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Donald Trump launched Truth Social in 2022 to have a megaphone that lets him speak directly with his cult of deluded followers after getting kicked off all the major platforms for his attempted coup against the U.S. government. And Trump’s social media platform is looking more and more bizarre by the day as he comes completely unhinged with the realization that Kamala Harris could win the election this November.
Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday, leading Trump to live-tweet during her speech. It’s a fascinating peek into just how weird things are getting for Trump, who’s clearly frustrated that Harris has energized a wide swath of the American public in an election where energy will drive the turnout needed to win.
“There will be no future under Comrade Kamala Harris, because she will take us into a Nuclear World War III! She will never be respected by the Tyrants of the World!” Trump exclaimed in a post that was typical of the evening.
There’s obviously a lot going on in that post, from the absurdity of saying Harris will cause World War III to suggesting a mainstream Democrat is a Communist. But that last line may be the most unintentionally hilarious. Trump seems to believe that U.S. presidents need to be “respected by the tyrants of the world,” something that’s not really a qualification for the job. In fact, if a tyrant respects you, you’re probably doing some tyrannical shit, which makes sense given the 45th president’s love affairs with dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump dozens of posts Thursday night, each one more confusing than the last it seems. For example, Trump appears to think Hezbollah was somehow involved in the terror attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023.
“She caused the Attack of October 7th. Iran was BROKE – Didn’t have money for Hezbollah!” Trump wrote, apparently very confused about everything.
There were also plenty of all-caps missives, including lies used to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s infamous Project 2025 to create a far-right government bureaucracy that would strip Americans of their rights.
“LYING AGAIN ABOUT PROJECT 2025, WHICH SHE KNOWS, AND SO DO ALL DEMOCRATS, THAT I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH!” Trump wrote.
Trump also seems obsessed with Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who has been in legal trouble over tax and gun issues and has become a lightning rod of controversy for people who watch Fox News in recent years.
“WHERE’S HUNTER?” Trump wrote, seeming to forget that he’s no longer running against Biden or his son. Trump is running against Harris now, a fact he clearly hates.
The interesting thing to remember about Trump’s posts on social media is that he really does understand the world as revolving around himself completely. As a narcissist, Trump has only ever thought about himself and how the rest of humanity can serve him. And that shows up in how he’ll write non-sequiturs on Truth Social while just taking it for granted that everyone is watching the exact same thing that he is on television. It’d be funny if it wasn’t a very real possibility that he could again become the most powerful person in the world.
And it wasn’t just social media where Trump shared his torrent of hate and bile on Thursday night. Trump called into Fox News, where he had a painfully awkward conversation with hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier. Trump rambled about immigrants and got defensive about the surge Harris is experiencing. Eventually, MacCallum and Baier tried to get him off the line but struggled.
This might be the funniest thing I've ever seen.
Trump called into Fox News to rage about Kamala's speech, only to be cut off by Bret Baier so they could get to Gutfeld's show. pic.twitter.com/wCUiVYbYyw
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 23, 2024
Trump then called into Newsmax, where he continued the strange and undignified whining about immigration and the jobs report. Trump even claimed that the latest revisions to the government’s jobs report—something that happens every month—was the result of some nefarious process rather than a normal part of the system to make sure the jobs numbers are as accurate as possible.
By Friday morning, Trump was back to his more regularly scheduled programming on social media, which is to say he was just lying a lot. The best one of the day so far? Trump, the man responsible for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned 50 years of abortion access for millions of women by abolishing the precedent of Roe v. Wade, says that he’s a champion of reproductive health.
“My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” Trump wrote.
Sure, Don. You’re a real great guy.
Harris is doing a little better in the polls each day, but it’s no guarantee that she’s going to win. The vice president’s margin on Trump increased to 3.6 points in FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average on Friday, the highest it’s been since Harris entered the race a month ago. But obviously the U.S. doesn’t decide elections based on who gets the most votes nationally. We’ve got an Electoral College system where she has to win a bunch of very specific states to pull it off.
Thankfully, Harris is also pulling ahead in the battleground polls. She’s up 3.9 points in Wisconsin, 3.4 points in Michigan, and 1.8 points in Pennsylvania, according to FiveThirtyEight’s most recent polling averages. If she can win those three states, it’s essentially in the bag for her.
Nobody knows for certain who’s going to win in November. But Harris’ chances are looking very good and Trump knows it. The former president is probably going to keep getting weirder as he comes to realize there’s just no way he can beat her. And Truth Social is going to be the place to watch the fireworks. We just need to cross our fingers that he doesn’t attempt another coup. Historically speaking, guys like Trump who try to overthrow the government don’t just fail one time and give up. They try again and again until they succeed, they’re thrown in prison, or worse.
With Trump more than likely set up to lose, a reboot of January 6 may be his only shot at retaking power. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
