The amount of credit Scott, Haley, and Melania are being given for defending Trump's lies and policies in the right tone - by choice, for his reelection campaign - is a decent preview of what the post-Trump media environment is going to look like whenever it comes. https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1298458466131095556

And the constant straining to identify positive tonal shifts from Trump himself makes me wonder what'd happen if he made a big speech apologizing for things he's said and done, promising to be less divisive, etc. Just frightening to consider how hard people would fall for it.

Trump thinks his October surprise is a vaccine, but it would actually be him saying he's sorry for literally anything and getting weeks of headlines like "NEW TRUMP?" "LEADER AT LAST?" etc.

So ultimately I think his ego and buffoonery have their upsides. They keep journalists vigilant and they prevent him from improving his political standing in easy and obvious ways. But the figures poised to follow him on the right will be a different story.