On Friday morning, Donald Trump stepped in front of the cameras—in the midst of his presidential campaign, at the heart of a moment when world events are shifting the structure of relationships in a way that will alter vital United States interests—and explained how the third hole at his golf course was going to be the “greatest par three.” It was a bizarre moment. It was a perfect summary. It was Trump.
By any measure, Donald Trump is doing a pitiful job as the presumptive GOP nominee. He’s literally phoning it in, running a schedule that mixes the occasional rally with kicking back in his office to dial a friend or two among American’s talking heads. He’s not doing the rounds of fundraising expected of a would-be president. He’s not doing down-ticket meet and greets to boost other GOP candidates. He’s not putting in place the infrastructure to drag iffy voters to the polls, or building connections to bring in outside funds, or even creating a media organization to lend some details to his fact-free spluttering.
Many have looked at this and wondered if there's some secret scheme behind the incompetence. Does Trump have a hidden agenda? Why else is his treatment of topics so flippant? Why is his campaign so not there?
But the truth is simpler. Donald Trump is running a fraction of a campaign because he’s just a part-time nominee. For all his fist-pumping speeches, Trump’s candidacy and his line of of tacky campaign mementos are no more important to him than one of his vanished magazines, or his dried out line of gristly steaks, or his grounded airlines. Other people might see being president as the most important job they could possibly have. Trump sees it as a sideline.
Donald Trump has a day job. And he’s not about to let something as trivial as the presidency get in the way.