Trump reveals weakness every time he complains about losing

Recently, I was telling you about a pet theory of mine – that most people, most of the time, are not currently prepared to believe that Donald Trump is going to be the GOP’s presidential nominee. The thought of a second term is too dreadful to think about. So a lot of people have decided not to! Anyway, there are still alternatives around. Maybe GOP voters will instead go with Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. The holidays aren’t over yet! It feels like there’s still time to hope.

A consequence of so many people deciding not to think about Trump is that Joe Biden is being seen in a vacuum. It’s as if, a year from now, Biden will be assessed solely on his job performance. Not so. In reality, voters will choose between two candidates. To a lot of people, Biden seems like a less-than-ideal option. Maybe he is! But standing next to Trump, he’s going to seem like a reasonable, sane and good choice.

Another consequence of Joe Biden being seen in a vacuum is this: Donald Trump seems much stronger than he really is. If a lot of people just don’t want to think about him, and I suspect that that’s the case for now, that gives people who do want to think about it all the room they need. And because Trump is talking only to people who want to think about him, and not to people who don’t, he can say virtually anything without worrying about ever being challenged too hard.

The result is this: He’s going deeper and deeper into dictator territory. The deeper he goes, the scarier he seems, the scarier he seems, the stronger he seems – which is why, when you combine this with Biden’s soft polling numbers, some have grown so alarmed that they’ve called on the president to step aside and let another Democrat give it a go.

The president shouldn’t step aside, and isn’t (thank God), because he understands what’s about to happen – most people, most of the time, will soon see that Trump really is going to be the GOP’s presidential nominee. They will probably see this reality by the end of March, maybe sooner. Once they do, all the polling that shows weakness on Biden’s part is going to turn around. That turnaround will reveal how strong he is. Conversely, once it’s clear that a second term for Donald Trump really could happen, it will be revealed just how weak he is.

Which brings me to another pet theory of mine – that at some point in the future, we will look back at the current moment to see that Trump’s weakness should have been obvious, but wasn’t, because most people didn’t want to think about the dreadful idea of a second Trump term. And it should have been obvious for a simple reason – he keeps telling us how weak he is. The man can’t stop talking about it!

If you’re in the tank, you already believe that the 2020 election was stolen. You already believe Joe Biden is a villain. You already believe a galaxy of things that can’t exist outside your social circles. There is no argument. These, for you, are just facts. There is no evidence available in this world that could possibly complicate what you think you know.

To people in the tank, Trump’s endless complaining about how he didn’t really lose the election doesn’t seem like complaining at all. Instead, it seems like an affirmation of faith. He said he really won. The faithful believe him. Then their faith is affirmed with each repetition of the lie – onward it goes, a closed circuit that no fact can penetrate.

But to people who are not in the tank, which is to say, to people who are not immune to facts, evidence and reason – which is to say, to most people, most of the time – Trump’s endless complaining sounds like endless complaining. It doesn’t sound like an article of faith. He doesn’t sound like a hero of the republic. He sounds like a man who wants revenge for getting beat. In other words, he sounds like a putz.

That’s weakness.

And every time he complains about losing, he reveals it.

But weakness is hard to see, perhaps impossible, because so many people don’t want to think about him, and because so many people are not prepared to believe that he’s going to be the GOP’s nominee. But by the end of March, maybe sooner, they will. Once that stage of the election is over, the next will be exploiting Trump’s weakness.