'Baffling': Trump's strategy for campaign endgame has analyst bewildered

Trump's campaign strategy in the final weeks of the election is "incoherent" and "baffling," Zeeshan Aleem wrote in an analysis for MSNBC Monday — and it's impossible to figure out what he's even trying to accomplish.

Campaigns do not have unlimited resources, Aleem wrote. That's why, especially in the home stretch, they "are forced to make excruciating decisions about which battleground states to put most of their time, money and energy into as they seek decisive edges over their opponents."

Which "makes former President Donald Trump’s decision to campaign in a number of blue states in these final weeks baffling. Trump is doing events in Colorado, California, Illinois and New York — states that are virtually impossible for him to win."

In at least some of these states, all of which backed President Joe Biden by double digits during the last presidential election and are expected to do so for Vice President Kamala Harris, there may be some strategic value — New York, for example, is home to several hotly contested Republican House incumbents whose races could decide control of Congress.

But others, like his recent rally in Aurora, Colorado, don't have any clear electoral purpose. Trump seems to have shown up there for no other reason than to capitalize on a recent viral internet hoax that Venezuelan gangs are taking over that city.

"Given his tendency to surround himself with yes-men, it’s possible that Trump is succumbing to his deteriorating instincts, that his campaign strategy is becoming as elliptical as his speech — and that nobody is stepping in to tell him he’s wasting his time," wrote Aleem.

ALSO READ: Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

Indeed, the New York visit doesn't seem to be solely about the House races because "Trump has boasted that he can win New York. All candidates say they’re going to win states it’s clear they won’t. But given Trump’s commitment to touring a bunch of blue states, one wonders whether he is high on his own supply."

Notably, this may also be part of how Hillary Clinton ended up losing in 2016. She was the first Democratic presidential candidate in several cycles to invest any significant resources in Texas, which at the time was redder than it is now — even as there were signs she hadn't yet shored up the Midwestern states that cost her the race.

In short, the incoherence Trump is showing at his speeches appears to be leaking into his campaign strategy as well, Aleem concluded. "When people point out that Trump seems to be rambling incoherently, he counters that he’s using a brilliant rhetorical strategy he calls 'the weave.' He now wants us to believe that a failure to prioritize the places most important for him to win is brilliant, too."