He did little to quell reports that he is melting down over Harris’s poll numbers.
Amidst reports that he has become ungluedby having to compete with Kamala Harris for the presidency, Donald Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. And if the goal was to reassure people that (1) he is not at all freaked out by the vice president’s rising poll numbers and (2) he is the best candidate for the White House, he was not exactly successful!
Trump repeatedly insulted Harris’s intelligence, calling her “barely competent,” saying that she “can’t do a news conference” because “she’s not smart enough,” and claiming that she’s “not as smart” as Joe Biden. (As a reminder, Trump thinks there were airports during the Revolutionary War and that it’s safe to inject bleach into the body; he’s also been described as an idiot by numerous people who worked for him.)
There’s the idea that he believes he’s entitled to a second term. And there’s so much he wants to do and it must be done as soon as possible. If any of that is even vaguely true, he won’t drop out.
(The fact he’s not getting any younger might be in there somewhere, but he probably doesn’t think about that at all if he can help it.)
He needs to become president again to stay out of prison.