Donald Trump engaged in yet another needless distraction from the issues on Friday morning with a storm of tweets aimed at a former beauty queen instead of remaining focused on the issue at hand, his rival Hillary Clinton.
The tweets began at 3:00 am – long before most Americans were even awake – when he took to social media to complain about "made up lies" in the media.
Two hours later he was again on Twitter unleashing his wrath on a former beauty queen – and accusing her of participating in a sex tape.
Thirty-nine days before Election Day it is the last thing he should be doing – the focus for a candidate running on a potent wave of economic populism should have stayed connected to his strengths from the first presidential debate: the economy and jobs.
The Twitter storm ended a week of unnecessary self-inflicted blows to his candidacy similar to his attacks on the Khan family right after the Democratic National Convention that saw him dramatically sink in the polls.
Something that is likely happening as we speak.
The timing was unfortunate for him because initial polls showed only a weak bump for Clinton after the debate – five days later the damage is likely larger not only for him, but for those Senate seats the Republicans want to hold on to in order to keep their majority.
Trump was broadly seen as losing the debate among the political class; but not among those who were either supporting him or not paying attention to the event.
But he found ways to remind people of his performance by dwelling on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado's weight and personal life and failing to focus on the one tangible thing he can win against: Hillary Clinton.
Instead we heard a week of endless references to former president Bill Clinton's sexual scandals and attacks on the 1996 Miss Universe – a subject that Hillary Clinton raised during the debate when she claimed he called her "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping.”
As with the Khan family, Trump kept a controversy alive by continuously referencing it, instead of keeping a needed laser focus of the economy and his rival's own numerous shortcomings.
Salena Zito covers national politics for Newsmax.
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