How important was it to make a succinct closing argument?
Very important.
And obviously the the emphasis on being optimistic is important.
But he keeps stepping on this talking about, you know,
Arnold Palmer's privates and, you know, saying, you know, 39
minutes of dance music.
This is a the most disciplined campaign his staff has
run, but he remains undisciplined.
And in the next 12 days, you need to have
him saying that kind of thing with a little bit
more depth and substance to it and less on the
sort of the riffing that has caused people to, you
know, if he says something sort of wild, the media
is going to cover the wild thing rather than the
substantive thing.
And the substantive thing is what's going to sell the
voters.
That was long time Republican strategist Karl Rove on Fox
News yesterday, criticizing former President Trump for his words and
actions in these last days before the election.
Meanwhile, Vice President Harris is doubling down on her latest
criticism of Trump, telling reporters in Pennsylvania yesterday that the
former president is tired from the long presidential campaign.
As for last night, yet again, Trump not showing up,
refused to be a part of a CNN debate.
And clearly his staff has been saying he's exhausted.
And the sad part about that is he's trying to
be president of the United States, probably the toughest job
in the world, and he's exhausted.
Joining us now, author, columnist and conservative writer Matt Lewis.
Matt, good to see you this morning.
It's certainly no surprise that Donald Trump's not showing any
discipline.
The only time any of us can remember that he
did was in those closing days of the 2016 campaign
where he largely stayed off Twitter and stayed on message.
And Republicans want to see him do that again.
Do you see any scenario, particularly with his level of
of exhaustion, that that could happen?
Well, that's right.
People forget, but Donald Trump sort of went dark at
the end of the 2016 campaign, and he won.
Will he replicate it?
That would take humility.
I'm not sure that Donald Trump has that humility.
And part of it is that he's been a victim
of his own success.
He's always failed forward.
Sometimes he's succeeded.
Often times he's failed forward.
But I think the lesson that he's learned is, hey,
do it your own way.
Go with the gut, get attention and the good things
will happen.
And so I don't think he's going to take advice
from someone, a strategist like Karl Rove.
And at the end of the day, I think the
things that made Donald Trump so appealing to a lot
of Americans could end up also sowing the seeds of
his downfall if he loses.
We can look back at Arnold Palmer and other comments
he made at this so-called closing moment and point to
that.
So, Matt, your latest piece takes the idea that Trump
might lose, but you suggest he could still run again
in 2028.
He'd be in his 80s at that point, talked and
you say he would do so because because of his
ongoing legal trouble.
Tell us more, Right.
So this is an area where I've changed my mind.
Actually wrote a piece like a year or two ago
saying, well, the good thing about Donald Trump if if
he is the nominee for 1/3 time, is that this
time, surely he'll go away, right?
Then I got thinking and I think the answer is
clearly no.
Donald Trump has every incentive to keep running for president
or at least pretend that he's going to run for
president.
And I think part of it has to do with
the grifting.
As long as he is going to run for president,
he's going to be getting attention.
He can sell watches, he can sell Bibles, he can
sell sneakers.
His family can continue to cash in.
He'll be treated with respect and invited on TV shows
and all that stuff.
And I also think there's a possibility just it becomes
a little harder to go after him to try to
prosecute him if he is in fact, angling to to
be the nominee of the Republican Party.
It looks like vengeance.
It looks like you are weaponizing the Department of Justice.
And frankly, I just don't think anyone has the power
and the Republican Party to stop.
And so I don't see any reason why we won't
be sitting here like 4 years from now talking about
Donald Trump's closing argument.
Yeah, I agree, it should not be ruled out.
Now, I want to get your take on a pretty
blockbuster story that posted late last night in the Wall
Street Journal.
They report that Elon Musk since 2022, has been in
frequent contact with Vladimir Putin.
Mind you, this is after the invasion of Ukraine and
Musk and Putin have been having contact.
And Musk, of course, is now Donald Trump's most visible
surrogate on can the campaign trail all the time being
promised an influential role in the government.
He already has massive DoD contracts.
Just talk to us about this moment here about Musk
and how Republicans largely continue to a break embrace both
him and Trump, right.
Well, this is somebody who also has a lot of
power to influence things like the helping Ukraine against Russia.
I don't know if we're ever going to enforce the
Logan Act.
I don't know if it actually is enforceable, but it
it it's becoming certainly problematic where you can have citizens
just sort of freelancing and in the case of Donald
Trump, possibly doing some sort of diplomacy out of office.
So that's a big discussion for for another, another day.
I just happen to think that Elon Musk is a
very dangerous figure and look no further than the disinformation
that he advances on his own Site X.
He is constantly pushing propaganda and disinformation while simultaneously being
a billionaire, someone who is incredibly powerful in terms of
the way we as Americans communicate, and now apparently communicating
with foreign leaders.
It's and by the way, in 2024, this is like
the 100th biggest story, maybe was it barely, barely ranks.
But it's something certainly that's scary and worth watching.
It is it is.
It is indeed scary how much influence this one man
has over this election.
And we know from Bob Woodward, Donald Trump also has
been speaking to Vladimir Putin.
Author, columnist and conservative writer Matt Lewis.
Matt, thank you so much.