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1) Trump and Pelosi both understand that if you say something over-the-top, you get to control that day's news cycle. The media may praise or criticize what you said, but they'll broadcast what you said, which is the whole point. It paints you as winning, and energizes your side.
2) Pelosi controlled yesterday's news cycle by calling Trump unwell. This isn't just a game. It matters, because it drowned out any message Trump wanted to get across. That sent his base into a tailspin, to the point that they were reduced to making doctored videos, etc.
3) With his declassification stunt, Trump is dominating today's news cycle. The media is heavily criticizing him for it. But the point is that it ended the narrative about Pelosi having him on the ropes. Whether Barr ends up declassifying anything or not, it served its purpose.
4) Trump loves to create a new scandal that he doesn't think will harm him, and use it to hijack the news cycle, thus taking the focus off his other scandals that he worries are harmful to him. If nothing ever does get declassified, this will be forgotten about, no harm to him...
5) ...but it will have bought him a day or two where no one is talking about how Pelosi owned him, or his banking records being turned over, or what Tillerson revealed about him and Putin. That's all out of the headlines for a few days.
6) Of course we should pay attention to his declassification stunt. It's highly dangerous. We have to push back so he'll think twice, and perhaps quietly tell Barr not to bother after all. But the point is, he wins the day just by announcing this crap.
7) So yeah, it matters that Pelosi knows how to say something bombastic like 'Trump needs an intervention,' because it means she knows how to retake control of the news cycle as needed. She can play him to a draw when it comes to the only real skill he has.
8) It doesn't matter that everything Pelosi says is true, and everything Trump says is a lie and/or evil. It only matters that she knows how to frequently beat him at his own game. The average nonpolitical dummy at home doesn't know who's right or wrong, just who's "dominating."
9) If the swing voters end up getting equally tired of Trump and Pelosi due to the shots they're taking at each other, that's a win for Pelosi, because Trump is on the nationwide ballot in 2020, she isn't. She doesn't have to worry about her nationwide approval rating. He does.
10) There is such a thing as bad publicity for Trump. The disastrous Barr hearings sent his impeachment poll numbers from the high 30s to the high 40s – and that was a witness who was trying to help him. The next hearings about Trump's crimes will push impeachment numbers higher.
11) House Democrats say they're starting the Mueller report hearings next week. This will dominate the news cycle every day, with a narrative Trump doesn't want. The question is what he'll do each day to try to retake that news cycle.
12) The simplistic answer is "invade Iran." Buy why do something so risky, when he can seize the news cycle just by announcing that Barr is going to declassify America's key intel secrets? By simply tweeting the right horrible threat, he can control the news cycle for a day.
13) So once these televised House hearings start, which will be impeachment hearings whether that word is used or not, Trump will start making all kinds of evil (and often impossible) announcements and threats. Don't let it paralyze you. It's all he has left. Means he's losing.
