Jonathan Last: “Late last week, in between laughing at JD Vance and Donald Trump, I had a thought: What if the Haitians-stealing-and-eating-your-pets is actually good for the Trump campaign?”
“Not good in the tactical sense. Polling on the story doesn’t look especially good for him. But good in the strategic sense. This insane lie—which, borders on blood libel—may be reorienting the campaign in ways that are ultimately useful for Trump…”
“Trump needs to be the main character. Trump’s grand unified theory is that politics, like entertainment, is an attention economy. His strategy—always—is to dominate the news and make himself into the main character of every story…”
“For a month, Trump couldn’t buy a news cycle. He risked becoming irrelevant and it looked like Harris might steamroll him all the way to November by making the campaign about turning the page on the last decade. Then Trump took the spotlight back by setting himself on fire.”
