• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, August 15, 2016

Donald Trump has made a new mind-bending claim. He is trying to distract attention away from his plummeting poll numbers and news that the party he is now the de facto leader of is looking to limit the amount of funds being funneled to his campaign.

Apparently, Trump believes that the “media,” the very group of people that got him to this point, are convincing voters of falsehoods about him and his campaign. Further, if they somehow could just tell the truth about what he says, then he would be far ahead of Clinton in the polls.

The tweet in which he made the claim read: “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%.”

Trump’s vilification of the media is becoming almost comical at this point.

Most portrayals of the Republican nominee on TV or online are actual videos of what he has said at rallies or during interviews. Or, the exact words that he has tweeted. It is pretty difficult to put false meaning to words that are coming out of Trump’s own mouth, unless, of course, what he is saying isn’t actually what he means.

In no uncertain terms, over the past few weeks, Donald Trump has offended gold star parents, has openly encouraged Russian hackers to taint the presidential election, has questioned the basis on which NATO is built, has implicitly told gun-rights activists to “do something” about Hillary Clinton, and said that Obama “founded” ISIS, but of course that last one was sarcasm.

Whether Trump likes it or not, what people are reacting to are his own words, and what he is saying deeply disturbs a significant majority of the country, including many Republicans.

Red, White & Blog last week took a look at FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast, which showed that Hillary Clinton would be far more likely to win the election if it were held last week. If the election were held today, Trump’s chances remain dismal. He would have an 8.6% chance of winning in an election on August 15.

Despite a clearly understaffed and unsophisticated campaign, Trump does have pollsters on his team. They are obviously telling him that regardless of what the media says, the outlook is bleak.

Republicans must now be finally starting to realize that their guy isn’t going to change his tune. It is hard to imagine how Trump comes back from some of the things he has said. If he keeps pounding the one group the vast majority of voters look to for their political bearings, his odds of winning will only worsen.