In large part, Trump’s 2016 upset of Hillary Clinton was attributed to his personal bravado. His supporters liked how he repeatedly said crass things that paralleled their thinking. Finally, a politician who just shoots from the hip, focus groups and polls be damned.

If there’s any truth to that analysis, how do you explain the contents of this article, “Trump Keeps Rejecting Pleas From Allies for Pro-Vax Campaign”?

Paragraphs to ponder:

“More than 400,000 Americans had died of coronavirus when Trump left office, and the death count has swelled to more than 600,000 since. But as Trump has settled into a post-presidency defined largely by prolonging his anti-democratic crusade and settling scores with Republicans who crossed him, the former president has privately dropped hints about why, exactly, he has been so derelict.

According to two of the sources who have spoken to Trump about this, he has occasionally referenced polling and other indicators—such as what he’s seen on TV—that show how the vaccines are unpopular with many of his supporters. This has left the impression with some of those close to Trump that he doesn’t want to push too hard on the subject, so as to not ‘piss off his base,’ one of the two people said.”

Maybe Trump was never that distinctive of a politician. Or the ‘swamp’ changed him. Add ‘being too busy assessing which way the political winds were blowing to help us get the upper hand on the ‘rona’ to his legacy.