Trump said he did not want Biden removed from the Democratic ticket even though he polls better than other contenders.

“Well, you know, interestingly, they’ve done polling, and I do better against almost everybody,” he opined. “And so they don’t — they don’t want to take him off. It depends.”

“Maybe I’m better off losing the debate,” Trump added. “I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I’ll do something like that.”

How the hell does this make any sense? Barring Biden dropping dead or something, there is zero chance he is going to be removed as the nominee. Trump’s performance, or even Biden’s himself, at any debate isn’t going to change that. The fact that this is a Trump/Biden race has been pretty much etched in stone for months.

But this is Trump and this is how he operates. It’s how he handles his own weaknesses: Rather than admit he has faults, he just preemptively says “If I fail at <thing>, its because the whole system is rigged!”. Why? That way, when he inevitably fails at the thing (which almost always happens), he’s got a built in excuse that his base will eat right up.