New York Times: “Recently, Mr. Trump told a rally in North Carolina that he probably would not have shown up if he’d been doing better in the polls. ‘I would have said no, we don’t have to bother.’ In Manchester, N.H., the president said that if Mr. Biden wins the election, ‘I’ll be so angry at New Hampshire, I’ll never speak to you again.’ He said something similar in Michigan: ‘Michigan, you better vote for me! I got you so many damn car plants!'”
“At first it was refreshing that Mr. Trump never bothered with the faux-modesty routine — ‘this election is not about me, it’s about you.’ This struck me as one of the few truly honest parts of his act. His cartoonish self-regard seemed to buy him a certain credibility with his supporters, whose unshakable allegiance appeared to fall somewhere between true belief and being in on the joke. It’s difficult to quantify the degree to which Mr. Trump’s base might now be softening, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest, at the very least, a trying of patience. ‘I don’t think he has any respect for those who vote for him,’ said one participant from Wisconsin in a focus group of people who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 conducted by Republican Voters Against Trump. ‘I think he thinks he’s better than, smarter than, everybody,’ said another focus group member, this one from Texas.”