Trump seems to forget it's not 2016 anymore. And he's frustrated.

Why is 2024 now so very different from Donald Trump’s earlier campaigns? To answer that question is to understand why Trump is so desperate to find new angles for attacks on Vice President Harris, even if some of them seem wild, outrageous and counterproductive.

Trump’s success in 2016, and his ability to retain control over the Republican Party since, have rested on his mastery of oppositional politics and his skill at using abnormal behavior to prove to disaffected voters that he’s no mainstream politician.

Until President Biden withdrew from the contest, both strategies still had juice. The oppositional approach worked when a majority of voters seemed prepared to reject Biden. The president’s approval ratings hovered in the 40 percent range, and even Biden sympathizers worried about his age.

As for Trump’s breaks with customs and norms, it was hard to find a more conventional, system-revering politician than Biden. These were useful virtues for Biden in 2020, when most voters were fed up with Trump’s chaotic presidency and his erratic handling of the pandemic. But by early 2024, memories of what had been exasperating about Trump faded. The 78-year-old’s acrimonious displays made him seem more energetic than Biden, and enough voters were sufficiently angry about high prices and immigration to welcome his spleen.

https://wapo.st/3LQxFtd