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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
This is why I love you , Drew. You valued truth over everything and that’s a fundamentally important thing. Then when I see someone lying to me, they become my adversary. Why are you doing this? Why lie? We have enough trouble as it is. Amazingly, at least for me, in a weird way, DJT came off humbler, nicer, classier than most of his critics.
I’m born and raised a Christian and I believe people grow and can even transform. There is a Christian idea of Redemption The true Christians, for me accepted the idea that this guy could be different at 70 something, than at thirtysomething.
Speaking for myself, I become very frustrated when some on our side seem to be very lax with condemnation of huge lies told about this man constantly to millions of people, and then dishing political gossip about a guy who they consider a jerk as though these people haven’t lost all credibility on certain subject not limited to – by the way – with our 45th President.
Whether DJT is a jerk or not is inconsequential. The people who manufactured huge lies about him, never apologized or retracted, seem to get a full pass with some people. They can insinuate anything in their articles, and they buy it as though nothing ever happened.
This may be the crux of my disagreement with Rico founders and certain Republicans on number 45.
For me the only question is who will be the most effective at vanquishing the commies and corporatists that have devastated our country. I don’t need liberal tears, I need an enduring freedom and prosperity.
Yes!!!
I went to several different schools and had complete personalities thrust upon me. I was mostly new and it was only when I went to school three consecutive years started to make friends and be comfortable, and then went to another school where I was ridiculed mercilessly in the hallways. For nothing. Stupid things. I was ‘it’. The next year I happened to attend another school and somehow I was kinda cool and had a reputation for being tough. I swear! I couldn’t believe it.
I grew to despise it seeing it done to other people. I found myself participating in it, but I had limits. Then I had fewer limits. Now I am intolerant.
I have defended Sarah Silverman and many other loony lefties from unfair attacks. But, king of unfair attacks? You guessed it.
Now I want to get to the bottom of unfairly attacking people… why? What’s the threat?
We do this in our lives. If people lie to us we must either remove ourselves from their lives or call them out and demand they tell the truth.
That’s first.
I thought one of those commandments thingys was not to bear false witness against your neighbor.
It’s certainly my disagreement with many erstwhile “conservative” pundits who just spewed lies, or passed along the left’s lies, and when the truth came out, never corrected, never apologized, and just went on as if it didn’t matter.
“Oh, but that book he wrote 20 years ago was so dreamy!”
This thread just reminded me that I really need to buy a new pair of pants for a guy panhandling on the street corner I drive by every day on my way to work in my German Porsche. I think his name is Jonah.
Not those who talk about Trump more than they talk about anyone else.
You mischaracterize me.
Criticism is fine. Piling on after five years is not. It gets tedious. It seems that many people — and I found myself doing this — qualify every good thing that they write about Trump by including something bad just to show that they’re even-handed. In this case, it looks like the criticisms of Trump in this article are completely invented.
And I would say (knowing only what I get from the Press and the alt-Press) that Trump is not just a better president, but a better man than any president since Reagan.
JFK was a philanderer. LBJ was a profound bigot. Nixon began the sell-out to the Chinese (setting aside Watergate). Bush Sr. was a CIA globalist. Clinton was a philanderer and a slanderer. Bush Jr. was a war-mongering globalist. 0bama was a racist socialist. Trump? He’s one of the pack; but he’s pro-America, which these others weren’t to any functional degree, and there are accounts of his impromptu generosity, and his willingness to hire anyone without regard for race, sex, or sexuality (unlike gentle Romney), and his willingness to step out of a limousine and stop someone from beating up someone else.
Does he abuse the Press, or twitter, or the notional Press? You bet. Bad tweets.
He does seem to be replaying his 2020 run, doesn’t he?
I read this as “a brighter future orange”.
I don’t remember it at all but I read something really good about this. All of this should’ve been dialed back in the 90s.
The ruling class is just thoughtless about this stuff, or worse.
