So, Has TFG Essentially Shut Down?

[MineralMan]

It sure looks like it. He's been relatively silent recently, and appears to be more or less in hiding at Mar-a-Lago. That's not like him. Is he really even going to be running in 2024?

I think his announcement of candidacy is little more than a ploy designed to attempt to protect himself in some way from prosecution. I don't think it will work, though. But, he has lost his influence and his credibility lately. Nobody is courting him. I doubt if anyone is even thinking much about him.

I think he's hiding out and will not really show himself until he is dragged out of hiding by U. S. Marshalls. That's what I think.

[jcgoldie]

1. Nobody's courting him

Thats the understatement of the year. They begged him to stay the fuck out of Georgia. Wake up Trump do that tantrum shit you do when shit don't go your way and you tear the room up like a 2 year old!

[Blue Owl]

13. He's no longer the Belle of the Ball

[Sky Jewels]

36. He is, however, still the Belle of the Taco Bell.

[Blue Owl]

46. I bet he's binging his ass off on KFC buckets, Big Macs, and Beef Burritos

[Sky Jewels]

49. Yep. Every day his resemblance to a giant golf ball grows and grows ...

?v=1486064923

[Sky Jewels]

51. Also, I must correct you.

He's binging his ass "on."

[Tbear]

2. O please don't quit now donnie

The division you have sown is just getting ripe(in the GQP)

[TheBlackAdder]

47. Have the Democratic Party throw a Pity Party for him to cement that he's a loser with the GOP.

.

What if nobody came.






.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. You might be on to something MM....

The evidence against him by the DOJ and the J6 committee just might be getting to him. The mere fact that he will likely be on the list for Criminal referral has to be eating at him. The Guilty verdict in New York against the Trump Organization cannot be good either. The day of reckoning may be arriving finally.

Karma getting her revenge in time for Christmas is indeed sweet. The name and brand of Trump is on the decline.

[calimary]

48. He's probably being so quiet cuz he's run out of tricks.

His usual tricks aren’t working so well anymore. And he has no template with which to deal with that. Possibly complicated by the high-level supporters and allies slowly slithering away from him. This is new. He’s not well-equipped to deal with this kind of thing. And his power to influence and color the events the way he wants you to see them is waning.

He’s probably hunkered down trying to figure out new strategies to fight this. And new talking points that will be effective in fooling, and misdirecting, the public.

One thing to count on: he’s NOT going away.

And other thing to count on: he’s NOT EVER going to apologize OR admit he was wrong.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Elmo taking up all the air in the room

I know Elon isn't even a politician, but he's taken over Trump's role in American culture as the chief troll on scoial media.

Trump is hiding out, but he'll start holding his hate rallies again soon. The next big positive story about DeSantis will bring Trump back. Just wait for it.

[dalton99a]

8. +1. He is seething in jealousy

[madinmaryland]

57. Don't forget that Silly Sinema is getting more attention than tRump!

[vanlassie]

5. Picture this. He's not even there. He slipped away in a small fishing boat sometime last week.

A girl can dream.

[ShazzieB]

32. And the fishing boat crew got sick of Trump and threw him overboard.

Last edited Wed Dec 14, 2022, 05:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Into shark-infested waters!

[Judi Lynn]

63. The sharks no doubt would stuff his reeking boneless mass back into the boat.

It could take many attempts, but they wouldn't give up.

Could become a hard-fought battle between the boat crew and the sharks.

[Wicked Blue]

6. Probably packing

and planning his escape to someplace that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

[Meadowoak]

16. Probably already gone. When was he seen last?

[OLDMDDEM]

7. Several months ago

I said he would be insignificant. He is and will continue to be. Whatever comes from all the investigations, even if he is not indicted, I hope they take every penny he has stashed away. I do believe he will be indicted.

[Ocelot II]

9. We can only hope.

But Needy Amin craves public adulation above all else, and the fact that he's holed up in his faux-Baroque lair instead of holding the usual ego-fests all over the country makes me wonder if something else is going on. He knows quite well - having seen it happen often to his cronies and hangers-on - that one can be served with legal process or arrested at one's home, so he must know that he's not safe from the long arm of the law inside the sanctified precincts of Mierda-Loco. Could it be that he's finally suffering from some kind of affliction brought about by decades of greasy food and decadent living - or just by the Dangling Dick of Destiny? Maybe said affliction prevents him from traveling, or else he just doesn't want his legions of devoted MAGAts to discover that he's not a heroic, possibly immortal figure from a Jon McNaughton painting but just another fat old man with COPD and arthritis or maybe tertiary syphilis (can you imagine His Orangeness dragging around one of those little green oxygen tanks attached to him by a cannula in his nose?).

