Donald Trump’s allies fear he has sabotaged his presidential campaign by “choosing to lose” and claim he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his assassination attempt.
Campaign insiders say the Republican candidate has been in a “self-destructive spiral” since Joe Biden dropped out of the race and is blatantly ignoring the advice of his advisers. Vanity Fair reported.
His campaign advisers have reportedly encouraged him to stop using “counterproductive” insults and instead launch political attacks on rival Kamala Harris, but he has “rejected” their advice, saying: “I know what I’m doing.”
Trump, 78, has also been watching footage of the moment he was shot “over and over and over again,” sources close to the magazine told the magazine, claiming he has “been through a lot” and “may actually have PTSD.”
Republican Party members have expressed concern as Trump continues to publicly display his defiance.
The former president, during his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night, made a lackluster effort to address issues relevant to the campaign, while repeatedly mentioning an elusive “they” who had ordered him to do so.
Campaign insiders claim Donald Trump has been in a “self-destructive spiral” since Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Trump is pictured during his rally on Wednesday night, reluctantly speaking about the economy and using TicTacs as eye drops to do so.
His campaign advisers have reportedly encouraged him to stop using “counterproductive” insults and instead launch political attacks on rival Kamala Harris (pictured at her campaign rally in Las Vegas on August 10), but he has “rejected” their advice.
Republican donors and Trump campaign officials are reportedly struggling to understand why Trump “appears to be sabotaging” their presidential bid, the magazine reported.
Citing seemingly baseless claims he has made on his social media platform TruthSocial (including that Harris and Democrats are using artificial intelligence to create images of his packed campaign rallies), a source close to Trump called Trump’s online theories “crazy.”
Another said his advisers encouraged him to discuss policy at his campaign events, rather than using “juvenile name-calling” to attack Harris.
“I think it’s counterproductive to call her stupid,” one source said.
Sources suspect Trump’s actions may have stemmed from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or some other traumatic response to the assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
“He’s been watching that seven-second clip of how close he came to being shot in the head, over and over again,” a source told Vanity Fair.
Another hypothesis is that Trump has simply refused to move on from the fact that Biden dropped out of the race, claiming the former president has told others: “They cheated by switching to Biden.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Sources suspect Trump’s actions could be due to post-traumatic stress disorder or some other traumatic response to the assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month. Trump is pictured after being shot at the July 13 rally while being escorted by Secret Service agents.
This comes after Republican polling expert Frank Luntz warned that Trump is committing “political suicide” as entire voting blocs have collapsed in favor of Harris, prompting a major shift in the campaign.
Luntz explained on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday morning that Harris has the support of undecided voters, who have largely “collapsed” in her favor.
“The whole constituency has changed,” Luntz told hosts Andrew Ross Sorkin and Melissa Lee.
The pollster attributed the shift to Trump’s campaign decisions, declaring that the former president was declining.
“It’s like he’s lost control,” Luntz fumed. “And I know there are billionaires watching this show who are spending a lot of money on Donald Trump, and they don’t understand why he’s committing political suicide.”
Luntz said Harris is “attracting people who are not interested in voting for either Trump or Biden. So the whole voting pool has changed.”
He also warned that if things continue as they are, Democrats could win more than the White House. They could also keep the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“She has intensity now,” the polling guru said of Harris. “She has an intensity advantage. She has a demographic advantage.”
Another campaign insider hypothesized that Trump has simply refused to get over the fact that Joe Biden (pictured Wednesday) has dropped out of the race.
Trump has also come under fire from concerned Republican members who fear he is spending too much time criticizing his opponents and not enough on important issues.
As Trump continues to attack Harris and her vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, his advisers are trying to encourage him to discuss something that voters really care about: the economy.
During his rally in Asheville on Wednesday, Trump reluctantly addressed the economy, though he repeatedly mentioned an elusive “they.”
“Today is a little bit of a different day, because we are talking about something called economics. They wanted to make a speech about the economy,” he said.
“They say it’s the most important issue, I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important issue. Inflation is the most important issue, but that’s part of the economy,” said the former president.
It was not clear who exactly was meant by “they.” DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the matter and has not yet received a response.
Trump attempted to attack Harris on inflation, though his attack came on a day when the consumer price index shows annual inflation falling to 2.9 percent, the lowest since 2021. That could ultimately prompt the Fed to ease interest rates.
“People go to the grocery store and find less than half of what they’re entitled to,” Trump said, before illustrating the point.
“This is Tic Tacs, right?” he said. “I don’t know if I like the company,” he joked. “This is the best commercial they’ve ever done,” he said after pulling a box of Tic Tacs out of his pocket and holding up a tiny box for comparison.
“This is inflation. This is Tic Tac,” he said. “This is what has happened.”
Trump, pictured at his rally Wednesday night, leads Harris by an eight-percentage-point margin on who voters trust more on the economy.
Trump has made the comparison before. He also talked about the product in the infamous Access Hollywood taping. “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her,” he told former host Billy Bush.
“You know I’m automatically attracted to pretty girls, so I start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss them. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump again insulted Harris: “She’s not a bright person, she’s not a smart person, she’s not very smart.”
She then refocused her efforts on criticizing her Democratic opponents, mocking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for signing a bill requiring menstrual products to be placed in public school bathrooms.
“He wants tampons in the boys’ bathrooms,” Trump told rally attendees.
Walz signed the bill to combat “period poverty,” but some Republicans interpreted the legislation’s broad language to include children and dubbed the governor “Tampon Tim.”
Despite veering off on an unrelated tangent, Trump’s attempt to address the economy shows he is making an effort to listen to the advice of his campaign advisers.
The advice comes after voters have consistently expressed in polls that the economy is a key issue in determining who they will vote for.
Trump leads Harris by an eight-percentage-point margin on who voters trust more on the economy, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll in seven key states.
A new poll shows that for the first time this election cycle, voters trust the Democratic nominee more than Trump when it comes to the economy. Pictured: Kamala Harris in Georgia on July 30
Voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — three battleground states currently considered undecided — are more likely to side with Trump (53 percent) rather than Harris (44 percent) on the economy, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.
However, some national polls have shown Harris closing in on Trump’s lead on the issue.
A new poll released by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan shows that, for the first time in this election cycle, voters trust the Democratic candidate more than Trump on economic issues.
The August poll results showed that 42 percent of respondents would trust Harris to handle the economy, while 41 percent would back Trump.
The poll “marks a sharp shift in voter sentiment following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the White House race last month,” the FT said.
