"Trump's scam is failing him, and he's in a panic over it." Washington Post

That's the title of an important Washington  Post article by Greg Sargent.   Here are some excerpts:

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"As President Trump prepares to run for reelection on the claim that his populist nationalist agenda has been a smashing success, it’s awfully telling that Trump and his advisers have now launched a frantic, multi-front effort to deny glaring truths about that agenda that are all right there in plain sight, for all of us to see.

"A new report in the New York Times documents an emerging pattern: Trump is increasingly explaining away warning signs of a potential recession by resorting to lurid conspiracy theories. Trump claims the Federal Reserve is working against him. He also says the “Fake News Media” is fabricating recession fears — and exaggerating the damage of Trump’s trade war with China, a key driver of those fears — to cloud his reelection chances.

"What we’re seeing here should be understood as panic. The Times reports this on Trump’s private ventings to advisers:

"Mr. Trump has been agitated in discussions of the economy . . . .

"Trump’s advisers are urging him to dial down the trade war with China . . . . 

"Trump falsely says China pays his tariffs . . . . But studies show otherwise. . . .
. . . . also undermined by the niggling fact that his own administration has secured billions and billions of dollars in aid to farmers harmed by China’s retaliations. . . .   [in other words, having the US government bail out our own farmers is proof that Trump tariffs have hurt our own economy.]

"On both these fronts, [tax cuts and job-creating investments] Trump’s economic agenda has failed to deliver for workers. . . .

"Meanwhile, the trade war wreckage continues to mount, damaging Trump’s own constituencies and, now, helping to threaten a possible recession. . . .

"[T]he bottom line is that Trump’s 'America First' nationalism is looming as an economically destructive factor to a far greater extent than Trump’s plutocratic tax cut is acting as an economic positive. . . .

"The story Trump told was that he would end the selling out of workers by “elites,” by shaking down China and other countries, forcing them to revamp trade deals that were robbing workers blind. Meanwhile, his tax cut would put tons of cash in workers’ pockets and fuel an explosion of trickle-down investment.

"But the former is threatening disaster. And the latter did a lot more for those hated elites than it has done for working people.

"Trump is still telling that same story. It’s certainly possible that this story might work among just enough Rust Belt voters to drive an electoral college win amid an even bigger popular-vote loss this time. But it’s clear that Trump himself fears his story is at serious risk of failing him. "

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Perhaps we shouldn't laugh at Anthony Scaramucci when he says that Trump will give up his 2020 campaign by March 2020 and that he, Scaramucci, is trying to put together a coalition of former cabinet members that will publicly come out against Trump and help recruit a replacement.  "They know it's a crisis. . . . The guy is unstable.  Everyone inside knows it, everyone outside knows it.   Let's see if we can find a viable alternative."   That is what Scaramucci said to CNN's Alisyn Camerota on air.

Ralph

PS:   And if that isn't bad enough, Trump ended his week of golf vacation faced with news of an NBC/WallStreetJournal poll.   It asks who will you "probably or likely support" in the election?

     40% chose Trump
     52% chose "the Democratic candidate"

Yes, that's right.   In this poll, Trump would lose to anyone the Democrats chose.   That is stunning -- when just a week or so ago, polls showed him losing by just a few points to the Democratic front-runners.   Now, according to this poll, he'd lose to any Democratic candidate.

Maybe Scaramucci knows something.