Less is More: Trump Quiet as Biden Flounders

AFP/APP

Washington: Since announcing his White House bid, Donald Trump has taken every opportunity to paint President Joe Biden as so weak and compromised that he would struggle to make it to November’s election, let alone serve another four years.

Yet with the Democratic president suffering perhaps the worst week of his political career, his Republican rival appears to have resisted what must have been a potent urge to get out in public and gloat.

Trump’s rally in Doral, Florida on Tuesday will be his first public event in 11 days, and only the second since Biden’s prime-time televised meltdown at their June 27 debate in Atlanta that upended the election campaign.

Americans have become accustomed to the drumbeat of Trump’s brash campaign rhetoric from the podiums of sports arenas, the precincts of court houses and conservative cable news studios — and when it stops, they notice.

“Trump’s not talking much about Biden’s bad debate. Trump’s campaign is not blitzing ads about it,” Democratic former White House aide David Axelrod noted on X Monday.

“And Lara Trump said last week it would be an affront to democracy if Biden were not the nominee. Question: Why do you think they are uncharacteristically holding fire?”

The answer may simply be that the twice-impeached felon with civil court adjudications for sexual assault and widespread fraud has understood that sometimes, less is more.

“When your opponent is self-immolating, the wise thing to do is stay out of his way,” said author, PR consultant and former White House correspondent Ron Fournier.