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Donald, Don’t Do it
This is precisely the kind of petty behavior that confirms my belief that Trump should not be elected again. He’s decided that certain key people should state that they will step down if Trump decides to run for President in 2024. And he has Ron DeSantis in his sights.
Recently I heard a reporter ask Mike Pompeo, who I believe would be a very fine presidential candidate, if he would step down from a candidacy if Trump decided to run. Pompeo indirectly stated that Trump’s candidacy wouldn’t stop him from running. Chris Christie said something similar on Fox. But both of these men don’t have a high probability of being elected.
Why is Trump attacking? Ron DeSantis is a real threat.
I know we’re a long way from 2024, but Trump wants to get in his digs early.
Trump’s first attack was indirect. DeSantis was asked about his vaccine status, and he said he’d received the vaccine, but did not reveal whether he’d had the booster, and Trump wanted everyone to know that he did have the booster. Trump’s thinly veiled response: last week he seemed to swipe at DeSantis as ‘gutless’ politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.
How does Trump know that, and why does he care?
It turns out that Trump was booed recently at two speaking events in Alabama and Dallas when he encouraged people to get the vaccine. In contrast, DeSantis has kept current on the outcomes of getting the vaccines and the booster, and is highly critical of Anthony Fauci, the man whom Trump relied on.
In addition, Trump takes credit for getting DeSantis elected. (I don’t know if he’s mentioned how, until recently when DeSantis criticized lockdowns, DeSantis frequently stated his support for Trump.) But Trump demands loyalty, and he expects DeSantis’ loyalty to extend to declining a nomination for the Presidency.
Trump is entitled to wish for whatever he likes, including a lifetime support for his running a third time for the Presidency. He’s entitled to be disappointed, even angry, at DeSantis for not agreeing to step down if Trump runs again. But he’s wrong on several other counts. First, he’s going to garner criticism should he decide to run if he demands that DeSantis not run. Second, if he criticizes DeSantis because the governor won’t step down, his input could actually increase DeSantis’ chances for the nomination. Third, he could be threatening the chances of the Republican party winning the Presidency, due to the self-serving demands he’s making, which will suggest that the Republicans can be as inept as the Democrats. Finally, he could jeopardize the future of the country if he has a role in the Republicans losing the Presidency.
If Trump could be the adult in the room (as Biden tries to claim he is) and say he’d be “disappointed” if DeSantis would win, I’d be fine with that. And we don’t know what he’ll say over the next couple of years: he could back off or dial it up.
But I’m not holding my breath. Stay tuned.
Published in Politics
I have, thank you for trying but I don’t see how any of that supports the premise of a feud with attacks and insults. Some disagreement? Sure. Will Trump be rough around the edges of that disagreement? Probably – assuming he will run instead of endorsing Desantis. Does that mean they’re feuding enemies? No; heck the current VP said much worse about the current P. As she astutely said: “It was a debate!”
I only provide it for the purposes of seeing what else is out there. I no longer know what to believe.
But also, I know that whatever I think doesn’t really matter either.
Also, don’t you kind of want DeSantis to stay put? As the only Republican governor who seems to have spine, I think I’d like him to continue showing the country (and other states) what is possible if you just have a pair.
Trump is too old to run for president. He will be 77. We’re seeing the effects of electing someone this old today with Biden. And I dont care that Trump is obviously more mentally capable than Biden, when you get to that age, things can change overnight. Let’s stop being a country run by 70 year olds.
I also can’t think of a single example where a president’s second term was better than their first.
He also could have used his platform to help the political prisoners seeing as how the Biden administration has basically suspended habeas corpus. But he’s been silent.
I’ll forever be thankful for his accomplishments, and I do think it’s ridiculous that he was overthrown by an unconstitutional election, but I don’t see any positives in him running again.
Or 80 year olds. Or . . . 90 year olds?
No, I don’t think we have any nonagenarians in Congress right now. Close, though.
I was just about to say that Susan. I’m glad I saw your comment first. The only thing I’d add is that this speculation is a tad more supported – not support in the sense of definitive proof but in the sense of providing better support for the speculation that they’re dealing in. The Feud, so far, seems far more speculative.
Yes! But I am more concerned about the future of the country.
Me, too. But as I said in another thread, I see the future of the country as being in the states, not Washington. Of course, we first need some people in Washington who will eagerly diminish the power and scope of the federal government. Like that’ll happen.
Right. Unfortunately, that might not stop him from running.
Garbage commentary from a garbage show.
I have that problem with all high-level candidates. I’m willing to vote for some of them, but having to listen to them is asking too much.
Edited and musicked propaganda video.
Did you see the video?
Until the music started and showing pictures passing through the screen field.
