I recently set out the case for Donald Trump in 2024. There are important factors in his favor that support him trying yet again, but in GOP circles, a growing contingent of America First Republicans hope that Donald J. Trump chooses not to run again (I give him a 50/50 chance of throwing his red hat in the ring based upon what I know). The libs want him to, certainly. They think beating him will kill off the conservative-populist revolt. But what the libs do not get – because they do not want to get it – is that Trump is not our movement but, rather, the avatar of it. It is separate from him and will exist long after he retires to Mar-a-Lago for good. But why do a large number of hardcore cons feel it’s time for him to retire?
As ruthlessly focused warriors for conservatism, we need to look hard at the whole picture before deciding if Trump 2.0 can be a thing. While we should appreciate his many accomplishments, politics is all about, “Well, what have you done for me lately?” If he’s not the best (and the only way to prove it is through a rigorous primary with real conservative opponents, not bloated buffoons like Larry Hogan or mealy-mouthed establishment shills like Asa Hutchinson), then he needs to step aside.
The first problem for Trump is that the enemy hates him. It hates him with the burning heat of a million chafing thighs of Brian Stelter, who is a potato. There is a ceiling to Trump’s support, and even some nominal Republicans will never vote for him just because he is Trump. Some people just find him and his quirks exhausting; maybe they will learn from their botched 2020 vote for a return to “normality,” but maybe they won’t.
It’s the hatred we need to consider because it motivates otherwise demoralized Dems. Remember, our enemies will do whatever they have to do to stop him, legal or not, just as we saw last time. They will raise a billion dollars or more from the sexually-unsatisfied wine women of the suburbs and the evil billionaires of Silicon Valley. Their functionaries will indict him and his family for bogus “crimes” that are not crimes, but they do not care – not at all. The tech fascists will try to silence him to the extent they can. Every network but Fox, Newsmax, and OANN will hate on him 24/7. They will cheat where they can. They will lie shamelessly. And judging from the Dems’ collective shrug over the attempt to murder Justice Kavanaugh and the manifesto of the pro-abort terrorists of Jane’s Revenge, they may even use violence.
Remember, every norm, rule, and law has a Trump Exception™ that excuses whatever the enemy does to stop him.
There is no limit to the resistance that Trump’s Grover Cleveland run will draw. And while it is unfair and total bull-Schiff, we need to take it into account. But, on the other hand, we also need to acknowledge that they will do the same thing to any Republican who wins the nomination. We’re already seeing the take that “DeSantis is worse than Trump because he is a focused and disciplined literal Hitler!”
