5 Most Bonkers Details In NYT Deep Dive On Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad 3 Weeks

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The campaign struggles of Donald Trump were highlighted by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in a new report for The New York Times out Saturday that features some wild details and reveals.

Trump has repeatedly said, including at a Friday Montana rally, that he prefers running against Vice President Kamala Harris over President Joe Biden, but the Times report, which cites more than a dozen people close to Trump, suggests the former president is growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that he’s running against Harris as she continued to poll better than Biden.

The most shocking detail — as opposed to merely bonkers — is the reporting that Trump has been calling Harris a “bitch” in private, according to two people familiar with the comments, which we cover in detail here. And below — the five other BONKERS reveals.

1 – Sent Angry Texts To Miriam Adelson Over Her Super PAC
(which was spending $18 million a WEEK):
In late July, Trump directed an aide to fire off angry texts to Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate who died in 2021. Trump’s team accused Adelson, whose PAC Preserve America was spending nearly $20 million a week at the time, of employing RINOs — Republicans in name only.

People familiar with the incident said Miriam Adelson was shocked by the criticism since she’d had a “friendly” meeting with Trump only days prior. The messages reportedly included Trump’s aide saying Adelson’s late husband would “never have tolerated” RINOs running the Super PAC.

2 – Insisted ‘Weird’ Attacks Only About JD Vance:
A common line of attack for Democrats since Biden exited has been calling Trump and JD Vance “weird.” The term was first employed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), now Harris’s running mate, when discussing Vance and some of his past comments that have earned backlash.

According to the Times, Trump was unaware of some of Vance’s past comments. At one point he reportedly asked aides if they were aware of Vance’s rant about “childless cat ladies” before he picked him as a running mate. Vance has gone on numerous rants against “childless” Americans.

At an August 2 meeting with donors, Trump pushed the “weird” label on his vice presidential candidate. When someone brought up the “weird” label, Trump replied, “Not about me. They’re saying that about JD.”

3 – Desperate Search For Right Mean Nickname for Harris
(Also For a Strategy):
Trump is struggling to nail down a strategy to attack Harris, according to Haberman and Swan. Those close to the former president said he claims in public he prefers to run against Harris over President Joe Biden, but behind the scenes this is not the case.

As Trump tries to find the right nickname for Harris, his campaign has gathered background on the vice president and donors have urged him to focus more on specific issues like crime and the border.

His advisers have gone to great lengths testing policy-based attacks to see which work best with voters in the battleground states. They have privately described having so much material against Ms. Harris — from interviews to policy statements to her record as a prosecutor — that condensing it all into a specific frame can feel like a challenge.

Yet most of Mr. Trump’s top advisers have urged the campaign and the candidate to focus on the economy, immigration and crime — issues on which Mr. Trump’s message resonates powerfully with the so-called persuadable voters they are targeting.

4- Angry Calls Reporters Insisting No Changes Coming To Campaign:
Trump may not be happy with his current circumstances, but he is insisting he has no plans on making any staff changes on his campaign.

Trump has met with top allies, including former advisor Kellyanne Conway, in recent days about his campaign strategy, but he became angry at the suggestion he’s looking to change up his staff.

“In an angry phone call to a Times reporter on Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump denied that he was making any changes to his team, saying he was “thrilled” with his top advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, and asking why he would even want to make such a change,” Haberman and Swan wrote in the Times.

5 – Furious & Unsettled Harris Getting Bigger, Better Earned Media:
Allies of Trump are also saying he is aggravated by the amount of “earned press” Harris is getting, meaning press she doesn’t pay for. Trump has long dominated his political opponents when it comes to press coverage, but he’s reportedly expressed frustrations to his team that Harris appears to be the first outpacing him.

According to Haberman and Swan, Trump is constantly asking his team about new polling and whether Harris’s momentum can be sustained for much longer.

BONUS DETAIL: Haberman also reported Friday night that Trump made an angry phone call to her after his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Montana. He threatened to sue The New York Times over its coverage of his claim that former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was in a near-helicopter crash with him in the ’90s. Brown has denied the story, and former city councilman Nate Holden and an former executive for Trump both said the former president confused Holden for Brown.

Read the rest of New York Times report here.

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