Watching Trump implode
Watching Trump implode over Governor Ron DeSantis this week leads me to suspect Trump truly believed his nomination in 2024 was a fait accompli.
Just another way Donald Trump is devolving into Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s preemptive meltdown went over like a lead balloon among a heck of a lot of Trump supporters. Not all of them to be sure. The ForeverTrumpers were tickled by it. They think Ron DeSantis is some RINO “Bushie” sent by the Establishment “Uniparty” to tank Trump’s glorious return to the White House.
But for the Trump voters who don’t get their “news” from The Gateway Pundit or fall for Steve Bannon’s every prediction, Trump’s preemptive strike on DeSantis was petulant, defensive, and reeked of panicked desperation.
I voted for the guy twice and went to bat for him countless times during his term in office. Watching him turn into a corncob before our eyes is disappointing, to put it mildly.
On Thursday, Trump released an angry, somewhat unhinged statement attacking Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post for daring to suggest that Ron DeSantis may be the future of the Republican Party.
Or as the Post cover put it: “DeFuture.”
Come to think of it, I said much the same thing on Wednesday.
After attacking the Murdoch papers, Trump directed his impotent rage at Ron DeSantis himself.
A panicked Trump declared the Republican firebrand who racked up win after win during his first term in office and won reelection in a landslide “an average Republican governor” who only won Florida because Republicans from blue states wanted to move somewhere sunny.
Ah, I see. They just wanted to live somewhere sunny. Then why aren’t they moving to California? Plenty of sun there. Or, perhaps they chose Florida because they like how that Ron DeSantis guy governs.
I admit, that claim made me laugh out loud, but not as much as Trump accusing DeSantis of lacking “loyalty and class.”
If it was a sin to lack “loyalty and class,” Trump will be spending an eternity in hell.
Most of Trump’s tantrum, released on his official “Save America” letterhead, was a diatribe “explaining” that Ron DeSantis only won the 2018 election in the first place thanks to Trump.
Trump’s support may have helped Ron DeSantis eke out a win by less than 1 point in 2018. But DeSantis winning in a 20-point landslide in 2022 is all due to Ron DeSantis.
But it is that landslide victory (not to mention the statewide Red Wave from the down-ballot Republicans riding on Ron’s massive coattails) that prompted Donald Trump to publicly implode by releasing this ludicrous statement.
Trump even claimed that he “sent the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys” to Broward County to stop “ballot theft.” That claim was quickly debunked by the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office which released a statement saying there was no federal law enforcement presence in Broward during the 2018 election.
In short, Trump believes if DeSantis had any loyalty and class, he would remember how much he owes Trump, bend the knee, and officially proclaim that he will not challenge Trump for the nomination.
Keep in mind, Ron DeSantis hasn’t uttered a single word of criticism about Donald Trump, not before the midterms or since. So this statement isn’t an example of Trump’s infamous “punching back,” which is why it stinks of envy and sour grapes.
I’m guessing that Donald Trump spent the last two years believing that Republican voters would never even look at another Republican the way they once looked at him.
Seeing the groundswell of enthusiasm and excitement over Ron DeSantis must have been a cold slap of reality to him.
Trump presumed we all would greet the news of his November 15 official announcement like he was Jesus entering Jerusalem, with us tossing palm fronds at his feet and shouting, “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Then Ron DeSantis stole his thunder.
You can understand why someone with an ego like Trump’s would melt down in a very public way.
I followed the reactions to his statement on Twitter Thursday evening, scrolling along on my iPad and seeing the stunned disbelief and anger from people who voted for and supported Trump both in 2016 and 2020.
After someone posted the statement on Twitter, Jesse Kelly observed:
I was genuinely excited to see a primary fight between these two. I think that’s what would be best for the country.
But apparently Trump is going to just embarrass himself and go down in flames and I’ll be honest, it saddens me a little. Not how the Trump era should end.
When someone replied to Jesse’s tweet noting that this would only be the beginning, and the primary fight “has barely started,” Jesse responded:
No it hasn’t. If Trump is dumb enough to attack the guy EVERY Republican in America is currently happy with, this primary is already over. He’s gonna lose at least half his support to DeSantis overnight.
Kelly followed up by noting that Ron DeSantis won’t say anything in response to this meltdown, adding:
He doesn’t have to. Apparently Trump is just gonna implode overnight. Freaking sucks. Didn’t want it to end like this.
Dave Reaboi shared Jesse’s opinion, saying on Twitter:
Don’t forget—DeSantis has ignored Trump successfully for 2 years, barreling ahead with victory after victory. Absolutely no reason to change, and he won’t.
Traditionally, Donald Trump gets pleasure from feeding off the angry responses from the targets of his attacks. So being ignored by DeSantis will only hasten Trump’s implosion.
For the last two years, the Trump-supporting Republicans who would tell reporters that it was time to move on from Donald Trump would only do so off the record.
But after his behavior this week which included celebrating the losses of Republican Senate candidates he deemed insufficiently loyal to him and attacking popular Republican Governors like DeSantis and Virginia’s Glen Youngkin, some Republicans are no longer afraid to go on the record, including Virginia’s Lt. Governor Winsome Sears:
Unsurprisingly, the ForeverTrumpers have labeled Sears a “traitor” because to them, it isn’t America First; it’s Trump First.
This was not the outcome Trump was hoping for just days before he announced his Triumphal Entry into the 2024 race, which may be why it was reported that some of Trump’s advisers are urging him to postpone at least until after the December 6 Senate runoff in Georgia.
Going through with his announcement less than a week after pissing off all the voters who like and admire Governor DeSantis does seem like a bad idea. At the same time, postponing it would only feed the speculation that Trump is vulnerable. And there is no way in hell Donald Trump would want that speculation taking root.
In short, Trump set himself up for a “damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t” scenario, and he has nobody to blame but himself. And maybe the reason we’re watching Trump implode is that deep down, he knows it.
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