But anyhow, it's rather pleasant not seeing his flapping orange jowls on my teevee. Hope that situation continues.

[Sky Jewels]

38. "Needy Amin"

[GoCubsGo]

53. Probably not so much COPD as other issues.

All that sniffing is from the crushed Adderall, cocaine, and whatever the hell else he's snorting over the past 50 years. His sinuses must be rotted out by this point. The huffing and puffing is from being dreadfully out of shape, with possible COVID damage in the mix. Those trips up the stairs to Air Force One probably nearly killed him. Which is why he was sneaking in and out through the lower cargo hold toward the end of his term, post-COVID infection.

I agree that he's likely not physically well. As Lawrence O'Donnell likes to point out, he probably has "sleep struggles." Which are likely made worse by the specter of probably indictments. Lack of sleep often leads to psychosis, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's in the middle of a mental breakdown, if not a physical one. Whatever the case, I hope he is fucking miserable.

[Joinfortmill]

66. Love this.

[spanone]

10. He's still whining about 2020 on 'truth' social....as if anybody cares.

[Sympthsical]

11. Please don't jinx it

I've been enjoying my non-TrumpAllTheTimeAlways days of late.

Yes, I know. They've been replaced by ElonAllTheTimeAlways days - because people are bored and have nothing else going on.

But let's enjoy small blessings here.

[PatSeg]

14. I know what you mean

Whenever he is quiet for awhile, it is nice to believe he is "done", but just when I start to relax, he returns with a vengeance. He is the sort of person who can't stay silent for long. The need for attention overshadows everything else.

It reminds me of when someone says "Whatever happened to Sarah Palin" and she comes bounding back into the public eye. There are several others as well, they are addicted to the attention and publicity. They'll always be with us to some degree it seems.

[Genki Hikari]

59. Sort of like Jason in Friday the 13th horror movies

Or that Halloween dude.

Just when you think the bad guy is dead and you can relax--Nope, there he is again, meaner than ever.

Thing is, though, out here in the real world, awful bounces back only so many times, and with ever less impact than before. With Tundra Twit, it took a while, but every time she came back, she was diminished soon thereafter, and the stretches between hearing about her became longer and longer until she became an afterthought. She couldn't even muster enough enthusiasm to win in AK last November, and she got zero national media play for it.

Americans tend to gorge themselves on a personality for a while, but when they hit peak saturation of hearing about that person, they tend to lose all interest in them--and far more quickly than the personality got built up. See: Angelina Jolie or JLo. Don't hear much about them anymore, do you? People got tired of them because they overstayed their welcome.

The 15 minutes of some of these attention hustlers can go on too long, but when that time is up--it's up.

The same thing will probably happen to that...thing. The Great Diminishment has already begun, even if it's only in the early stages. But it has started. Whether or not that...thing lives long enough to become the next Great Afterthought, well, time will tell. I told my idiot MAGA brother that history would remember his dear leader the same way we do Warren Harding. As in, we don't think about him all that much, and what we do think isn't good at all.

I may not live to see it, but I know history will vindicate me.

[PatSeg]

72. Or Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

Just kept coming back to life until she didn't.

Yes I agree, eventually Trump will become the "next Great Afterthought". Someone else will come along and take his place in the news cycle, until the world grows tired of him or her. It is really hard to sustain that kind of enthusiasm for any period of time and Trump is long past his expiration date. A more aware person would realize that fame is fleeting and know when to exit the stage gracefully.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Trump's Support Craters Among Republicans

TFG may be listening to his attorneys and keeping more quiet than normal.

I doubt that these numbers will keep TFG from running in the primaries if he is not in prison

Link to tweet

https://politicalwire.com/2022/12/13/trumps-support-craters-among-republicans/

Trump’s Support Craters Among Republicans
December 13, 2022 at 6:56 am EST By Taegan Goddard 230 Comments

“Republican support for Donald Trump’s presidential bid in 2024 has cratered, an exclusive USA Today/Suffolk University Poll finds, as the former president is beleaguered by midterm losses and courtroom setbacks.”

“By 2-1, GOP and GOP-leaning voters now say they want Trump’s policies but a different standard-bearer to carry them. While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other Republican nominee who would continue the policies Trump has pursued.”

