BS BULLETIN:

• Democratic strategist James Carville floated two explanations for President Donald Trump’s recent behavior: He’s either deliberately hurting Republicans or, in Carville’s words, “clinically insane.”

• The longtime Clinton adviser questioned whether Trump actually wants congressional Republicans to lose their majorities in November.

• Carville’s latest remarks follow a similar accusation he made last month, when he claimed Trump wanted to punish Republicans for turning against him.

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James Carville has spent decades trying to figure out how Democrats can beat Republicans. Now he’s entertaining a different possibility: What if Donald Trump is doing the job for them?

The veteran Democratic strategist raised the question Wednesday on his Politics War Room podcast, offering two explanations for the president’s recent behavior. Neither was particularly flattering. Carville’s co-host, journalist Al Hunt, brought up Trump’s controversial remarks about Iran during a Monday rally in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Trump had been defending the costs of the war when he offered a startling hypothetical about Iranian attacks on American cities. “They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump told the crowd.

The president’s remarks were part of an argument about the dangers posed by Iran and the price of preventing future attacks.

But Carville heard something else: a president handing Democrats ammunition just weeks before the midterm elections. “I just gotta keep asking the same question,” Carville said. “Is Trump trying to lose? I mean, there’s nothing that he does that is consistent with trying to win.”

The strategist then suggested that Trump’s dominance of the political conversation could be damaging his own party’s congressional candidates. “He is the central issue in the campaign. He dominates everything,” Carville said. Then came his first theory. “Does he just want to screw the congressional Republicans? Does he hate ’em? I don’t know.”

He suggested there might be another explanation for the president’s conduct. “It might be that he’s just out of his godd*mn mind,” Carville said.

And then he delivered his conclusion: “He is a man of real grievances, and this behavior — the only thing that could really explain it is that he’s clinically insane, or he wants the Republicans to lose. I don’t think there’s any other explanation for it.”

Carville offered no clinical evidence to support his characterization of Trump’s mental health. His remarks were political speculation, not a medical assessment.

But the accusation wasn’t entirely new.

On September 8, Carville advanced a similar theory, claiming Trump actually wanted Republicans to suffer a major defeat in November. “The only answer that I can come up with that explains the current behavior of Donald Trump is simply this: he wants the Republicans to lose,” Carville said at the time. “He hates them. He wants to torture them.”

Carville argued that Trump believed he had taught Republicans how to win elections, only to have some party members turn against him. “He thinks that he saved them, he taught them how to win, they turned their back on him and he’s going to teach them a lesson,” Carville claimed.

The latest remarks come as Democrats seek to regain control of Congress in November.

Recent national generic-ballot polling has shown Democrats leading Republicans, while several congressional contests previously considered safe for the GOP have become more competitive.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued holding rallies, including appearances in states he comfortably carried in 2024.

Carville sees the president’s rhetoric as politically self-destructive. But his theory leaves an obvious unanswered question: If Trump is intentionally sabotaging Republicans, why is he continuing to campaign for them?

For now, Carville appears convinced that the president’s behavior must have some hidden explanation.

And he’s narrowed the possibilities to two.

MY QUICK TAKE

James Carville is one of the guys who helped put Bill Clinton in the White House. He knows something about campaigns, political messaging and getting inside an opponent’s head.

But this is a fascinating example of what happens when political analysts become so committed to their own interpretation of an opponent that they stop considering alternatives.

Carville has decided Trump’s behavior can mean only two things: deliberate sabotage or mental illness.

Really? Those are the only choices?

Here’s another possibility: Trump has always said things that conventional political consultants consider disastrous, and he has repeatedly demonstrated that his political instincts don’t follow their rulebook.

Remember 2016?

Every other week, the experts announced that Trump had finally said something so outrageous that his campaign was finished.

Then he won the election.

That history doesn’t mean every Trump remark is politically brilliant. Some of them create entirely avoidable controversies.

But Carville’s theory overlooks a basic distinction between disliking a politician’s style and understanding how that politician communicates with his supporters.

And here’s the funny part.

Carville has now spent a month publicly speculating that Trump secretly wants Republicans to lose.

That’s quite a leap from analyzing campaign strategy to claiming you know what’s going on inside somebody else’s head.

For a man famous for the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid,” Carville might want to remember his own advice.

Sometimes the explanation is considerably simpler than the conspiracy theory.