with winning.

This is his ultimate "reality show", and he's the star. And it was fun for a while - the attention, the crowds.

But I don't think he ever thought he'd actually win the GE - which is fine with him.

This man has done nothing - and I do mean nothing - that someone who wants to win does. In fact, he's done pretty much everything he can to alienate every demographic of voters AND the party members he needs.

He'll play out the rest of the "unscripted" script. He'll bitch-'n'-moan that he's been hard done by, that his falling numbers are everyone else's fault. He'll have the usual tantrums that attract the media's attention.

And then he'll be gone.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Of course he is.

And anyone who thinks he was ever in this other to win is simply wrong.

I'm sure he's quite convinced he really is ahead, is probably going to win, and any so-called polls that show otherwise are wrong. Plus, I doubt anyone around him is cluing him in on what's happening in the real world.

On Election Night he's in for a very rude awakening. Of course, he won't really wake up then, but will blather on about how the entire election was rigged and will promise to sue everyone over his loss. He'll try to take it to the Supreme Court and get nowhere.

Perhaps investing in popcorn stock at this point would be a money maker.

[Upthevibe]

9. I completely agree with everything NanceGreggs said.NanceGreggs,you said it better than I could have

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I absolutely agree that for Donald Trump

running for President is the ultimate reality show.

But no one ever runs for office without convincing themselves they can win, no matter how great the odds. And someone like Donald Trump, with an ego the size of the Andromeda Galaxy, of course believes he will win. What Donald really doesn't understand is to what extent running for President is NOT a reality show. That's the world (reality shows) that he understands. And business. Sort of. He does not even remotely understand the world of politics or running for office. But he thinks, because he thinks he's so smart, that he does understand those things. He's wrong, of course.

Nance Greggs and I have different opinions here.

[DetlefK]

11. He doesn't want to win. He's just in this for the fight itself.

Like Romney, he never wanted the Presidency itself. He just wanted the prestige that comes along with the Presidency.

Trump is no longer fighting to win this competition. He is fighting to crush his challenger.

[displacedtexan]

22. Yep. He's a junkyard dog. A rabid one.

His brand is lost, he's in debt up to his eyeballs, and he's got nothing left to lose. He never had a good name, so that's not an issue. He just has to win, in his opinion.

And I love that he won't even begin his speech while the first lady is speaking. He's a coward.

[0rganism]

12. his intentions do seem uncertain at times, but overall i think he means to win

at this point, about the only way he can possibly get revenge (in his mind) and begin to vindicate himself to the rest of the world is by actually winning the election. and every time one of these scandals drops his possibility of revenge gets slimmer and slimmer, and he gets madder and madder because he knows damn well that 95% of the world will laugh at him when he gets blown out in the election, and it will totally wreck his brand. everywhere.

at first i thought, "oh he doesn't care anymore?" because he looks just like you say, pushing the bounds of public behavior. but the more i think about it, it seems to me like he does care, and it freaks him the fuck out because he's on the crazy train to shitville and it arrives in 4 weeks. he's strutting and fretting his last few hours upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. in four weeks it's finished, and he's finished along with it. poetic justice is unfolding before humanity's eyes, and he sees it just as clearly as the rest of us do, but being the imminent receiver of said justice, his perspective is unique and he doesn't have anywhere near the coping skills necessary to deal with it sanely.

at least that's how it seems to me now. i do prefer to imagine him as an egomaniac who knows his time has come, and he's about to be exposed permanently as a criminal parasite -- an entitled brat, a fraud, a cheat, an abuser, a sexual predator, allegedly a rapist, possibly in collaboration with foreign powers to overthrow democracy. all this will be hung about his neck as he slouches into the third debate, which he'll turn into his swan song of ultimate arrogance.

and then we vote.

[GaYellowDawg]

13. Absolutely, I think he is.

We're looking at him and thinking he's completely crazy. That surely no one who says these things thinks he's going to win. But it's my opinion that he is doing what he thinks will win the election, for a number of reasons.

- During the Republican primaries, the lower he went, the more that Republicans rewarded him. He'd say terrible things to his opponents at debates and his numbers would go up.

- At his rallies, the worse the comment, the bigger the roars, and not just in the primaries. I am certain he's convinced that the ruder and more insulting he gets, the more votes he gets. I think he's convinced that the completely crazy people at his crowds represent mainstream America, rather than its lunatic fringe. I think he's convinced that he's the epicenter of a genuine political revolution.

- He has surrounded himself with belly-crawling sycophants. It doesn't matter what he does, his campaign staff is going to butter him up. Giuliani and Christie are so far up his backside that you can't tell where they end and he begins. No matter what he does, it's praise for Trump. The family is just about as much a cult as the family from Westboro Baptist in their blind devotion to him. When he ventures outside the immediate crowd, it's to Hannity or whatever alt-right slopshow he can find to fawn on him like he the best thing to ever happen to Murka.

So Trump is basically in this big bubble. And in TrumpBubble, he's ahead, he's leading in polls, he won both debates, the country loves him for his plain speech, and he and his bigly millions of followers will sweep the country in a Trumpnami, laying waste to Democrats and the foolish Republicans who foolishly abandoned the biggest winner of all time. In TrumpBubble, he's a lock for the Presidency, he's going to clap Hillary in irons just after he takes the oath of office, and the job? No sweat, he'll do what he feels like doing and dump the rest on Pence, the staff, and the Cabinet. Why not? There are still some old Reagan operatives out there who can tell him how to be an absentee President.

[BlueMTexpat]

14. In Trump's alternate reality,

he IS winning. In his own mind and within his circle of admiring sycophants and deplorable supporters, he is doing everything right: he won both debates, is leading in the polls YUGELY and will give Hillary the YUGEST, most ENORMOUS defeat ever.

We peons just don't see the reality as per Trump. Facts are like pesky gnats that he swats away. He is truly mired in his swamp of narcissism.

IMHO, he will be genuinely surprised when he loses. He will no doubt charge that the election was "rigged."

[Princess Turandot]

15. I believe that *he* wants to win...

But it also may be that he's assembled an inner circle some of whose goals are not dependent upon him actually winning, even while they tell him that he can.

His increasingly bizarre and ineffective campaign 'strategy' is stoking up working class white racists even more than PBO's presidency did. Until Trump, they had to content themselves with revealing their hate mostly to one another, slinking about on the margins of society. Now someone is saying that which they believe, on camera, and on an international stage. It's the Alt-Right's wet dream. As awful as FoxNews is, I can't imagine David Duke getting a talk show on their network. On Trump TV, run by Bannon/Breitbart? I think it would happen.

[pampango]

16. Yep. He wants to win. He sees himself as a WINNER so of course he wants to win.

He just lacks the discipline, strength and stamina to formulate and pursue a presidential campaign or to be a president.

It's much easier for him to just play to his base over and over by just doing the "Donald being Donald" thing. He may think that will actually win him the election. It did work for the republican nomination and he does have his own alternate reality. I am sure he has multiple Plan B's if he does not win, all of which involve expectations of lots of money and fame for him.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. He does. But can't admit he has no clue 'how to'. nt

[Fast Walker 52]

21. my take too-- he wants to, but his massive ego is getting in the way

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. I would say "it's unbelievable". But the more i read about this prick the

more sense it makes.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. He's got an INSATIABLE need for attention according to his biographer, Schwartz.

Schwartz has been "on the money" about everything else.

Trump wants to be POTUS because he wants the spotlight it brings, not because he's capable.

If he doesn't win, he'll still try to keep his posse of thugs in tow. Rumors of "Trump TV" seem possible to me if he can get the financial backing for it.