The Trump Apocalypse Watch is a subjective daily estimate, using a scale of one to four horsemen, of how likely it is that Donald Trump will be elected president, thus triggering an apocalypse in which we all die.
Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention was generally fine for Donald Trump. Much like Rudy Giuliani had done on Monday, Chris Christie delivered a paranoid keynote speech about how Hillary Clinton had let the world go to hell as secretary of state while also committing numerous crimes against the Constitution. (The idea that Clinton should for some/any/all reasons be in jail is shaping up as this RNC’s theme.) Donald Trump Jr., millionaire heir and Ivy League grad, gave a speech about salt-of-the-Earth blue-collar wisdom. But while Christie’s speech was mendacious and Trump Jr.’s was a little over-the-top, neither was disastrous, and together they developed the idea that The Rest of the World Is Scary and Bad and Only Donald Trump Has the Strength and Common Sense to Do What Needs to Be Done About It. Which is really Trump’s biggest/only selling point.
Another thing that happened Tuesday, though, is that Trump surrogates and staffers spent all day denying that Melania Trump had copied sections of her Monday-night speech from Michelle Obama. Then, today, in what I believe is a first, the campaign reversed course and admitted it had screwed up, releasing a statement from a speechwriter named Meredith McIver who said she was responsible for accidentally plagiarizing the lines. (The question of why Trump finally felt he had to actually apologize for something is a curious one; my best wild guess is that Melania did not appreciate looking like a thief and wanted the full story told. Even Donald Trump has to listen to his spouse sometimes.) The very belated admission means that the Trump campaign spent 36 hours lying about what was already an pretty embarrassing incident. I argued yesterday that Speechgate was becoming the kind of damaging reputational gaffe that sticks to a candidate, and today’s events only convinced me further that that’s true. Our danger level stays relatively low.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons
