Presidential campaigns usually run their get-out-the-vote operations using campaign staff and volunteers. But in this election cycle, Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign made a big and risky gamble<\/a>: outsourcing the bulk of its ground game to America PAC<\/a>, an outside group founded by tech titan Elon Musk<\/a>. That move followed the Federal Election Commission\u2019s decision<\/a> to allow campaigns, for the first time, to work more closely with outside groups on GOTV operations.<\/p>\n

That gamble appears to not be paying off. Reuters reports<\/a> that, according to people involved in America PAC\u2019s efforts, the group \u201cis struggling in some swing states<\/a> to meet door-knocking goals and is investigating claims that some canvassers lied about the number of voters they have contacted.\u201d And The Guardian reports<\/a> that, according to people familiar with the matter and leaked data, one-quarter of the door knocks the group claims it has executed in Arizona and Nevada are \u201cpotentially fraudulent.\u201d The reports raise the possibility that the Trump campaign is many thousands of door knocks behind its goals for contacting voters. (According to The Guardian, the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment and \u201cAmerica Pac denied it was experiencing that level of actual fraud in Arizona and Nevada and declined to comment on reporting for this story.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Trump’s rally strategy is approaching the level of self-sabotage.<\/p>\n

The Trump campaign appears to be incurring the costs of bucking common-sense strategies for voter turnout operations. Usually, a campaign would want to go the proven route of working with state parties and their regional field operations and avoid delegating critical work to networks of outside organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s potential own goal on voter turnout is hardly an isolated misjudgment. In recent weeks the Trump\u2019s campaign\u2019s decision-making has appeared to be shockingly irrational and disorganized. With these missteps, Trump could be blowing his chances of winning the election. And if he were to win, then those missteps provide a preview of a Trump term that would be even more chaotic and incompetent than the first one.<\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s biggest head-scratchers in recent weeks has been a string of event and interview cancellations. Trump abruptly canceled a virtual town hall with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday, citing scheduling changes. Which wouldn\u2019t be that strange except that it comes after a ton of last-second no-shows. My colleague Steve Benen rounded several of them up<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\n
-Trump agreed to appear on CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d before canceling.<\/p>\n
-He agreed to appear on CNBC before canceling.<\/p>\n
-He reportedly planned to sit down for an interview with the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia before canceling.<\/p>\n
-He was reportedly in conversations for weeks with The Shade Room about a sit-down interview before withdrawing.<\/p>\n
-His campaign said he\u2019d debate Kamala Harris more than once, but he soon after scrapped those plans, too.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n
It\u2019s highly unusual for a presidential candidate to withdraw from so many media appearances, particularly in the final weeks of the election. At this moment, every hour matters<\/em>. Ever the compulsive self-promoter, Trump would know that every interview is an opportunity to make news, make his closing arguments and stay top of mind for voters. Which makes the cancellations appear to be self-defeating.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Trump\u2019s rally strategy is approaching the level of self-sabotage. As I argued<\/a> last week, the former president\u2019s baffling decision to tour several blue states \u2014 some of them repeatedly \u2014 in the final weeks of the campaign could cost him major opportunities to persuade swing state voters to cast their ballots for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when he was<\/em> in a swing state last week, he\u00a0swayed to music for 40 minutes<\/a> in what was one of the strangest displays in modern presidential campaign history. As quirky as Trump has always been, he hasn\u2019t ever so powerfully elicited questions of whether he\u2019s in his right mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What explains Trump\u2019s streak of increasingly bizarre behavior? Theories abound, from declining mental acuity<\/a> to fatigue<\/a> to overzealous attempts to telegraph confidence. I\u2019d guess it\u2019s a combination of all of those factors. What we do know is that the behavior that Trump and his team are exhibiting makes the prospect of another Trump term\u00a0concerning for reasons other than his awful policy positions and plans. Unpredictability and irrationality are extremely dangerous in a president, especially when it comes to tasks such as managing foreign affairs. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s apparent exhaustion and inability to follow through with plans makes it possible that he would be more subdued and less effective in pursuing his nationalist and authoritarian agenda. Passing laws requires a lot of work and persuasion, and Trump may be less up to the task than he would\u2019ve been otherwise. But for the most part, Trump\u2019s growing inscrutability is worrying. A clear, rational mind is a nonnegotiable trait for overseeing diplomacy and warfare and managing nuclear risk. And if Trump is more prone to succumb to impulse and emotion, then his commitments to using executive authority to empower himself could grow even fiercer \u2014 and more disastrous for American democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Zeeshan Aleem<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for BLN Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Blue Light News, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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