Donald Trump is getting increasingly desperate.

Or, as a former Trump staffer explained, “It’s like watching a rabid dog chase his tail and eat himself.”

From almost every corner, Trump is being hammered on his lack of leadership, on the growing economic disaster, on the diminishing U.S. status around the world, on his attempts to squelch free speech. And then there’s his failing campaign: Polls show Trump’s support is fading, and he lags significantly behind Joe Biden in the presidential race.

Economists confirmed this week that the U.S. economy officially entered a recession in February. Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. surpassed 119,000, while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is now more than two million. Military brass, including retired generals James Mattis and Colin Powell, eviscerated Trump for his recent handling of protests. Plus Trump (and his former press secretary) lost in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week to Playboy—not to mention that the ACLU just sued the president for his use of federal force against peaceful protesters outside the White House.

Trump lashed out at his critics on Twitter as usual, but has kept his distance from reporters. As CBS News Radio correspondent Steve Portnoy tweeted on Monday, “It’s been a week since President Trump took his last question from the WH press corps on camera. Minutes after the melee in Lafayette Park, he told reporters he was holding ‘a Bible,’ and added, ‘We have a great country. That’s my thoughts.’ Nothing on the record since.”

But nothing speaks more to Trump’s desperation than his presidential campaign.

In the past week I’ve received 14 e-mails from the Trump camp or its affiliates, and just four from Joe Biden and his acolytes. Biden asked for a donation, twice told me we were in the fight for the soul of our nation and shared polling results showing him firmly ahead of Trump in several battleground states.

Trump wanted me to join a raffle for a chance to appear with him at an unspecified event. He also asked me to buy MAGA whiskey tumblers to celebrate Father’s Day, and in another e-mail told me I could become a part of history if I donated quickly: “I’ve asked my team to print and frame the Presidential Donor List made up of the first 150 Patriots who choose to step up at this critical time,” the ad claimed. The president also sent me his thanks for being a “Trump Executive Member”—all I needed to do to claim my gold-embossed certificate was donate $45 to his cause.

The most desperate e-mail of them all: A “personalized” invite to an upcoming event—“President Trump REALLY wants to meet you, Brian.” He would cover my flight, a place to stay and VIP access to the event—all he needed was my donation. “You’ll even get to take a photo with President Trump,” the message promised.

I laughed. I’ve been chasing an interview with the guy for nearly four years. Who knew all I had to do was donate “any amount today” for the chance to do it?

Of course, there’s no evidence this often used scam has ever yielded a winner. But I’m sure that doesn’t stop people from sending him money in hopes of getting a photo with him.

Trump’s desperation has also spread to the press corps.

For reporters covering conflict zones, PTSD is a reality.

“This is worse than any conflict zone,” said a European reporter I know. “Covering Trump is caustic.” The journalist, who prior to covering Trump had reported from dozens of war zones, recently returned to Europe for several weeks of mental detox.

When you’re a reporter tasked with covering current U.S. politics, stress and trauma are a reality. Many of us endure daily doses of disinformation, human suffering, gunfire, protests, riots and violence while trying to inform the public. The thousand-yard stare in the eyes of the stalwart reporters at the White House belies the difficulties of focusing on the daily atrocities while trying to survive Donald Trump.

On Monday, Kayleigh McEnany, the latest White House propagandist holding the title of press secretary, told the press several times that the president supports peaceful protests. She also said the president “is against the kneeling movement” to protest police brutality. No one pushed back about why a supposed supporter of peaceful protests would reject this form of entirely peaceful protest—McEnany didn’t give them time.

Protesting is, of course, a First Amendment right. And regarding free speech, Trump’s record is another one of failures. Back in late 2018 Trump’s White House tried to revoke the press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta but reversed course after CNN sued. In 2019 the White House tried to suspend my pass too, on the grounds that I hadn’t followed some unwritten rules of decorum, so Playboy and I took them to court. Trump lost and then appealed. Last Friday he lost to Playboy and me for the second time, the appeals court ruling unanimously in an opinion that indicated the White House arguments were absurd.
“The White House can rest assured that principles of due process do not limit its authority to maintain order and decorum at White House events by, for example, ordering the immediate removal of rogue, mooning journalists,” the court declared.
There are no rogue, mooning journalists covering the president at the moment—but I guess one might show up someday.

The press remains an enemy in Trump’s mind because it remains the most vital link to a public that yearns for communication and cooperation. When we report, we give Americans the facts they can use to cooperate with one another in solving society’s problems. But Trump is such a bad politician, he is attempting to destroy one of the things that have helped Homo sapiens conquer the planet: cooperation.

In the Democrats’ attempt to retake the Oval Office, Donald Trump remains Joe Biden’s greatest ally. Biden merely has to continue asking for contributions, as Trump goes nuts and promises whiskey tumblers and photo-ops while imploding on social media. Trump’s push to divide instead of unite will lead the country to destruction, which many military leaders know.

In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari claims it is cooperation through communication that enabled Homo sapiens to climb to the top of the food chain and dominate the planet. Following that logic, with his divisiveness Trump is trying to destroy our species.

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” wrote General Mattis last Wednesday. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind.” He added, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

Trump, who avoided military service and recently hid from protests in his bunker (as confirmed by William Barr), responded by attacking the highly decorated general on Twitter: “Mattis was our Country’s most overrated General. He talked a lot, but never ‘brought home the bacon.’ He was terrible! Someday I will tell the real story on him and others – both good and bad!”

Retired four-star general Colin Powell—former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a national security advisor to George W. Bush—was even more pointed than Mattis with his criticisms. “We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the President has drifted away from it,” he said on CNN.

Let’s be honest. America has never lived up to all the ideals in the U.S. Constitution. Justice here has never been universal. But most presidents have at least tried to live up to the ideal, while Trump rejects it. Trump doesn’t want to talk about “Black Lives Matter,” yet black lives do matter. The Constitution says everyone is created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. Trump? Doesn’t care.

Trump instead plays a deadly game of white male privilege. President Lyndon Baines Johnson warned of it in 1960: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

The true source of Trump’s desperation are the polls that show his base is finally becoming aware their pockets are being picked.

But Trump is more than desperate. He’s a desperate, dangerous coward.