Trump, attention seeking whore that he is, from the very beginning has had a strategy (some would say a need) to always be in the news cycle, even if it was bad news. In 2016 he promised to build a great wall on the border with Mexico and that Mexico would pay for it. The media fell for it hook, line, and sinker and ran with this story for weeks, allowing him to hand-wave when pressed for details on how any of this might get accomplished. Once the hysteria died down over that canard, he had to come with another outrageous claim to get back in the news cycle. He said he would “ban all muslims” from coming to the United States. Regardless of how unlawful or impractical a solution appeared to be, the media took the bait and ran with it. Meanwhile the other republican candidates (all 17 of them) were trying to get in to the news cycle and couldn’t get any attention. He completely sucked all the oxygen from the room, meanwhile, coming up with clever nicknames for each opponent: ‘Lil Marco. Low-energy Jeb. Sleepy Joe, Crooked Hillary, Lyin’ Ted. It worked. I will give credit where credit is due. He’s good at it.
Fast forward 7 years to 2024 and Joe Biden has just pulled the rug out from under the republican presidential campaign by withdrawing from the race with just over 100 days to go and passing the torch to Kamala Harris. Democrats rally around this news with enthusiasm and hog the news cycle for 3 whole days. All the cool kids are joining in and republicans are freaking out. It turns out Kamala is popular after all, especially with voters under 35. Now we just need to make sure they get out and vote.
I cannot wait to see what outrageous, bizarre move comes out of the Trump campaign next. It’s coming, we just don’t know what it is yet. He simply cannot stand to not be the center of attention. I’m anxiously waiting 3, 2, 1…
View from my PDX Window 
Apparently it is easier to criticize an administration than it is to run one: the Trump admin group that worked and worked on an infrastructure bill and never produced one; the Mexican gov’t never paid for the wall; and possibly the dumbest foreign policy move of the last many years—-canceling the nuclear treaty we had with Iran. So in a tribute to the hillbilly constituency I think the Dems mantra should be “That dog don’t hunt.”
I think Walz is coming up with pithy phrases that are driving republicans nuts like “Mind your own damn business” and calling republicans “weird” and it seems to be working. Michelle Obama’s suggestion of when they go low we go high didn’t work so well in 2016. I’m glad democrats have figured out that to battle with Trump (sadly) you gotta get down in the mud and throw it right back at him.