I tell you what. Since the knives are out for Trump here on Ricochet, using opposition propaganda, this convinces me that Trump really is a threat to the Left, and I’ll change my mind and advocate for Trump for President in 2024. And if you care for your state, you should hope DeSantis stays governor.
I’ve read in more than one place that “it is time to move on from Trump”. I don’t have a good counter argument, but the GOPe doesn’t want to move on. It seems to me that they want to move back, back to the past and to a time before Trump revealed how big the swamp is, back before he revealed the kind of back-stabbing the Uniparty is capable of. I’ll vote for Trump or DeSantis if I get the chance, but the rest of them can fold it five ways and stick it where the moon don’t shine.
All I’ve heard in the GOPe fund-raising letters is the stuff they’ve promised for over forty years, and the usual blather about how only they can stop those evil Democrats. As if they ever did.
Nice try, Flicker. Show me the evidence that I’m using opposition propaganda.
*cough…. Morning Joe…. cough*
I think there is a dangerous path in allowing Donald Trump to be seen as a Republican kingmaker. It reminds me of Arizona politics where a Republican candidate for the US Senate had to appear on the McCain doorstep, hat in hand, to obtain the blessing of the McCain family after John McCain passed away.
That’s how the Republican Party lost two Senate seats in Arizona. That and the divisive Joe Arpaio that split Republican votes for the Senate, and even though Donald Trump carried Arizona by a slim margin in his first election it was not enough for Joe Arpaio to win his race for Maricopa County Sheriff. The infighting was so intense that Martha McSally’s name did not appear on one Republican voter’s guide, and no other Republican appeared on the same guide for the US Senate race.
I would vote for Trump if he was nominated, but I would prefer DeSantis.
From your lips to G-d’s ears.
Did he have a Trump-lookalike doing a Trump rendition? Gee, the video showed someone who looked and sounded just like Trump! Forget the hosting airheads. Please.
I didn’t want Trump to get the nomination, but when he did, I gladly voted for him twice.
Even though he was traitorously hamstrung by the lying left and the mainstream media, he got a lot of good done for the country and his re-election was seriously compromised by the same rabid extremists.
I hope he decides not to run again and supports someone like Desantis, who will have a much better chance of winning. However, if he does run and get the nomination, I’ll vote for him over anyone the lying left could run against him.
In reviewing the comments, Old Phil, I think a lot of us are feeling the same way. He did get some great things done. And the MSM was horrible. All that said, I want DeSantis.
Aside from DeSantis, both benches are very, very shallow, aren’t they?
The article you cited was pure propaganda. It used snippets of quotes — often one-word quotes (and without showing the context) — to make its points, or rather implications. It headlined a “feud” that may not exist. You say that Trump demands loyalty from DeSantis, but I see that nowhere. And your videos are stilted and from left-wing sources.
Are you really saying that Trump is demanding that Christie and Pompeo should not run? Where did you ge tthat from? Trump is angry? “He’s entitled to be disappointed, even angry, at DeSantis for not agreeing to step down if Trump runs again…” Has DeSantis even speculated that he will run? Last I heard was that DeSantis said he wouldn’t run.
Even if Trump decides to run again, what’s the beef you have with Trump, and where did it come from?
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is 4-1 Republican. If memory serves all four Republicans voted for Trump over Biden. However, after the votes were counted, all of them supported the vote which went for Biden, against the so-called “forensic audit” by the “cyber ninjas” who have now gone out of business. I lived in Maricopa County for over half of my life, from 1956 to 1970, and from 1979 to 1992. (When my family moved to Maricopa County in 1956, it had less than 400,000 people.)
Maricopa County is now the fourth most populous county in the U.S., after Los Angeles, Cook (Chicago) and Harris (Houston) counties. The total population of Maricopa County in the 2020 census was 4,420,568, meaning each of the Supervisors represents over 884,000 people, which is even more than the average population of Arizona’s congressional districts. (Maricopa County has 61.8% of Arizona’s population.) We Republicans have controlled the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for at least 50 years. I think that that may be coming to an end. I expect a series of bitter primary challenges by folks who come from the Trump part of the party, against the very conservative members of the Board of Supervisors, who were forced to admit that Biden carried Maricopa County. I think that this internecine battle will be so negative and toxic that the losing primary voters will be so angry with the winning side, that they will either not show up for the general election or will even vote for the Democrat candidate.
It’s interesting that across the nation people are looking to DeSantis for Republican leadership. And he hasn’t been in office that long. But he’s obviously doing something that gets him noticed far beyond Florida.
If only other Republicans could follow suit, then maybe we’d have some other options. But at this point, I think if DeSantis decides to run, he’s got it.
I like Desantis, but I hope he doesn’t run. He’s not done cooking yet. Plus, Florida still needs him.
We’ll know DeSantis is the right guy if the same GOPe pond scum who undercut Trump go after him.