Last night, Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Iowa, where he said a bunch of dumbass Donald Trump things. He ranted about the Paris Agreement, saying "Like hell it’s nonbinding!" (Not only is the Paris Agreement nonbinding, but Trump himself said so during his announcement withdrawing us from said agreement.) For what felt like the millionth time he said that, the U.S. is the highest taxed nation. (We're not even close. Depending on how you measure it, we're one of the lowest taxed nations or in the middle of the pack. Decidedly not at the top.) He also said that he wasn't even there campaigning and the crowd was huge. (The event was put together and advertised by his campaign committee.)

None of these statements (or, you know, lies) are surprising or even really notable at this point. But what is notable is that these weird, unhinged events are still happening.

My theory? Donald Trump is addicted to campaign rallies. He's doing a terrible job running the country. His approval ratings can charitably be described as the numerical equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield pulling at his collar. He loves cable news, and every non-Fox channel he turns to is focused on the investigation into his campaign's potential collusion with Russia and his attempt to obstruct justice. He's well on his way to walking around the White House in the middle of the night screaming at the people in the paintings. So what does he do? He holds campaign rallies despite the fact that there's nothing to run for right now. He just wants to get in front of a crowd of people who still like him. This is post-murder, pre-Vegas OJ Simpson partying in seedy parts of Miami. It's sad.

The purpose of a campaign rally is to convince people that you deserve to represent them in the business of governing. However it happened, and it certainly seems like Russia was at least involved, Donald Trump won that opportunity. But now, he's proving over and over again what an ineffective leader he is. ([cough] Travel Ban. [cough]) And so he longs to bathe in the adoration of these people. Because to him, a man who sure appears to be an ego-maniacal narcissist, campaign rallies were never about getting the chance to govern. They were about building himself up. They were about stroking his own ego. Maggie Haberman in the Times writes about an anecdote from the speech that perfectly captures this:

After Mr. Trump had talked for over 60 minutes, diverting from his teleprompter repeatedly, he decided to wrap it up. Someone in the crowd yelled that they did not want him to go. “I don’t want to leave, either!” Mr. Trump called back.

Of course he doesn't.

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