Former Trump insider reveals what’s driving Trump ‘crazier than usual’

Former White House director of strategic communications and assistant to Donald Trump, Alyssa Farah Griffin, says people and the media have lost sight of the driving force behind Trump’s running for president.

Staying out of jail.

The former Trump staffer spoke on the “Hacks on Taps” podcast with hosts David Axelrod and Mike Murphy, where the conversation went to Trump having a more challenging time staying on message during this campaign.

Griffin argued one of the reasons Trump has been acting “crazier than usual” is because of what is hanging over him this campaign.

They’re exchange:

Murphy: He’s totally cracking up. It is a huge tell that the one thing in this campaign, Trump campaign, that has a fairly coherent message is the paid advertising and that’s the one thing that Trump doesn’t have anything to do with.

Griffin: Well, and I do think, by the way, that’s kind of a lost theme in major part of this election is that Donald Trump, in some part, is running to stay out of jail. It’s simply a fact. … If he loses, by probably early 2026, he’s going to be standing trial, whether in documents, whether in January 6. This is a real thing that he’s facing. He doesn’t talk about it. I don’t feel like the media contextualizes that enough. But I think being 78 years old, running for a third time and having that on the other side of a loss, is driving him a little crazier than usual.

Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia in 2023 over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.

The nearly 100-page indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including beseeching Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia legislators to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college voters favorable to Trump.

In a separate indictment, Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the right to vote.

There are a slew of allegations against Trump, including that he pressured state officials to subvert the results of the election and participated in a scheme orchestrated by allies to enlist slates of fraudulent electors in battleground states who would falsely attest that Trump had won in those states . Trump “had no official responsibilities related to the convening of legitimate voters or their signing and mailing of their certificates of vote,” the new indictment says.

It also retains allegations that Trump sought to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject legitimate electoral votes and that Trump and his allies exploited the chaos at the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to further delay the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.