That isn’t quite how the Associated Press put it, of course:

Trump takes cautious approach to highlighting Joe Biden sex assault accuser

The story goes on to charitably characterize the Assclown’s references to Tara Reade as “tepid” and “reticent” and quotes him as saying “false accusations” over and over again. And Trump’s supporters would much rather talk about the accusation against Brett Kavanaugh because that one has fallen out of mainstream political discourse.

And no, contra the AP writer, I don’t think Trump is doing any kind of “complicated calculus” about the risk-reward balance of trumpeting vs. soft-pedaling Tara Reade’s story, any more than a six-year-old analyzes the physics of a thrown baseball. He just has a natural talent for self-serving bullshit, honed by decades of use.