The Whole Trump Thing Is Falling Apart-- Very Sad If That Sticks Us With DeSantis

"Is Tarred And Feathered Enough?" by Nancy Ohanian

According to the new YouGov poll, most registered voters have a negative opinion of Biden— 53%, compared to 44% with a positive opinion. (They have a slightly worse opinion of Kamala Harris.) Trump is more disliked than either— 57% negative, 39% favorable. But inside the GOP, Trump’s support is solid. In fact, 47% of Republicans said they self-identify as MAGAts.

But the GOP old establishment is doing everything it can to undermine Trump— without getting him angry enough to start a fight with him. Writing for Bloomberg yesterday, for example, Jennifer Jacobs reported how the Iowa GOP is avoiding Trump— even to the point of not answering or returning his calls! Señor T, wrote Jacobs is “itching to seal up support early in what remains a key state in the Republican presidential contest, [and] has checked in with Iowa influencers who have stood by him in the past. Senators Chuck Grassley and Governor Kim Reynolds didn’t answer when he telephoned recently, and neither of them are willing to give their party’s former leader their nod this early, according to people familiar with the matter. Nor are Joni Ernst or other top state elected officials… Matt Whitaker, whose political profile was elevated by Trump naming him acting US attorney general in 2018, won’t immediately endorse his former boss. He’s told people close to him that he’d field calls from other 2024 GOP candidates, including DeSantis.”

Many— both in Iowa and around the country— prefer DeSantis, who they think more electable (and less deranged). Yesterday the NY Times reported that his own RNC is backing away from him… or at least significant numbers are. Reid Epstein and Lisa Lerer wrote that dozens of them “are expressing doubts about his ability to win back the White House and are calling for a competitive primary to produce a stronger nominee in 2024… While they praised his policies and accomplishments as president, many expressed deep concerns about his age (he’s 76), temperament and ability to win a general election, often in unusually blunt terms. ‘This isn’t 2016,’ said Mac Brown, the chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky. ‘People have moved on.’ Jonathan Barnett, an RNC member from Arkansas who claims to have been the first member of the committee to endorse Trump’s 2016 campaign, said the party would benefit from its nominee being forced to navigate a crowded primary field. “I’ve been a supporter of Trump in the past,’ Barnett said. ‘I just think that we need choices this time. We’ve got to look at all of our options.’ The motivation to leave Trump behind is not ideological but political, the party leaders said: They worry he can’t win.” A new poll just out from the University of New Hampshire, shows DeSantis edging him 42 to 30% in a head to head matchup in that state.

Epstein and Lerer further noted that a year before the primaries begin, “Republicans eager for Trump alternatives are seeking candidates who could capture the populism animating his base without replicating the chaos that characterized his administration. First mentioned is almost always Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, though members cited other would-be rivals, including Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, both alumni of the Trump administration.”

Remember, Trump handpicked Ronna McDaniel— and made her stop using the name “Romney”— to be head of the RNC and he stuck by her as she failed over and over again. He hasn’t endorsed her again-- nior anyone-- for the next term, but yesterday DeSantis announced that he’s backing MAGA lunatic Harmeet Dhillon, saying, in a subtle swipe at Trump, that he thinks “we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet has said. We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row: ‘18, ‘20 and ‘22. And I would say of all three of those, ‘22 was probably the worst.”

The NY Times emailed or texted all 168 RNC members and only 4 offered “unabashed” endorsements of Trump. Most say that the party needs someone else as the nominee and “The openness with which some RNC members are now willing to speak out against Trump is new. Officials who once rolled their eyes and privately criticized Trump no longer fear repercussions from doing so publicly.

Charles Cooke is a senior writer for the National Review and a right-wing libertarian. In June of 2021, when Trump was telling donors and associates that he would be be reinstated as president by August, Cooke wrote that "The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling. This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government.” He thought it necessary to expand on that yesterday, 6 months later with a piece he entitled Trump Has Completely Lost His Grip on Reality and noting that Señor T’s “deterioration is on full display in the Truth Social asylum he built for himself.”

Let’s check in on the shadow primary for the 2024 Republican nomination. Nikki Haley is putting together a finance committee, and suggested last week that she’s “leaning in” to a run. Mike Pompeo has just published a book called Never Give an Inch, and told CBS yesterday that he’ll decide whether to enter the fray over the “next handful of months.” Governor Ron DeSantis has continued to pick winning fights in Florida since being reelected in a November landslide, and has stayed assiduously quiet about his future.

And then there’s Donald Trump, who, despite being the only candidate who has officially announced his bid, is . . . well, ranting like a deranged hobo in a dilapidated public park. No, don’t look at him— he might come over here with his sign.

There was a point in time at which Trump’s unusual verbal affect and singular nose for underutilized wedge issues gave him a competitive edge. Now? Now, he’s morphing into one of the three witches from Macbeth. To peruse Trump’s account on Truth Social is to meet a cast of characters about whom nobody who lives beyond the Trump Extended Universe could possibly care one whit… [S]afely ensconced within his own macrocosm, Trump is busy mainlining Edward Lear. Day in, day out, he rambles about the adventures of Coco Chow and the Old Broken Crow; the dastardly Unselect Committee; the (presumably tasty) Stollen Presidential Election; the travails of that famous law-enforcement agency, the Gestopo; Joe Scarborough’s wife “Mike”; and other unusual characters from Coromandel. “Where the early pumpkins blow / In the middle of the woods / Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò / Who STOLLE THE ELECTION / Don’t you know?”

These characters come and go as the world passes indifferently by. But Trump’s heroism remains the one constant. It is the dream of any artist to play both performer and critic, and, on Truth Social, Trump is living the dream. At times, his penchant for self-elevation makes God’s declaration in Genesis “that it was good” look positively bashful. Apropos of nothing, he will declare to himself: “‘TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING’ One of [sic] most often used current phrases or statements. Wow, such a magnificent compliment. Thank you!” Other evaluations are equally gushing. His appraisal of the social-media company of which he is the sole potentate: “TRUTH SOCIAL IS SOOO GREAT!” His review of his golfing abilities in a competition that, astonishingly enough, he managed to win despite missing its first day: “Competed against many fine golfers, and was hitting the ball long and straight,” which “in a very real way . . . serves as a physical exam, only MUCH tougher.” His assessment of his presidency, and of the 2020 election that he lost by millions of votes: “I did a GREAT job as President, maybe the best.” And then: “I Ran twice, did much better the second time (Rigged Election!)” I tell ya, Charley, I coulda been a contender.

Throughout his public career, Trump has resembled nothing so much as a drunken talk-radio caller from Queens, and, on Truth Social, readers get the treat of watching him at the zenith of his rhetorical powers. Nobody— and I mean nobody— can shift gears as fast as Donald J. Trump. One moment he’s proposing that the solution to the Supreme Court leak is to “arrest the reporter, publisher, editor— you’ll get your answer fast,” or, if that fails, “put whoever in jail.” The next, he’s describing the prosecution of his business associate, Allen Weisselberg, as “the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.” His repertoire is unmatched— and unmatchable. He can do edgy insult comedy for the people listening in at the bar: “The reporter was a shaky & unattractive wack job, known as ‘tough’ but dumb as a rock.” He can make numbers up off the top of his head: “The change in the Election was Complete & Total, with Millions of votes switched, at least 17%.” He can use hyperbolic analogies: “Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer.” He can even do angry: “May he Rot In Hell!” He can do anything.

Anything, that is, except focus on the world outside— where the problems that Donald Trump once used to propel himself into the White House remain real and pressing, whether or not he chooses to engage with them.