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.
Anthony Weiner isn’t the only one who can’t help himself. On a day when the disgraced Democrat’s penchant for sending graphic photos of his penis to women who aren’t his wife was once again front-page news, Trump made sure to offer his own thoughts on a matter of utmost national importance. “Huma [Abedin] is making a very wise decision,” the twice-divorced GOP nominee said in a statement about Abedin’s decision to separate from her husband. “I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him,” Trump added about a politician to whom he personally donated thousands of dollars to help elect to Congress. Trump then turned his attention to Hillary Clinton for his grand finale:
I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information. Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.
Here in the Slate watchtower there was some disagreement over what to make of this response. Was Trump clever to pivot back to one of his favorite Clinton-themed attacks? Or did weighing in at all only fuel the existing narrative that Trump crassly exploits any- and everything that happens in the world in order to talk about himself? Personally, I think both things are true. Trump being Trump was never going to be able to let this one go, and so his on-message albeit nonsensical statement was probably the least worst outcome here. Still, we’re 70 days from Election Day and Trump, trailing badly in the polls, is busy talking about an erect Weiner at a time when he still doesn’t have a comprehensible position on immigration, aka his signature policy issue. Our danger level remains low!
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons
