Trump Ditches Campaign Trail For Hotel Opening

How can you tell that Donald Trump really does see his massive deficits in the polls and can tell he'll probably be just another private citizen come the morning of Nov. 9? For a hint, just check out his schedule for Wednesday, Oct. 26. With less than two weeks until Election Day, Trump blew off campaigning for his hotel opening. In one small move, he gave everyone just another reminder of how he seems not to be taking the final moments of his time as a presidential candidate too seriously, instead focusing on his business endeavors.

It's not even a decision his campaign is being coy about, as the day devoted to opening his much-plugged new hotel in Washington, D.C. was listed on his official schedule. Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, on the other hand, has been dispatched to Utah to try to fend off a challenge from insurgent independent conservative candidate Evan McMullin, who, against all odds, is threatening to topple Trump and actually win the state.

In other words, Trump has no excuses here ― Pence's trip to what should be a safe battleground state makes it very clear that there are better things Trump could be doing with his time, assuming his goal is to be the president-elect two weeks from now.

For the record, according to Real Clear Politics' polling averages, Trump currently trails Clinton by 4.7 points nationally, and there are some eye-popping outlier polls in that mix that could mean she has breakout potential. According to polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight, she currently boasts a nearly 85-percent chance of being elected president, while Trump's path to 270 electoral votes has seemingly narrowed to a sliver of a chance.

But that didn't stop the 70-year-old real estate magnate from hitting pause on the campaign to fete the opening of his latest hotel property in D.C., which he's devoted plenty of time plugging already. You might remember that he turned his short, testy admission that President Obama was born in the United States into an advertisement for the place, and he even name-dropped it in one of the presidential debates. In short, it's been unclear for a little while now whether Trump cares more about being president or boosting business to his new property.

Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, bristled at the criticism of Trump's prioritizing of the hotel, arguing to NBC's Today Show that he's displaying his "tangible accomplishments" by promoting the property, and attacked the media for not expressing similar skepticism when Hillary Clinton saw an Adele concert on her birthday. Needless to say, however, it's not Trump's birthday. Rather, it's just one more day of the 13 he has left in this campaign. And unlike Clinton, he's passing on trying to make up lost ground in order to plug one of his businesses ― a slightly less sympathetic motive than taking a minute to watch a beloved recording artist.