First, he needs to recognize he’s headed for defeat. He didn’t get to this point in 2016 until the Access Hollywood tape leaked a month before the election and his campaign almost collapsed. He saw doom ahead, had to clean things up quickly—with teleprompters and nicer talk—and did.

Second, he’s got to jettison the most unhelpful of his rules of political combat—that is, never apologize. Trump’s fear is that apologizing shows weakness. For most politicians, including a few presidents, it might. But not this one. Trump has persuaded the entire world he’s not a wimp…

Third, Trump doesn’t have to stop tweeting. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says tweets aren’t the problem. It’s what some of them say that is. A suggestion: seize opportunities to act in positive ways and tweet about them. How painful could that be for the tweeter in chief?