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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
George W. Bush already had two terms, he can’t run again. See the 22nd Amendment.
Exactly.
W was a disaster and the main reason we got Obama.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he did. Some of his supporters think he did. I’ve always thought he owed Pence an apology for that, and continue to think so.
Of course, the first time around, the leftist press gave him all the free publicity because they thought it was entertaining at first, and then later because they wanted him to win the nomination because they never believed he’d beat Hillary.
This time, I can’t be sure that publicity is part of Trump’s calculus. Because I have to admit, if it wasn’t for the press constantly telling me what Trump is doing, I wouldn’t know and I wouldn’t bother to check. But they’re obsessed. (Similarly, nobody here on Ricochet talks about Trump more than the people who hate him.) So I think we’re seeing the press do the same thing this time, and while Trump is a beneficiary of their obsession (all press is good press) I don’t know if he’s really playing them. I think he’s just being himself for better or worse.
Of course Dems want DeSantis V Trump- it’s probably the only way they win is if it gets nasty. Regardless, my preference:
1- DeSantis easily wins nomination as Trump plays kingmaker and backs him.
2- Trump is nominee with DeSantis as VP
3- DeSantis wins contested nomination
4- Cruz or Paul win contested nomination
5- Trump wins contested nomination
6- other outcomes
My preference is Kingmaker Trump because I want the party unified for 2024 – and DeSantis has the best chance of winning.
Actually, all the Republicans (McConnell, Rounds, and Romney being a few prominent ones) who declare the last election to be fair and perfect and clean are, in my opinion, extremely disloyal. Not to Trump, but to their own voters. They need to catch a clue.
I like choice #4.
2nd choice is #3.
I have a distaste for uncontested nominations, probably because the GOPe thinks they’re a good idea.
As it looked like Trump would run, I figured I’d just watch the process, expecting it to be a lot like 2016. All against all, and all against Trump. But now I see that the propaganda — including the latent emotional anti-Trump grudging, the progressive leftist insinuendo and smears, the (what I thought was, up until now) Never-Trump factless, irrational gainsaying — has started prior to the 2022 election.
The irrational Never Trumpers, and the emotional Left, have come out early and strong. This speaks: Trump is the Man, he is the danger to the Left. And involving DeSantis in this makes me more likely to support his run for the VP slot. The Times article is playing itself out again. Only this time we know what it is.
Just to repeat this great comment.
“The Hacks on Tap” Podcast had an interesting clip about the Trump-DeSantis kerfuffle at its 46:55 point tonight.
Hmmm. This is an excellent analysis (warning, f-bombs). Use a little basic logic and it all falls apart. Basic jist: this is all psyops. As I said above, “anonymous sources” are pretty much non-existent sources.
How?
What, exactly, would he do in a second term that he didn’t do in his first?
I would vote for Cotton in a heartbeat. Trump supporters would veto Sasse but that’s to their discredit, not his. Scott would be a much more serious contender than Carson was. Haley wants to run as does Pompeo. Abbott is thinking about it too. No, the GOP bench isn’t shallow at all.
The financial crisis is why we got Obama. I know the Dems like to pretend that was all Dubya’s fault. It wasn’t. If it was, then Trump would have been been equally blindsided were he president at the time. He started a mortgage company right before that industry melted down.
He knows what to do with the media. Is there anybody better?
Legislative experience. Does anybody doubt he has a deep and wide understanding of public policy? He’s going to be knowledgeable enough about foreign policy. Probably way better than that characterization.
Military experience. My guess is his background is really good for being president.
He’s obviously a good executive. #1 issue. He’s not going to have all of the hiring and management problems Trump had.
He cares about conservative civics or whatever you want to call it. We need people that care about the constitution and so forth. Trump was not intellectually curious about any of that and it’s causing problems.
That’s pretty interesting.
I realize nobody else is interested in this, but at some point the GOP power is going to have to be informed about inflationism and the end of it. For a whole bunch of reasons you can’t do anything about it right now.
I know that Trump was babbling about harder monetary policy in the early ’10s. Then of course he said the opposite when he got in the office because that’s what they all have to do.
I don’t think he can run at his size.
The Trump-DeSantis kerfuffle is also covered on Tuesday’s Commentary Podcast at the 43 minute point. https://ricochet.com/podcast/commentary-podcast/the-democrats-mock-senate/
Also at the 24 minute of the National Review Podcast. https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-editors/episode-400-youngkin-hits-the-ground-running/
I realize this doesn’t belong here, but this is a very good interview of Phillip Kline of the Armistad project about the integrity of the last election. Very clear explanation of Zuckerberg and what is supposed to be the constitutional structure of an election. It’s basically what I keep telling everybody and quite a bit more. One of his points is, we can’t keep running our elections like this and not expect more civil problems or whatever he said. It’s unconstitutional, illogical and unfair.
https://thecharliekirkshow.com/podcasts/the-charlie-kirk-show/a-dire-2022-election-warning-with-phill-kline
This is from representative Claudia Tenney who is a lawyer.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/01/12/the_escalating_nationwide_battle_over_private_millions_to_help_run_public_elections_811521.html
I wouldn’t mind casting a vote for someone (for a change) rather than against the other guy. With Trump on the ticket, it’s more a vote against his opponent.
