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‘What He Gets for Taking Counsel From Laura Loomer’

Donald Trump
Alex Brandon/AP

Today’s notice: America’s weirdest presidential race is now officially in the homestretch. Today, we’re launching a new and newsier version of the NOTUS newsletter to get you through the finish line.


Donald Trump Spins Himself

“This is what he gets for taking counsel from Laura Loomer.” That’s a source close to Donald Trump to NOTUS, giving a straight take on the race-baiting failure of an evening for the former president.

This was not the spin the Trump campaign was going with. Trump surprised everyone when he appeared in the spin room himself, drawing a huge crowd of reporters who had had their fill of Trump surrogates blaming the moderators for the night’s performance. It was hard to hear in the scrum, and most reporters couldn’t. But the president’s voice rose over the din now and again. It was his best debate, he said. He won, everyone knew it. Trump wandered around in a Secret Service cordon, taking questions for a few minutes and attempting to upsell the lackluster evening. Then he left.