Yep.
Yep. The Democrat party can’t survive without creating social problems.
OMG*, well said.
*Orange Man Good
I could really do with some mean tweets right about now.
Trump as Baldwin to Putin: “Kiev is for Closers!”
I fervently hope Trump won’t run, but it’s a faint hope. The Republican Party would be nuts to nominate him again. Move on, guys. Alas, I think the most motivated voters are, indeed, sufficiently nutty to don the MAGA hats and damn the torpedoes.
Therefore, I have only a glimmer of hope for 2024. Let me just say it now: I will not vote for Trump. Not in the primary. Not in the general election. I pray it doesn’t come down to two unacceptable candidates and people on both sides yelling about a binary choice. I will take the third way and not vote.
I did that in 2016. Afterward I found my decision deeply unsatisfying. Sometimes we need to make tough choices, and that was one I should have made differently. But I understand where you’re coming from, Suspira.
Make sure you read Susan’s follow-up to this post lest you fall prey to confirmation bias.
Whoever gets nominated is going to benefit from Trump’s illumination of the system.
In my opinion Ron DeSantis blows the whole field away.
If you normally support the GOP candidate, not voting is an effective vote for the Democrats.
This is exactly the attitude that kills me. Trump is no worse than other men who have had the job or ran for it. John McCain was a horrible human being to the “little people” around him, for instance.
See, I want to win more than anything else. I’d even vote for Liz Cheney if that was the option in the General. I have to be honest, that people on “our side” like you I find not hard to hold in contempt. We are fighting for the future of the nation, and your answer to not getting the candidate you like is to take your ball and go home because Trump seems mean.
This is an example of Republicans who seem unable to move on from Trump. Trump is the only person talked about here.
That is 100% true.
I did it in 2016, as well. I didn’t regret it. I found it satisfying to say, “I didn’t vote for him.” But Trump (or, more properly, his administration) was not as horrible as I had feared, so, reluctantly, I voted for him in 2020. I did regret that. Deeply. His post-election behavior has put him beyond the pale.
So, please, Republicans! Nominate someone those of us who don’t own MAGA hats can vote for. The disaffection for Biden presents a golden opportunity to take back the White House. Maybe even the House. Don’t blow it!
He is my favorite going in. I’d like Trump to be Kingmaker not King this go around.
But he gets to the Final, he has my vote.
These two things are at odds with each other.
Couple of conclusions from this dichotomy.
The first is that there is a preference for GOPe over motivated voters. This implies that people really do not deserve to run their own party (or even their own government).
The second that comes to mind is complete amnesia regarding how the organs of Government mobilize against a certain half of the people – as if the clarity that President Trump brings to the fight between himself and the unelected and ‘superior thinking’ elements of government is not worthwhile to know.
Glad to know that you hold President Trump to a higher standard than these.
And drug addict.
And exhibitionist, to put it mildly.
Obama’s DOJ renders Watergate moot – rehabilitating Nixon in my mind.
And a promise breaker “read my lips- No new Taxes” – Trump didn’t do that.
And was subsequently disbarred for things he did while President.
Plus Obama made Hoover’s weaponization of the FBI look decidedly little league – Watergate becomes a local crime story in comparison.
But no, don’t vote for him because of mean tweets (or calling the partisan press out.) He is too icky.
Well done. lol
I cannot believe you. You were happy not to have voted for him. Did he not engage in conservative enough government? His polices were only “Not as horrible” as you feared? He gave us the most conservatives agenda since Reagan. That was only enough for you to be reluctant voter?
You are unhappy you voted for Trump. Therefore, since there is a binary outcome, you must be happy that Biden won. Everything that is going wrong in this nation right now, right now, you are for, because at least Trump is not still President.
That is the logic of your statements.
“We are not a nation of laws, we are a nation of political will.” — Steve Deace
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
I’m willing to work from within to burn down the GOPe.