Trump Makes Another Masterful Move.

During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show, Donald Trump hinted that he might be willing to debate Bernie Sanders before the California primary. As we all know this sent the pundit class into hyperdrive. Opinions varied from speculation that it would finish Hillary to it made her look irrelevant to accusations of Trump attempting to interfere with the Democrats primary elections.  One thing was for certain, Trump had managed to completely dominate yet another news cycle.

Then that news became surplanted by another hammer blow to Hillary's campaign in the form of the State Department IG audit report.

After three days, it was time for Trump to make another move to above the fold. So of course he "decides" it would not be proper to debate "the second place finisher". Mission accomplished. Quickly the story and speculation became centered around Trump's decision and why he made it.

Not being a psychologist I can only guess at Hillary's mental state at this point. Her ride from presumptive coronation to political dogfight to possible criminal indictment has to be an emotionally taxing roller coaster even for a longtime political operative like her. Yet some how I'm sure Donald Trump is taking that into consideration in his ongoing calculations on how to build and maintain his own psychological advantage over Clinton and the Democrats.

By first agreeing to debate Sanders and then reversing himself, he certainly risks looking indecisive for the moment but he gains the advantage of keeping both Clinton and Sanders off balance and having to recalculate their next moves. All the while I would bet that Trump already has his next three moves already planned and ready to launch.

While Bernie Sanders can still concentrate on securing a victory in California, Hillary must divide he attention and resources in three directions, against Sanders in the still not finished primary fight, against a seemingly never ending investigation by the FBI and against Trump's building and relentless attacks against both her history and character. Now throw in the added and obvious irritant of a new investigation into long time Clinton operative Terry McAuliffe for potential campaign finance violations while working for the Clinton Foundation slush fund.

While Hillary must be feeling positively besieged if not paranoid, I can almost see Trump sitting back with an irrepressible smile on his face thinking that that is just the conditions he wanted to create.