Is Trump Planning To Coup Instead of Planning to Win?

If he is, he’s a fool.

Donald Trump’s campaign for president looks like it’s in disarray. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is outspending him by 2 to 1 on advertising. And Trump’s field network is a mess. He outsourced much of his door-knocking to groups like Elon Musk’s America PAC. But GOP activists on the ground told the AP they’ve seen little evidence of America PAC on the ground in states like Michigan and North Carolina. America PAC in fact just fired one of its major canvassing companies—not ideal when you’re less than 50 days out from the election.

No one is exactly sure how much difference canvassing makes, and there’s still time for the Trump campaign to sort itself out. But when your own party activists are telling reporters your ground game sucks—well, that’s not great news for your campaign.

And yet, when the news of Trump’s troubles went up on social media, a lot of people suggested it was not an indication of incompetence, but an indication that he has a different master plan. Mueller, She Wrote, a large liberal account, argued that Republicans were sandbagging their ground game because “they don’t intend to win with votes.”

Democrats are understandably nervous about overconfidence, and again Trump could improve his ground game or win without it. But he is not sabotaging his own election chances in order to prepare for a coup. Or, to the extent he is doing that, he’s hurting himself and helping Democrats.

The argument here is straightforward:

—

The rest of the article is paywalled. But! if you are not a subscriber and want to keep reading, you are in luck, because there’s a 40% off sale now! That’s $30/year, and you get to read this post, other paywalled posts, and help me keep writing! Please consider coming on board!

—