Maggie Haberman: Trump says everyone tries to steal elections when they do something he doesn’t like

less than a minute into Donald Trump's speech today which was ostensibly focused on the economy the former president lamented the major shake up in the Democratic ticket Joe Biden is a very angry man you know that right because they they took it away from him they usurped it they took it away from him she got no votes and you look at what happens that's not the way it's supposed to happen uh they are a threat to democracy right as they say New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman is here also a CNN political analyst you know this is something he comes back to a lot it is he's like a grieved for Joe Biden it's probably the only time he and Joe Biden maybe have had like a vend diagram of agreement but but I do think there is a concern of if he is moved on to that he's facing Harris in this race not Joe Biden anymore yeah Jonathan Swan and I wrote about this this weekend it's like he's trying to will this into existence as if he's trying to get Joe Biden back in the race and try to run the race that he wants it to be and we have seen him do this before when things have not worked out the way he wants them to this is what he did during covid in 2020 when he would repeatedly talk about how great the economy it was how great it was how great it was how unfair this all is okay well but now you have a different future in front of you and you you have to deal with that and and they are wasting time he is wasting time I should say I think his team clearly has more of a sense of how it wants to run against Harris he seems to be all over the place and wants to attack her personally as we got to see it what was built as an economic spee earlier today well and he also said that by putting her at the top of the ticket that it has defrauded the public that that she's defrauding the public by doing that when you hear that though I know everyone tries to separate out what Trump means and and what he actually intends to do but I do think it raises the question of if he intends to to say this was an unfair election if he loses because it was someone different at the top of the ticket he's already saying a ton of things that suggest to me that he is seeding the round workk for saying if he if he loses that these are the various reasons why uh whether it is because there was a change in the top of the ticket and you know he keeps saying they broke the rules they broke the ru there were no rules for this this was a totally new situation now she was on the ticket with Joe Biden so she actually did get votes she just didn't get votes as the uh Presidential nominee but he is going to blame that he is going to blame the legal cases against him remember he's getting sentenced next month they're scheduled to in New York we're already seeing him talk about that so yes I think he is he is you know working the soil and we have seen him do this before again you know man a few moves to say these are all the reasons why I lost if he did yeah with the New York thing I mean he was posting on Truth social today that because the judge hasn't lifted his gag order or recused himself that he's not allowed to talk to to reporters and said they must get US Supreme Court involved New York is trying to steal the election right everybody's trying to steal the election everybody's trying to steal the election by doing things that he doesn't like in his in his ter in his terminology um look I mean one of the things that we have seen Donald Trump do over and over again is complain about other people not following rules um when he himself then decides what rules he wants to abide by or what Norms he wants to abide by and uh that's playing out again he it was certainly energetic in that speech today he was you know when he was saying that she's fired line reprising his Apprentice role uh JD Vance was on Fox news earlier and the senator was asked about Trump's mood how he's actually really feeling and this is what he said I think he feels extremely confident about how how we're doing in the election I think he's very excited about getting to work and solving the problems for the American people but he's just having a good time he's laughing he's telling jokes uh he calls people and just wants to you know uh shoot the breeze and understand what's happening in the country does that match up with what you're hearing about how he's actually feeling no I mean it doesn't mean that he's not having phone calls that are like that and it doesn't mean that he's not having moments when he's like that because he he is capable of both um even when he's in a bad place and I think he got into a better place when Tim Waltz was picked he was feeling better about that than had it been uh Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania um but no I think that he's he's still is clearly disoriented and not sure where he wants to go I have to say though just in terms of that clip from JD Vance Vance has been actually performing not just the way that they had hoped that he would in terms of being an attack dog which is what the VP nominee is supposed to to do uh historically but he's actually delivering a more coherent message than Trump is uh about Harris and about you know returning to the days of trump which polls generally show that voters liked aspects of liked the economic message Trump talking about the economy today is what his advisers wanted him to do because that's an area that he does well on against terrorists still she does better than Biden did against Trump but that is still uh one of his calling cards and he still would prefer to attack yeah and Vance meanwhile today was taking questions about inflation and talking about yes it was there were good numbers for for Biden today but what it meant overall for for voters uh on this issue you know Trump is going to do another press conference tomorrow from a different property not marago he'll be doing it from his Bedminster Club what is your sense from the campaign of why he's doing these these press conferences but not really doing a lot of rallies he's only had one that was in Montana last week I think some of it is uh about not spending money I think some of it is about the fact that this is an easy way to contrast with her and that's the main one her being uh kamla Harris in terms of answering questions they are very very focused on the fact that she's not doing interviews and she's not doing press conferences which is an issue that strategists care about and an issue that almost no voters care about whatsoever and so that's fine if that's what they want to talk about um and it gets him a lot of free media coverage and breaking into media coverage has been a bit of an obsession of his and trying to break up her momentum look she is likely to have another at least 10 good days we are heading into the convention it is going to go through uh you know the the weekend after this one um and that has been vexing to him he likes inserting himself in the news cycle as we both know well can we talk about Mariam mson because you've been reporting she is a mega donor of Mega donors has is supporting Trump was at the Republican convention but she's going to marago this week meeting with Trump or going to Bedminster this week and meeting with Trump after he had had the aid who prints out all of his articles and clips and gives them to him fire off some pretty harsh texts to her so again this story that Jonathan Swan and I did over the weekend we we had reporting in there that part of part of Trump's anger and how his anger is seeping out and the sort of erratic behavior that people around him are seeing and you know see during times of stress uh has been in the form of having his Aid known as the human printer Natalie Hart because she carries around a wireless printer um send texts to Miriam Adon who is funding a super pack to the tune of tens of millions of dollars called preserve America saying that it's being run by rhinos and I just would like to make the point that one of the people running it is is um Governor Abbott of Texas's adviser he's not a rhino saying her husband never would have tolerated it this caused a lot of concern that she was going to scale back her giving uh her advisers found out that Ike pearlmutter uh the former chairman of Marvel entertainment who is a trump Ally and runs a different or is involved in a different super peek had been jinning up these attacks against her so it's a mess and it's a mess that that Trump World would like to not be dealing with uh she will be at uh Bedminster tomorrow they are going to meet privately clearly it's not impacting her giving but this is not a story that you know any candidate wants to be dealing with