Politics
Trump is Attempting a Comeback
He is re-asserting his leadership over the Republican Party and clearly signaling that he will run again in 2024
I know that it seems like I am obsessed with Trump, but he is the biggest danger facing our country. He is more dangerous than Russia, China or North Korea. They are all external threats which we are prepared to face. Trump is an internal threat which we are woefully unprepared to meet.
He is a threat because he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand how government works. He doesn’t understand government’s role in the wellbeing of the country. He doesn’t understand government’s role in the global order.
He spent four years trying to run the country like he ran his business. He used the same tired playbook that he has used his entire life with varying success. He tried to dictate policy and manage people both here and abroad by bullying, using a combination of threats, insults and lawsuits. It’s what he has done his entire life.
And he couldn’t understand why it didn’t work. Trump is the embodiment of the old saying about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks.
Take the insurrection, for instance. It was a classic example of Trump bullying. And an example of Trump not understanding how government works. According to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) in an interview with Hugh Hewitt,
To Trump, the insurrection was a success because it stopped the electoral vote counting. To the rest of us, it looked like an attempt to overthrow the government.
Trump didn’t understand the severity of his actions. In his mind, he was just trying to win an election at all costs. He didn’t understand that his actions were not appropriate for a government. You can go to extremes in the real estate world or the world of reality TV, but you can’t do it when it comes to government.
The Democrats hoped that impeachment and the imposition of the 14th amendment to prevent Trump from running for office would put an end to the Trump nightmare and prevent it from occurring again.
The Republicans, on the other hand, were more concerned with not pissing off Trump and losing his voters. So they acquitted him, leaving him free to run for president again.
Which brings us to the present day and Trump’s efforts to stage a comeback as leader of the Republican Party and to make a run for the presidency in 2024.
Trump has been laying low at Mar-a-Lago since he left office. He didn’t sit for a single interview or call in to any of his favorite TV shows after he left office. Stripped of his social media accounts, he wasn’t able to communicate with his supporters and the world.
Not that he didn’t try. It was reported that he was so desperate that he was writing out insults for other people to tweet from their own accounts on his behalf.
But now that he has been exonerated (in his mind), he can begin to engage with the world again. His first action was a 600 word statement excoriating Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released on Tuesday. In Trumpland, that was his way of re-asserting his (Trump’s) leadership of the Republican Party.
The death of Rush Limbaugh gave Trump the perfect excuse to start doing interviews again. On Wednesday, he made the rounds of the conservative media appearing on Newsmax, OANN and Fox.
The stated reason for his appearances was to discuss the death of Limbaugh, but true to form, Trump made it all about himself, repeating his allegations about a stolen election, criticizing Biden, floating the idea of starting his own social media website and being coy about running for president in 2024.
His exact words were
He used similar circumlocutions as president when he had made up his mind about something but was waiting for an appropriate moment (in his mind) to make an official announcement.
Another indication that Trump intends to run again is his refusal to meet with Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley served as his UN Ambassador from 2017–2018. She remained a Trump supporter even after leaving that office. She has gone so far as to describe him as a friend.
However, she has been sharply critical of Trump since the January 6 insurrection, going so far as to say
Haley requested the meeting with Trump because she is preparing for a run for president in 2024. Her purpose was to apologize for her criticism and ask for his support. She also doesn’t want to alienate Trump’s supporters.
Trump lacks subtlety. He is truly a bull in a china shop. He should have just met with her and played along. Instead, he is refusing the meeting, clearly signaling that he intends to run in 2024 himself.
Neither political party is taking this as seriously as they should. Biden and McConnell have both said that they intend to ignore Trump, Biden during a town hall and McConnell privately.
Trump is plainly unsuited to be president and yet he has a good chance of winning a second term. If he runs, no other Republican will challenge him in a primary. And the Democrats do not have a candidate that is strong enough to beat him.
Biden will be 82 in 2024 so it is unlikely that he will run for a second term. The logical Democrat candidate to run is Kamala Harris but her success is contingent on a successful Biden administration. She is not a strong candidate herself as evidenced by her unsuccessful primary campaign which she had to shut down in December 2019 for lack of funds.
As unbelievable is it sounds, our only hope of stopping a Trump run in 2024 are the numerous criminal and civil suits against him that are planned.
Although I wouldn’t put it past him to try and run for office while fighting lawsuits.
