Trump is running a base only campaign

[Proud liberal 80]

With the Limbaugh and FoxNews interviews, it is obviously that he isn't even interested in trying to get "moderates.".....He is down on 50-40 if you average out the polls. That 40% is already his base, will this strategy work?

[TheRealNorth]

1. Only if they can depress the turnout and/or get enough votes thrown out.

[underpants]

3. There you go. Addition by subtraction

That must be the strategy

[Rice4VP]

2. He's such a weirdo

I don’t think he cares about winning. He just wants the applause and likes, like a teenager. I suppose there was a call in portion for the cult to praise him

[0rganism]

4. it's clear now that his campaign doesn't plan to win an election

they are obviously planning to win something, but not the election
maybe the post-election violence and court battles?

the next 4 weeks are a special kind of torment.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. he is hoping he will win and he doesn't he wants to use his base to keep him in power...

well his base, the red states and lots of lawyers. Maybe even try to pull the military in on it.

[Gothmog]

6. Good luck with that approach

[Statistical]

7. Trump is ... stupid.

Even in 2016 he didn't really target moderates. He was the same gross conman that he is now. For whatever damn reason just enough people in three states voted for him to put him over the top In Trump's mind he is the smartest person in the room and what he did won so why change?

He really is a dimwit. A dangerous evil dimwit but a dimwit.

[Kaleva]

8. He's behaving like a candidate who doesn't want to win.

Trump needs to maintain the loyalty of his base to finance his massive debts and way of life.

[jorgevlorgan]

9. and that ten percent are people who have strongly considered him and either won't say they will vote

for him if they are, or might not vote at all.

[kskiska]

10. I caught a bit of it on my way home.

He's absolutely MANIC!

[CanonRay]

11. He's had a base only Presidency for four years.

[PTWB]

12. He's not campaigning to win right now.

He’s building his brand amongst his loyalists so that he is positioned to milk them for as much money as possible post presidency.

[world wide wally]

13. 40% ain't no majority of anything

[MatthewG.]

14. He knows he's losing but wants to keep base loyalty.

At this point, Trump knows he’s much more likely to lose than win. He’ll still try to fraud his way through to victory, and he may have a late October surprise planned, but his campaign knows the odds aren’t good.

What he can do is keep up base enthusiasm so that when he loses, they’ll support whatever he decides to do. If he plans some kind of banana coup, he’ll need their absolute loyalty. If he plans to step down (presumably after much whining and tantrum-throwing), with base support he can set himself up as the GOP’s leader in exile, with constant heavy appearances at conservative functions to wild applause, and be in a position to run again in ‘24 (unlikely but possible) or have his son run in ‘24 or ‘28 (highly likely.)