The clock is ticking, and Trump keeps engulfing himself in chaotic news cycles.

President Trump is running out the clock on his own re-election campaign.

With less than eight weeks left until the election, and with early voting beginning in some states this month, the number of days Mr. Trump can afford to burn is dwindling. He is trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr. in most national and battleground-state polls, and is facing a potential cash crunch, leaving him with less to invest in television ads after aggressive spending over the last three years.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump has spent the last week playing defense, first in the wake of a report that he had referred to Americans who died in combat as “suckers” and “losers,” and then doing damage control after the release on Wednesday of excerpts from the journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage.”

On Thursday, Mr. Trump announced a surprise news conference where he had nothing to announce. He entered the briefing room simply to reiterate false statements about the administration’s coronavirus response and defend himself, again, against revelations in Mr. Woodward’s book.

Mr. Trump often feels compelled to defend himself, but that almost always merely keeps a story alive.