Edition · September 25, 2024

Trump World’s September 25 Self-Owns

A federal funding punt, a foreign-threat briefing, and a growing mess around campaign optics made for an ugly day in Trump orbit.

September 25, 2024 packed several separate Trump-world headaches into one news cycle: a shutdown fight that Trump had pushed toward the cliff instead got shoved back by Congress; the campaign leaned hard into an Iran threat briefing that underscored just how unstable the race had become; and the broader Trump operation kept tripping over its own messaging and priorities. None of it was the kind of single, clean knockout blow that ends a campaign. But together, it added up to another day where Trump and his allies looked more combustible than commanding.

Closing take

The throughline here is simple: Trump’s orbit kept generating drama that was supposed to project strength and instead highlighted risk, chaos, and self-inflicted problems. On a day when the campaign wanted dominance, it mostly got reminders that its biggest asset is still its ability to create a mess.

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Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.