“They have a name in mind: Two-thirds of Republicans and those inclined to vote Republican want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president. By double digits, 56% to 33%, they prefer DeSantis over Trump.”

Meanwhile, while Joe Biden now leads Trump in a possible match up, he trails DeSantis in a head-to-head race, 47% to 43%.

[FakeNoose]

15. I love how the Repukes are coming out and blaming Chump for midterm losses

Even the ones that aren't his fault, he's getting blamed anyway. Serves him right.

We're just waiting for the perp walks now. Should be coming up in the next couple of weeks.

[GusBob]

17. I think he may be ill

I think he has onset of dementia. I think he may realize it but others around him have known it for awhile and see it progressing as it always does

to wit: Jared and Ivanka not joining his campaign

also, in the Meadows 1/6 texts recently released: I wondered why DT,Jr is texting MM, and not his own father, pleading to MM to tell DT to stop the violence.

His kids know he aint all there anymore.

I have known folks with dementia, they can become maniacally fixated on one thing and keep gnawing at it like a dog on a bone

[True Blue American]

42. Many with dementia can become mean, even though they were not before. They

Have delusions, fixate on one person to blame, fearful.

[Genki Hikari]

61. Nah. He's in his narcissistic injury phase right now

AKA Sulking.

He'll be back, and dumber and meaner than ever, because narcissistic injury always transforms into narcissistic rage.

Always.

[IronLionZion]

18. He can share a cell with Vlad

[NewHendoLib]

19. In HBCM *

* High burder consumption mode

[TheRickles]

29. Burden? Murder? Burner? Burger! I think we have a winner (my Wordle skills came in handy here).

Regardless of the typo, you're quite right, NHL. It's probably his favorite self-soothing activity, and much in need these days.

[NewHendoLib]

45. Burder. As in hamburder. One of his tweet misspellings,!

Covfefe!

[TheRickles]

50. Right you are! Forgot all about that one. :-)

[Chakaconcarne]

20. He's still alive and well here on DU.

Unfortunately....

[twodogsbarking]

22. You never hear about G2Bush here. Things change and then they change again.

[republianmushroom]

21. hopefully but I doubt it.

[garybeck]

23. Not sure about that....

Remember, in 2016 at this point not very many people gave him a chance to win the nomination.

He still has a lot of idiot moron followers, believe me, I see them even here in the liberal state of Vermont all the time.

He definitely has lost his influence at the moment, but I would not underestimate his ability to appeal to a significant portion of our population. And if the Republican party and or their candidates start to feel that they can't win without him, watch out. If he threatens to run under a third party or independently, it would make things much more difficult for any Republican candidate, and they know that.

Don't write him off so easily. He is evil. He will stop at nothing. And he'd rather bring down the whole country with him then just lose on his own

[MineralMan]

54. Maybe, but he hadn't been drawing large crowds to his "rallies"

for some time. Nobody was showing up.

[hatrack]

24. In Michael Bender's book, he talks about how Shitstain didn't come downstairs at all on 11/4/20

And barely showed himself the remainder of that week.

Apparently he had a bad case of Teh Sad.

[twodogsbarking]

25. How will anyone know when he loses his mind?

[getagrip_already]

43. when he is indicted, his lawyer will tell us.....

and the court that he doesn't understand what is going on and can't participate in his own defense.

It will be bs, but it will delay proceedings and could derail them entirely.

[Corgigal]

26. If we know anything about Trump,

and his belief about picking people from central casting, just looking at Jack Smith must scare him.

Time will tell.

[Joinfortmill]

67. Badass Look

[Quanto Magnus]

27. Well there are now more people trying

to out-tRump tRump

[hadEnuf]

28. Maybe he's preparing to flee the country?

One can hope.....

[Lonestarblue]

30. In one way, Trump has been a gift to Democrats. He helped the Red Wave fail to materialize.

Of course, anger over the loss of reproductive rights, Biden clearly calling out the MAGA crowd as dangerous to democracy, and a lot of good legislation that got passed also helped Democrats.

It would most likely also be a gift if Trump were the 2024 Republican nominee. I don’t think he will be, but other possibilities like DeSantis are just as bad.

[Genki Hikari]

60. I think the r thug primary in 2024

Will be their equivalent of the Democrats in 1968. Or maybe even 1972. Chaos and flailing everywhere.

It'll be a bloodbath. Maybe even a real one, given their proclivities.

[thomhartmann]

31. I've been getting 1-2 fundraising emails from him every day...

They started in a big way about 2 weeks ago; I'd put all his former email addresses begging for money into spam, but he's fired up some new ones. The Big Grift continues...

