Let me try to explain why the Trump Campaign's appellate strategy is so shockingly ridiculous, so stunningly incompetent.

/1 https://twitter.com/j_remy_green/status/1330881553061335046?s=20

/2 The Trump Campaign, and two Trump voters, sued in federal court in PA, then filed a First Amended Complaint that ditched a lot of their initial arguments. At oral argument Rudy Giuliani asked the judge to amend the complaint again to revive one of the claims they dismissed.

/3 In his ruling the judge made rulings destroying the entire premise of Trump's -- and the voters' -- right to sue, and eviscerated the premises of their arguments and the remedies they sought. AND he refused to let them amend.

/4 Now, on appeal, Trump is attacking only the refusal to let them amend. They're not appealing the substantive rulings the judge made that destroy the entire premise of their suit and rule out the remedies they are seeking.

/5 Trump seems to think "if the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court makes the trial court let me amend then I can just make all those arguments over again that the trial court has already rejected and THEN appeal if the trial court rejects it again."
That's not how it works.

/6 Rather, there's a strong argument that by framing the appeal this way Trump is giving up any challenge to the things the trial court ruled, things that render the amended complaint dead on arrival. At the most charitable, it's incredibly reckless. More likely it's malpractice.

/7 Let me explain how dumb this is with an analogy. Your 14-year-old daughter says to you "Mom, I want to go to Cancun with Jared Fogle." OF COURSE NOT, you say. "No wait," says your daughter. "Change of plans. Now we're going to Gstaad." NO, you say.

/8 Trump is basically your 14-year-old daughter yelling "DAAAAAAD, MOM WON'T LET ME CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT WHERE I GO WITH JARED FOGLE."