I keep telling friends that when you try to predict the presidential election, you have to factor in how volatile things always are around Donald Trump. Every week, something happens that you didn't see coming and the way he deals with it is also unpredictable.
This whole thing with the map of Alabama…completely out of nowhere. The one foreseeable thing about it is that when there's something embarrassing or detrimental to Trump's image, he will usually take a one-day story and make a whole week out of it. One time, Barack Obama made a slip of the tongue and said there were 57 states. A few people tried to treat it as a lie…like anyone would have a reason to lie about that or had a chance of convincing America there were seven states nobody knew about. Some of them tried to spin it as mental deficiency on his part. But he admitted he'd misspoken, laughed it off and it went away. If Trump made the same gaffe, he'd insist to his dying day he was right, order his aides to go out and confirm there were 57 states and he'd probably take a black Sharpie and start drawing in stars on every American flag he sees.
And the amazing thing is there'll be at least two more of these before September is over. I don't know what they'll be. No one can predict what they'll be…just that they'll be.