'Looking like a loser again': Brutal WSJ editorial slams Trump's 'lunatic' antics

Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Gerard Baker on Monday delivered a brutal assessment of former President Donald Trump's recent performances on the campaign trail headlined, "Trump is looking like a loser again."

After giving Trump some credit for doing a press conference last week at Mar-a-Lago while also slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for avoiding such interactions with the media, Baker dove into the substance of Trump's remarks — and determined it was not good.

"By my calculation, about one-third of Mr. Trump’s remarks fell into three categories: false, obtuse or lunatic," Baker wrote. "I’m not even talking here about the usual grotesque hyperbolic assertions or baffling verbal manufactures, the finest of which last week was surely the description of 'people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon.'"

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The most flagrant example, argued Baker, was Trump's untrue story about being in a near-death helicopter ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

To make matters worse, added Baker, this behavior wasn't just a one-off incident.

"This is all of a piece with his recent behavior — from his claim that Joe Biden will be back as the Democratic candidate to his insistence that the crowds at Ms. Harris’s rallies are enhanced by artificial intelligence," he notes.

"This is the problem. It is this Mr. Trump who lost the presidency in 2020. It is this Mr. Trump who lost the House in 2018 and the Senate in the Georgia runoff election in January 2021."

Baker is dismissive of Harris as a politician, but he warns that if Trump continues with his usual tricks, voters may feel they have no choice but to elect her anyway.

"This is the same old Mr. Trump, but this time he is up against something the American people are being sold as new," he warned. "Those of us who have paid attention may know that Ms. Harris is a seasoned hard-liner with extreme views, but most voters don’t. They see a blank slate onto which they are being invited to project anything they like. Mr. Trump’s performances as he traipses around the country again are reinforcing the illusion of that choice. Instead of telling them consistently and repeatedly what they are actually getting if they vote Democrat, he is merely reminding them what they will get again if they vote Republican."