I’ll take Styx for good commentary over classic talking heads. I have been watching him for some time, and gosh, his predictions are good. Much better than National Review and Commentary have been.
Also, he is a lot more funny.
First, do we have a source for these quotes, one word quotes?
No. This is hearsay reportage by the MSM.
I’m disappointed with Susan and anyone else who doesn’t take this for what it is, transparent propaganda.
Personally I agree much more with DeSantis on all the vaccine absurdity, but this is clearly a ginned-up fight convenient to Democrats and globalists.
And you know what? It could be true, or the quotes could be true (but we don’t know, do we? ).
Suppose the quotes are true. Trump said this is private. He didn’t announce this. He thinks DeSantis is a bit dull and lacks charisma. Compared to Trump, he does. So what?
Trump, by default, will always claim he is the best. He has the attitude of an athlete who, when asked if he’s going to win the game or match against a strong opponent, will state unequivocally in the affirmative. It’s Public Relations 101. You can’t win unless you believe you can, and if you have doubts, it’s best to keep them to yourself.
People who are still expecting Trump to be humble are more deluded than the worst TDSers. You want humble? Joe Biden is humble, and he has a lot to be humble about.
I wasn’t listening very closely but somewhere on talk radio they were saying this wasn’t firm reporting.
I’m trying to draw some conclusions that honor the various perspectives, maybe learning points, that we could all benefit from:
Any other conclusions that some of you are drawing?
I’m not even sure if I want him to run or not. There’s good arguments both ways. Media information might be right, but these links and sources aren’t information, they are opinionated speculation at best and ginned up fakery at worst. Trust, like loyalty, is earned and media have done the opposite of earning trust especially where Trump concerned. Links like the one in the OP dont do anything to reverse that trend.
There are few on Ricochet whose sincerity I doubt. For the rest, we love discussing assumptions, because once those are sorted out then there’s a much better chance that we’ll find agreement, understanding, or clarity about the conclusions.
If I had to choose between Trump and DeSantis, I’d go with Ron in the primary. However, I’m going to vote for the Republican nominee no matter who it is. Heck, I’d even vote for Liz Cheney if she were the Republican nominee. Why? The election of Republicans to office is too important to let my personal feelings against someone interfere (unlike some folks we know). I had no problem voting for McCain despite my intense disdain for the man. I had a more favorable impression of Romney, but he ultimately lacked the killer instinct to go after Obama tooth and nail.
We needed a bull in a china shop back in 2016, and Trump was that bull. My issue with Trump isn’t his behavior, but his age. It’s hard to trash the Democrats as being run by a bunch of old crones when we have a slew of our own. If Hillary gets the nomination (the latest buzz), wouldn’t it be better to have a Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or Kristie Noem going up against her?
I don’t understand the people who say if certain men/women become the Republican candidates, they won’t vote for them, but if people don’t vote for Trump if he runs again, those people are handing the country to Democrats. It was a binary “Flight 93” choice in 2016. And then again in 2020. I can’t follow the reasoning.
I did not vote for Trump in 2016, but I understood who Biden was/is, so I voted against Biden in 2020 by voting for Trump because I do care the most about the country. The general is a binary choice. At least I liked some of Trump’s accomplishments, and I understand he got a very raw deal from the media. (I’ve often said that Biden and Trump have very similar flaws. I see them as different sides to the same coin, so I chose the side that would at least advance some of my interests.)
However, since then I think Trump is in great part responsible for the loss of the Senate. I think that has to be taken into account when assessing his ability to lead in the future. After all, I am from Georgia, and I love that state.
I also am watching what will be a bitter primary for the governor’s race forming, which might very well allow a crazy opportunist and demagogue to take control for real instead of in her own fiction writing mind, and that is all Trump orchestrated. Stacey Abrams must adore him at this point!!!
Whatever you might think of Kemp–who has been a good governor in my opinion–Georgia deserves a lot better than Trump firing arrows at him over some grudge. The country deserves a lot better. Georgia blue? We really are returning to the 1970s.
Conversely, I realize that there are many people who are very loyal to Trump. He does command a lot of power, and I am not oblivious to this. I have never liked him, will never like him, and would very much prefer him to go play golf and figure out productive ways to help others. The Baby Boomers have done enough. For goodness sake. But this large faction of Trump loyalists is going to make the politics unpredictable.
I don’t know what will happen in 2024. The media speculating is in part about the media’s ratings. (They are very self serving that way.)
I care a lot more right now about the midterms.
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