If Trump wants to win, he has to be more disciplined

There’s a simple reason why Trump benefits from having a tight grip on what he says and tweets. It tends to keep him out of trouble. When he ad-libs an answer to a question, he often has difficulty giving a precise response. That gives journalists an excuse to interpret what he said — rarely with Trump’s best interests in mind.

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The March-June months of 2020 have been disastrous for Trump, with the dominant subject, COVID-19, one in which he’s no expert. Lack of knowledge usually doesn’t stop him from answering hard questions — answers to which he might flub. What could be better for an unfriendly reporter than getting the president in trouble for responding to a hostile question? Yet Trump faced reporters for weeks this spring without help from his own experts.

Given his weaknesses, there’s one tool that’s perfect for avoiding trouble: the prepared text. Such a speech would be vetted by the president’s advisers to delete troublesome quotes. There shouldn’t be a vanity problem with having a speechwriter do the hard aide work. A president gets credit even if he’s reading a speech for the first time as he delivers it.

Here’s the short of this. A disciplined Trump has a chance to win. An undisciplined Trump has no chance.

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