Donald Trump seems to be playing a diabolical four-dimensional chess strategy this year. He must figure he is a lock to win — and wants the result to be so close, while offending every conventional sensibility, that the D..C political and media establishment will never get over the 2024 election result.

After all, no presidential campaign can really be this terrible.

He has focused on the wrong issues, left powerful attack points off the table, sent bad direct mail, and shown no message discipline. Even Trump’s McDonald’s stunt was too late in the game. And now, with the former president’s latest fiasco — insulting two demographics where he’s hoped to make big gains — it’s hard to pick out much that’s been done right.

Most campaign professionals and longtime political observers will tell you that the big issues turn politics. The Carville aphorism — “It’s the economy, stupid” — was true for decades before he coined the phrase. Trump put that law of politics to the test.

Incomprehensibly, Trump has chosen to make inflation an afterthought in his campaign. Never mind that it has been by far the top issue for voters and independents for more than two years (currently, 96 percent think inflation is important, including 77 percent who say it’s “very important”). Never mind that voters overwhelmingly disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the issue. For Trump, inflation is a nuisance issue he won’t take seriously.

He should have announced an inflation-fighting plan this spring. Any half-witted political operation could have come up with a........

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