President Donald Trump has not taken well to a new story from The New York Times that states that top Republicans have begun admitting to the precariousness of the president’s re-election prospects. According to the new story from the Times, “some of Mr. Trump’s aides are quietly conceding just how dire his political predicament appears to be, and his inner circle has returned to a state of recriminations and backbiting.” On Monday afternoon, Trump publicly responded to the story. In a series of tweets in which he tagged reporter Maggie Haberman, (who co-wrote the original piece) the president frantically claimed that actually, he’s doing great.
He used a show business term to describe his recent rallies, which he called “boffo” — which he put in all caps, for some reason. “Boffo” means “extremely successful,” according to Merriam-Webster. Of course, rally attendance isn’t how elections are decided. Election outcomes are decided by which candidate’s supporters show up in higher numbers to vote — and Democrats have apparently cast far more early votes than Republicans so far.
Trump tweeted:
‘There has never been a time in either of my two Campaigns when I felt we had a stronger chance of winning than we do right now. Early voting reports look far stronger than originally anticipated. Every RALLY is BOFFO… There has never been more enthusiasm or spirit, by everyone. Great fun, and so good for our Country. Already winning many states, but not reported.’
….There has never been more enthusiasm or spirit, by everyone. Great fun, and so good for our Country. Already winning many states, but not reported. Biden put the LID on again – raising money with promises. They finally caught him, COLD, and he knows it. Laptop is devastating!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
Of course, there is no seemingly legitimate basis for the president to claim that he is “already winning many states,” tentative victories that he claims are “not reported.” In fact, there are still weeks of voting left to go. Claiming that either major party candidate is “already winning” in a particular state is just plain incorrect. As for what is known about the state of the race — as mentioned, Democrats have cast far more early votes than Republicans, it seems. According to the U.S. Elections Project, which compiles data from around the country, Democrats have cast about 53.8 percent of the some 13.3 million early votes for which party affiliation data was available as of early Monday.
The president’s consistent assertions that he’s actually doing super well in the presidential race are just not supported by reality.
Check out Twitter’s response below:
