The Trump campaign has gone dark on TV advertisements. It is out of money.

Sure, they’ll get some more soon, whether by hook or “crook,” as you well know. But it’s fascinating to consider that it was only eight months ago that Brad Parscale was bragging about the campaign and its database being a “billion-dollar death star” which we’re sure Parscale meant to be taken as an impenetrable and tough (also run by the bad guys, which Parscale seemed to almost acknowledge) and yet as Joe Scarborough noted at the time, the death star pretty well gets blown-up at the end of all too many Star Wars movies. And just as you figured it would, with an asset this large in the hands of children, it’s been blown to bits.

Nice job, Trump and Trump campaign, doing to the campaign exactly what he’s done to the country.

We reported on the campaign’s cash issues this morning. But Salon has a more detailed article set out in Rawstory which covers how devastating a development this might be. Just as the campaigns gear up for the last two-month push, Trump is in trouble. Meanwhile, Biden just hauled in a record amount of money raised in one month, over $350 million.

It appears much of the problem was the way that Trump himself, along with Parscale, the Trump’s family and other associates, treated the campaign as a personal piggybank. Trump paid his family’s enormous legal bills with campaign cash. Money was routinely spent to fluff Trump’s ego, as with the reported $11 million spent on Super Bowl ads. Nearly a third of the cash was routed through “a single limited liability company linked to Trump campaign officials.” The partners of Trump’s two sons are literally on the payroll. Trump’s own incompetence is also a factor, leading to massive losses as he impulsively switched the Republican convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville to and then, effectively, to Washington. 

There is no conceivable way that anyone can be shocked that Trump used the money as his personal piggy bank, that money would be spent on legal fees and stroking his ego, or that the money got criminally mismanaged. Trump lived his life in accord with this same pattern. Moreover, it is the plucky little rebels and their $40 contributions that have elevated the Biden campaign above the Death Star.

It doesn’t appear to be getting better any time soon:

The rational thing for rich Republican donors to do right now would be to cut their losses and stop giving Trump cash. It’s possible that this is, in fact, happening. Republicans have still not released their August fundraising numbers, although the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, released his record-setting numbers with great fanfare. The silence from the Republican camp strongly suggests their haul might not be so impressive.

Ha! The fact that Trump is talking about dumping $100 million of his own personal money – which we doubt he has and if he does it’s likely in the form of another Deutsche Bank loan – all of it tells us that they didn’t haul in much in August since $100 million is between one-third and one-quarter what Biden raised. There is almost no way for them to make up the cash deficit in the amount of time left.

Still, we all need a laugh in these dark times, so don’t feel the slightest bit guilty for making fun of all these rich, immoral monsters who kept writing checks to Trump, even though it was obvious he would either waste their money or steal it. Trump still needs to get a good deal closer to Biden in the polls than he is right now to get the election within stealing range.

We suspect that it is already within stealing range. But Biden now has the tools to put a little distance between himself and Trump. He needs to stretch his lead in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin – that would give Biden the win. But now there’s a path. Biden and the rebels blew up the death star and the little fighters might have a chance to put away the emperor from the dark side for good.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom