As Kamala Harris’ lead widens, some Republicans tell ANDREW NEIL they now fear Trump’s age and increasingly disturbed behavior mean he’s on track to lose the election — and may even be at risk of a meltdown!

Nearly three weeks ago, after Joe Biden was forced to step down as the Democratic presidential candidate and amid growing enthusiasm for his replacement, Kamala Harris, I argued that Donald Trump still had a chance of losing the election, but that unless he got his campaign under control, he would lose.

Since then, Harris’ star has continued to rise and Trump’s campaign has gone from bad to worse. As things stand, Trump looks more like a loser than a winner.

Of course, a lot can happen between now and November 5 (and probably will in this feverish and surprising US election campaign), but things will get worse for Trump before they get better, if ever.

Since Harris was nominated unchallenged by Biden, she has monopolized the news, much to Trump’s fury.

His anger is compounded by the fact that their rallies now rival his own in terms of numbers and enthusiasm. This is especially infuriating for a man for whom crowd size is a key measure of success and publicity is as vital to his well-being as oxygen is to the rest of us.

Harris will continue to dominate headlines during the Democratic Convention later this month in Chicago, which will be a glitzy, star-studded, prime-time coronation for Queen Kamala, and propel her into Labor Day (the first Monday in September), when the campaign trail proper begins.

She will hit the ground running, while Trump will likely continue to struggle and struggle to find lines of attack that work.

So far, everything he has tried to regain the initiative has failed. On Monday, he spent two hours talking to Elon Musk on the tech billionaire’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

It didn’t help that the start was delayed by 40 minutes due to a technical problem (it must have been the American “deep state” or “Iranian hackers,” his more conspiracy-minded supporters claimed, without any evidence). But when the conversation finally began, it was so “boring” that it struggled to make the news.

Trump repeated his usual complaints, personal insults and well-aired falsehoods, none of which Musk challenged. Trump likes apathetic inquisitors. Harris was “third-rate,” even “lunatic,” but the presidents of Russia, China and North Korea were “tough,” “smart,” “on top of their game.”

It’s a curious, and some might think bizarre, strategy to run for president of the world’s largest democracy by praising three of the planet’s most evil autocrats. But Trump has never met a strongman he didn’t admire (and probably want to emulate).

Last week, in an attempt to regain attention, Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, his luxury palace in Florida.

It was staged to underscore his willingness to be questioned, compared with Harris, who has yet to give a proper interview or news conference since replacing Biden. She prefers the safety of the teleprompter to unscripted exposition, where her past experience suggests she would be vulnerable.

But once again, Trump had nothing of substance to say. Instead of criticizing Harris’s lackluster record as vice president and her previous support for every trendy left-wing cause, he came across as disingenuous, obtuse, petty and vindictive.

This worked in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, whom even Democrats didn’t like, but it’s not working against Harris, whose popularity is growing from a low base, in part because she remains hermetically insulated from scrutiny.

The failure of Trump’s campaign is already reflected in the polls. Before the June debate with Biden, which was a disaster for the president, Trump had a slight lead in the polls in most key states, but not by much.

After the debate, Trump’s lead widened and began to look unstoppable. But when Harris replaced Biden, the polls went back to where they were before. They now lean in Harris’s favor.

The latest New York Times poll in three key states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – puts Harris ahead by a considerable margin (50% to 46%) in all three among likely voters. Still within the margin of error because the poll samples in each state are quite small (less than 700); but it is clear that the trend is on her side.

His popularity ratings are rising, and Democratic support for their candidate has increased from 60 percent in May to 87 percent today. A smart Trump campaign would spot an opportunity in that.

Moderates are still in play, so the Republican election strategy should be to mercilessly attack his past policy positions – against private health insurance (the bedrock of the American health care system), against fracking (the reason the US is energy independent), and in favor of defunding the police, decriminalizing illegal entry, a socialist-style Green New Deal, and gun confiscation – while pointing out that in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, he has a running mate who will not curb his leftist tendencies but rather encourage them.

It wouldn’t be too hard for Trump to base a winning campaign on these lines of attack. After all, the economy and immigration are the two most important issues for voters, and he has an advantage over Harris on both. But he’s not interested in matters as mundane as politics.

Instead, he has taken to howling in the wind. Furious that Harris’s rallies could outnumber his own, he accuses his people of inflating the numbers using artificial intelligence, claiming “there was nobody there,” when photos from a Harris rally at a Detroit airport hangar show about 10,000 people in attendance.

I give no credit to anyone in my low regard for the largely Democratic partisan US media, but for Trump’s claim to be true they would all have to be in on the AI ​​conspiracy since every major newspaper and broadcaster covered the Detroit event.

It is patently absurd, even unhinged, a word that is increasingly being quietly used to describe Trump, even in some Republican circles.

He does not focus on the issues that matter and could determine the election. There are no solid arguments to justify why he should remain in the White House for four more years.

But she recently told supporters: “Biden was ready to take me down.” She’s even thinking out loud that Biden might show up in Chicago to snatch the nomination from Harris. It’s crazy, really.

It is whispered in hushed tones, but some say his age (78) is becoming a factor, that he is now the Biden of the 2024 campaign. He slurred some words in his interview with Musk. Some even speculate that he could be at risk of a nervous breakdown.

It may seem like an exaggeration, but his support base is losing enthusiasm. At his rallies he rambles more and is more incoherent than ever.

Some Republican strategists have given up hope of winning the White House and believe it is best to concentrate on controlling a Harris-Walz administration with a Republican-controlled Congress. European capitals will take comfort in the prospect that while Harris is no great foreign policy expert, NATO should be safe with her in the Oval Office.

In theory, there is still much to be decided. Harris and Walz are clearly beatable. Almost any competent Republican ticket could pull it off. There will be at least one debate between Harris and Trump (on September 10) during the campaign and perhaps as many as three.

Harris will be at her most vulnerable, without a teleprompter to protect her. Trump might be at his most dangerous, but not if he eschews political criticism in favor of pathetic and childish personal attacks. That won’t go down well with voters.

These are dangerous times, and Americans want mature debates among those who aspire to be their president. It seems like an obvious thing that Trump should understand, but sometimes he just doesn’t. Sometimes he is his own worst enemy.

If he loses again in November, he will have no one to blame but himself.