We all have those dreams, the ones where we signed up for a physics class and had forgotten about it, never went, the final is in a day or two and it’s way too late to drop? Every adult has them, some of us once a month, even decades out of school. But Donald Trump has never proven to be an adult and apparently he doesn’t have these types of dreams because he couldn’t care less about preparation.
CNN reports [1] that Trump spent about two hours total in prep time, or exactly two hours more than he had planned.
It is not too dramatic to say that Trump’s entire future could ride on how he does tonight and at this point, we’re obviously not just talking about his presidential future. In 2016, the Access Hollywood tapes leaked out just two days before a debate. Several prominent Republicans said that they wouldn’t be voting for him, “How could I look my daughter in the eye?” Remember?
Reince Priebus held an emergency Sunday night meeting about “options” and whether they could boot Trump from the ticket. Two nights later Trump – in desperation – brought women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. It had no effect. But during the debate, Hillary had said something about what might happen should Trump win and he replied “You would be in jail.”
All was forgiven.
It is not too much to say that the MAGA movement solidified in that moment. They owned the libtards. Hell, they “owned” the biggest of them all, Hillary. Plus, they believed he would actually do it. He could grab whatever woman he wanted by whatever he wanted so long as he put that particular woman in jail.
So Trump has seen how debates can shape his future and he has to know – because he’s surely been told – that it works both ways. He can lose a candidacy just as quickly. But it doesn’t matter. He is literally too lazy and too arrogant:
Now that he is president, however, Trump has found preparing for debates a tedious chore compared to a job which puts him in front of cameras for hours every day.
He prepared far more last time – and hated every minute of it, having Chris Christie play his opponent. But this time, it’s evidently too much work.
Efforts to focus the preparation-averse Trump on the upcoming debate have occurred in sporadic bursts, including one 30-minute session last weekend. This past Sunday they resumed with a short question-and-answer period utilizing the flashcards campaign advisers prepared to try and hone what have so far been unwieldy attempts to define Democratic rival Joe Biden [2]. Trump did less than two hours of prep total, a person familiar told CNN.
“Preparation adverse,” sweet baby Jesus, help us.
The failure may be especially galling this time because seemingly half of Trump’s platform has been that Joe will be lucky to find the debate hall and repeat his name. What happens when Joe starts putting questions to Trump about things Trump knows nothing about? Obviously, Trump is just going to sit there and throw insults, but we trust that Joe has prepared plenty for being insulted.
What Joe can do is make it crystal clear, real quick, that of the two men on the stage there is only one demented man and it’s the one who thinks he can wing a presidential final exam. Ideally, Trump will spend the rest of his life having those dreams. He signed up to be president, it’s too late to drop out, and failure means prison awaits.
The guy giving the test has prepared all his life.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak