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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a rambling press
conference in which he talked about rally crowd sizes and President Joe
Biden's decision to drop out of the race, while also bemoaning the fate
of the violent criminals who assaulted the United States Capitol on his
behalf.

Trump's decision to hold the press conference, which appeared unscripted
and went off on several tangents about assorted grievances, baffled many
political observers, who questioned how Trump could possibly think the
appearance would help him.

"I’m not sure what the point of this was, he doesn’t look well at all,"
observed The Atlantic's Tom Nichols.

"Trump sounds horrible," noted former Trump White House Communications
Director Anthony Scaramucci. "His frustration (and fear) is overwhelming
his message."

"Who in their right mind thought Trump doing this was a good idea?"
wondered national security attorney Bradley Moss. "The audio and video
contrast to what Harris is doing in the swing states this week will get
tons of coverage."

"This is the kind of performance from Trump that, if the Republican
party was still a functioning institution, would have a lot of people
panicked and wondering about how to get him to drop out," argued MSNBC's
Chris Hayes.

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The Financial Times' Edward Luce was astonished by Trump's over-the-top
apocalyptic rhetoric.

"Good Lord!" he wrote. "45 seconds into Trump's statement, he's already
said that we're on the brink of a great depression and world war three."