The hole he has dug for himself is wide and deep. National polls and battleground state polls all tell a similar story. Hillary Clinton has opened up a small-to-significant lead over Trump almost everywhere it counts. Unless Trump can reverse course, Clinton, despite persistent questions about her honesty, is on a track to win a handsome electoral college majority. The lone bright spot for Trump: It’s August not October. But that comes with a caveat.

Republicans hope Trump is bottoming out. They are waiting for a pivot that could and should have happened before Memorial Day. They wonder whether it will happen by the end of the month or at all. Labor Day used to be seen as the kickoff of the general election — that moment when more and more Americans start paying close attention. That notion is a relic of another era — and Trump is hardly underexposed. The general election is already half over, and Trump has lost the first half decisively…

Trump advisers point to Iowa and Nevada as states that went for Obama but are now competitive. But, for now at least, so are Arizona, which Democrats have not won since 1996, and North Carolina, which Obama won in 2008 but Mitt Romney won four years ago. Polls even suggest that Georgia is potentially competitive. Trump also trails in Michigan and Wisconsin, two more industrial states his advisers have suggested might be winnable…

All the talk about tapping an army of disaffected white voters who have been on the sidelines in past elections has produced little in terms of tangible evidence. Meanwhile, he continues to bleed support from prominent Republicans, who say they cannot support him in November.