"If Trump manages to escape conviction in Jack Smith’s Washington case, which may be the only criminal trial that ends before the election, that’s going to turbocharge his campaign."

"Of course, if he’s convicted, that could turbocharge his campaign even more. It’s a perfect playing field for the maleficent Trump: He learned in the 2016 race that physical and rhetorical violence could rev up his base. He told me at the time it helped get him to No. 1 and he said he found violence at his rallies exciting. He has no idea why making fun of Paul Pelosi’s injuries at the hands of one of his acolytes is subhuman, any more than he understood how repellent it was in 2015 when he mocked a disabled Times reporter. He gets barbaric laughs somehow, and that’s all he cares about...."

Writes Maureen Dowd, in "The Axe Is Sharp" (NYT)

"The Axe" refers to the person Biden calls a "prick," David Axelrod.

Trump mocked a disabled reporter, but he did not, as Dowd may want readers to falsely remember, make fun of his disability.

If we could read Trump's mind, would we find that he has "no idea why making fun of Paul Pelosi’s injuries is subhuman"? But we can't read his mind. And, more important, Trump did not make fun of his injuries. Trump blamed Nancy Pelosi for the terrible conditions in San Francisco and then inserted the line "How's her husband doing?" That's not making fun of his injuries, that's expressing outrage at the injury to all of the people of San Francisco and stressing how bad it is by observing the injury to Pelosi's own husband. The laughing is visceral, but it is revulsion at chaos in the city, threatening everyone, even the very rich and politically powerful.

Dowd is intent on portraying Trump as a monster. There's also this:

No doubt the president is having a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea that the 77-year-old Mar-a-Lago Dracula has risen from his gilded coffin even though he’s albatrossed with legal woes and seems more deranged than ever, referring to Democrats with the fascist-favored term “vermin” and plotting a second-term revengefest. Trump’s campaign slogan should be, “There will be blood.”

And she was just tsking over Trump's deliberate use of "rhetorical violence" to "rev up his base."

Axelrod himself does not rely on exaggerated imagery and fear mongering. Dowd talked with him and got these quotes:

“I don’t care about them thinking I’m a prick — that’s fine.... I hope they don’t think the polls are wrong because they’re not.... I think [Biden] has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse... He thinks he can cheat nature here and it’s really risky. They’ve got a real problem if they’re counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember Hillary doing that, too.”

I think, with this column, Dowd is doing exactly what Axelrod is warning Democrats against — "counting on Trump."

Look at the polls. The monstrousness that Dowd presumes is so obvious is not stopping Americans from saying they'll vote for Trump:

 

And here's what I get at 270 to Win if I give all the "toss-up" states to the candidate who is ahead in the average of the current polls at Real Clear Politics:

That's 32 electoral votes more than needed for Trump to win!