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.
Thursday has been a relatively quiet day in Trump-land—though it is unlikely to stay that way. Donald Trump is scheduled to take the stage at a large campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, at 7:30 p.m., at which point we’ll get our first long look at the new and almost-certainly-not-improved candidate in one of his favorite settings since he appointed Breitbart News’ Steve Bannon as chief executive of his campaign.
That move, as I explained yesterday, is the latest sign that Trump has absolutely no interest in pivoting toward the center before election day. The biggest unknown at the moment is whether Bannon will simply let Trump be Trump between now and November, or whether the conservative provocateur will (*shudder*) somehow push Trump even further beyond the outer limits of political norms and general human decency than he has already gone. I can scarcely imagine what the latter would entail, but tonight may provide a few hints.
The following day, Trump will begin airing his first—yep, first!—general election television ads of his campaign. According to NBC News, he is spending at least $4 million to air ads in four swing states—Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—for a week and a half. That’s nowhere near the $61 million Hillary Clinton has spent on her own general election commercials, but it is nonetheless a long-overdue start and could very well turn into a deluge of attack ads.
In other words, a storm is coming of indeterminate strength. Out of an abundance of caution, then, I’m raising our danger level by half a horseman:
