The Atlantic

Trump’s Confession

<span>The former president’s campaign announcement included an inadvertent admission that he has a big problem.</span>
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty

The critical consensus on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign launch is that it was boring in both delivery—uninspired and listless—and content, mostly rehashing themes he’s played since he started running for president in 2015.

But underneath the weird ad libs and overwritten Stephen Miller rhetoric, the speech revealed a new and important challenge for his comeback attempt. In 2016, Trump’s appeal to many was that he was perceived as a bold truth-teller: Unlike both Democrats and his fellow Republicans (he and his backers contended), he was willing to say what everyone could see. But in 2024, Trump finds himself in the opposite

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