trial balloon

Over and again his aides have chucked out trial balloons to an avid press corps – only to have each potential prime minister disavowed the following day.

So in addition to courting delegates in early primary voting states, like Iowa for Republicans and South Carolina for Democrats, California tends to see a number of auditions and trial balloons by presidential hopefuls.

Before they settled on this cleverly dishonest video, his campaign was leaking trial balloons to the press about considering a 15- or 16-week ban.

It’s a common strategy for rising authoritarians to float “trial balloons” to see what they can get away, as Professor Ben-Ghiat explained:

Sadly, late last night, Trump himself stuck a shiv in that trial balloon by announcing that he was endorsing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio for the job, likely assuring his victory.