I think the tactics here are aiming to be read by the Red hats. If the piece were more generally how Trump is A steaming pile of shit they would categorically reject it as anti-Trumpist propaganda. This seems to be trying to errode confidence from his base by accepting their premise that he is effective.

Basically like trying to give a dog a pill. You stick it in the mid of a tasty sausage or something so they don’t automatically spit it out.