Trump and his campaign enter turbulent phase in final weeks
With just 45 days left until the election,
the past three weeks reveal whatever control and self-restraint helped launch Trump’s third presidential campaign has largely disappeared in the crucial final stretch.
On the Monday before Trump’s first debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, his running mate shared on social media, without evidence, the claim that #Haitian #immigrants were abducting and
eating their neighbors’ pets
— one Trump repeated the following night on the debate stage, in a moment that instantly went viral.
Trump’s #chaotic and widely criticized #debate #performance coincided with an already tumultuous period for the former president.
He had recently welcomed back into his orbit Corey #Lewandowski
— his former 2016 campaign manager who was exiled after allegations of #sexual #assault by a donor
— and had begun traveling around the country with Laura #Loomer, a far-right ally who has spread #conspiracy #theories.
Two failed apparent #assassination attempts,
as well as additional #threats against him,
have also left the freewheeling presidential candidate constrained by a mushrooming #security presence and has made staging campaign events more challenging.
Meanwhile, after #Taylor #Swift endorsed Harris following the debate, Trump picked a fight with the international icon, posting last Sunday on social media,
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
— the sort of impulsive, #impetuous display that has become increasingly common in recent weeks.
️In a single 24-hour span at the end of last month, for example,
he amplified a crude joke about Harris performing a sex act;
falsely accused her of staging a coup against President Joe Biden;
promoted tributes to the QAnon conspiracy theory;
hawked digital trading cards;
and became embroiled in a public feud with staff and officials at Arlington National Cemetery.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/21/trump-turbulence-campaign-election/