[Botany]

33. Ivanka has ditched him

Ivanka Trump says she does not ‘plan to be involved in politics’ following father’s campaign announcement

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/politics/ivanka-donald-trump-presidential-campaign-political-involvement/index.html

And Vlad is dying so the option of running to Russia might very well be gone.

[marieo1]

34. Right On

I will be happy if I never have to look at his ugly face again!! He has caused havoc in all our lives!!

[OverBurn]

35. My dream is him having a total meltdown on the witness stand.

For all the world to see what a raging nut he is. A full on temper tantrum, complete meltdown, has to be told over and over to shut up by a judge. Has to be forcefully removed, while screaming I'm Donald Trump, I'm still President, President for life, you can't do this to me, snorting snot bubbles and spitting while ranting at the top of his lungs as he's slowly dragged out of the courtroom.

I can dream, can't I. LoL

[Joinfortmill]

68. Scary, but also delightful

[Martin Eden]

37. TFG is now TLG

The Loser Guy is finding out the more rhetoric he spews the more it works to his disadvantage.

But rest assured, the petulant orange crybaby can't bottle up his next tantrum much longer. The pressure building on his giant yet fragile ego will soon trigger the release valve for another volcanic explosion of vitriol.

He can't restrain himself, even if his advisors are telling him to keep a lid on it.

[AverageOldGuy]

39. " . . . until he is dragged out of hiding . . . "

I WANT TO SEE THAT!!!!! And the sooner the better!!!!

[Solomon]

71. Like they dragged Saddam Hussein out of that hole.

[nightwing1240]

40. Let's hope you are correct

For now I think we have a better chance of seeing the big red fellow sliding down chimneys on Christmas than seeing tRump do a perp walk. Perhaps before the easter bunny hops down the lane, maybe?

[Roc2020]

41. It's all but a sure thing Trump

eventually become irrelevant. But Trumpism. That still lives on. And whoever the GOP torch holder is will be Trumping Trumpism and then some but will be a lot smarter than Trump. That's the problem.

[Happy Hoosier]

44. Elon is sucking up all the Oxygen.

The media always follows the bright shiney object, and right now that's Elon Musk.

[ShazzieB]

52. I think he's shut down for now.

Last edited Wed Dec 14, 2022, 05:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Whether he gets a new infusion of energy and comes roaring back rem ins to be seen. But his sails are going to need a massive infusion of wind to reinflate them, and it's hard to see where that’s likely to come from.

I don't recall when so many things have been going wrong for him all at one.The law is closing in on him, the GOP is blaming him for the midterm election losses, and the announcement of his 2024 candidacy was met with a massive yawn from both voters and the media. And Merrick Garland has sicced this scary looking guy on him:



I think there's a good possibility he's experiencing something called narcissistic collapse. How long will it last? Only time will tell.

[Joinfortmill]

69. Biden, Garland, Badass

[Hekate]

55. I do hope so. But as some pundit pointed out, the last time he went this quiet for this long was...

… after he lost the presidential election — and turns out he was actively plotting the 1/6 coup.

Which is to say, I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him.

[IcyPeas]

56. He still gets the hugest crowds....

at Mar-a-Lago

[Mr.Bill]

58. The only reason he announced he is running

is that he needs the money from campaign donations. I'd like to see someone investigate how all that money has been spent, but he will be dead from natural causes before that investigation is over.

[patricia92243]

62. I think he is sick. Nothing as mundane as any legal proceedings would cause

him to keep his big mouth shut.

[chriscan64]

64. There is much less for him to do now.

I agree with your reason why he announced for 2024, but doing it this early is like Tom Brady putting on his uniform Monday and wearing it for a week before the game. There are no primaries to run for, no announced opponents to attack. His main activity is responding to the latest outrage he has started, but the news cycle doesn't stay with him as long anymore. Another thing that has changed is that while the normal world will still reacts with outrage, the support he used to get along with it isn't there as much. "Terminate the Constitution" doesn't have the same effect with his supporters as "Lock her up".

What you are seeing now will continue until he is indicted. Even then all you will get are his greatest hits, posts about "WITCHHUNT!" and "HOAX!" Maybe "Obama spied on my campaign (and got caught!)" thrown in for good measure.

[Joinfortmill]

65. Planning his exit strategy?

[purr-rat beauty]

70. hopefully...

mother nature has answered our prayers and served him a stiff one