Communiques from Maggie’s farm
By 
This 1,800-word White House gossip column at least suggests that Trump may be losing any practical interest in getting re-elected (he’s not losing interest in doing the actual job, since he never had any to begin with):
The president’s customary defiance has been suffused with a heightened sense of agitation as he confronts a series of external crises he has failed to contain, or has exacerbated, according to people close to him. They say his repeated acts of political self-sabotage — a widely denounced photo-op at a church for which peaceful protesters were forcibly removed, a threat to use the American military to quell protests — have significantly damaged his re-election prospects, and yet he appears mostly unable, or unwilling, to curtail them.
Mr. Trump doesn’t want to be seen as a “loser,” a label he detests, in the campaign against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And some advisers believe Mr. Trump’s taste for battle will return in the fall, when the general election fight is more engaged.
But for now, they said, the president is acting trapped and defensive, and his self-destructive behavior has been so out of step for an incumbent in an election year that many advisers wonder if he is truly interested in serving a second term.
Rather than focus on plans and goals for another four years in office, Mr. Trump has been wallowing in self-pity about news coverage of him since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, people who have spoken with him said. He has told advisers that no matter what he does, he cannot get “good” stories from the press, which has often been his primary interest. “These people,” Mr. Trump has growled to advisers about reporters, throwing an expletive between the two words.
Those gosh darn people!
One of the defining things about the Trump era is that even lots of people who completely despise the man are unwilling or unable to face up to the fact that he’s a mentally unstable freak. (ETA: Jennifer Rubin makes a similar point today here, and calls out the media for failing to be candid about the situation. H/t commenter majeff). He’s a full-blown psychopath and narcissist, and it’s extremely dangerous to forget that, because it leads to people thinking and saying things like “he would never do that because [some set of rational considerations].”
Yes he would, because he is, to quote Marcellus Wallace, pretty gosh darn far from OK in terms of being a functional human being.
As I’ve mentioned before, Trump is a coward and a quitter, and it would not really be that surprising — again, nothing with this man would really be that surprising — if he quits the presidency the day before Thanksgiving, or on Halloween, or next week.
One thing is certain: if he decides at any time between now and November 3rd that he can’t win, he’s not just going to accept defeat with dignity. Think more along the lines of Slim Pickens at the end of Dr. Strangelove.