Trump’s Running Again But This Won’t Be Another 2016
The 2024 presidential election is underway whether we like it or not. So, let’s use this time to make sure Trump regrets proving me and others wrong by running again.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong about something. I forecasted that Donald Trump wouldn’t run for president again and yet, here we are. Last night at his ludicrously gaudy Mar-a-lago resort, Trump became the first person to declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination in 2024.
In my defense, my reasoning was strong.
He’s raised more than $100 million with his various super PACs – money he’ll lose access to now that he’s a candidate.
The Republican National Committee will stop paying his legal bills starting now – bills that he’ll have to pay himself, which means his lawyers will never see the money they’re owed. (By the way, the RNC has paid more than $7 million to Trump’s lawyers so far, money that could’ve gone to Republican midterm candidates.)
He pulled these “will he run?” teaser stunts before, kicking out the plug on an announcement as recently as a couple weeks ago.
The midterms went badly for Republicans, chiefly due to concerns about democracy – concerns that link directly to Trump.
Now that he’s running, there are many reasons why he could be re-nominated, and we’re familiar with just about everything on the harrowing list. In that regard, and many others, Donald Trump remains a threat to democracy and the stability of the republic. We should all be prepared to deal with him like an unexploded nuclear warhead in our collective living room, irrespective of his electoral chances. Given a second chance, he’ll be far worse than before, jettisoning any remaining inhibitions on his path to anointing himself president-for-life.
So, what I’m about to write should never soften our view of the threat.
This isn’t 2016.
He’s not the exciting new guy, with all of his money, orange bronzer, and stupid hair. He’s no longer the cartoonish, weirdo self-promoter from Manhattan emerging from a hit prime time NBC television series. He’s no longer the guy who will shake things up in Washington. He’s not merely a walking, talking punchline who’s great for comedians. For the swing voters who cast their ballots for him in 2016, the energy and freshness that helped to propel him to the nomination in 2016 is gone.
Between then and now, Trump overreached and overstayed his welcome, abusing the bully pulpit, constantly beating us over the head with his cocaine rants, his shrieking, unearned brags, his sulfuric personality, and tens of thousands of obvious lies.
Americans are done with Trump. Americans are done with the fake accomplishments and incoherent speeches. Americans are done with losing lifelong friends and family members to his cult. Americans are done with the obvious racism, the rage, the crimes, the giant baby whining, and the daily mortification of his presence as the face of America. Americans are done with his abuses of power and his seditious lies about our electoral system. We’re done with his gun-toting, cowardly minion – his army of insurrectionist suckers.
And besides, this time, unlike 2016, Republicans have another new face warming up in the bullpen: Ron DeSantis, not to mention Nikki Haley, Kristi Noem, and possibly Kari Lake. No Republicans in 2016 seriously believed Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, or Marco Rubio would ever be president. But this time, they can easily see President DeSantis delivering the State of the Union and pardoning turkeys.
DeSantis, for them, is their new and exciting trophy wife, now that Trump’s routine has grown old and creepily familiar – now that Trump won’t stop nagging and depriving them of the one thing they love more than anything: winning.
Since 2016, Trump has lost three elections. Republican voters and dark money groups spent a fortune to dominate ballot boxes in 2018, 2020, and 2022 and yet the fear of empowering Trump and thus immolating American democracy completely nullified those efforts. Will this winning-at-any-cost party dare to tempt a fourth defeat in a row because of this 900-foot screaming kaiju’s bruised ego – especially since he was so stingy with the money he raised, distributing almost nothing to down ballot races?
It doesn’t seem likely.
All that said, when it comes to Trump, we need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. And in preparing for the worst, we can’t afford to take anything for granted – not the huge youth vote, not the huge single woman vote, not the Black vote. We need to continue to spread the word about the realistic, proven, documented threat of Trumpism and what it means for our way of life. Republican consultants spent decades changing the state of mind of 74 million Americans and it might take us many more years to clean up the debris.
The 2024 presidential election is underway whether we like it or not. So, let’s use this time to make sure Trump regrets proving me and others wrong by running again.
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Trump Supporters Are Lost Without Daddy
The MAGA brand isn’t what it once was, so the sycophants are turning on their benefactor.
by Ben Cohen
Dave Chappelle once called MAGA cheerleader Candace Owens “the most articulate idiot I’ve ever seen in my fucking life.”
Being forceful, confident, and dumb has worked well for Owens, who has found great success in far right circles as a minority willing to spread white ethno-nationalistic talking points. Her devotion to Trump has paid off incredibly well — Owens has her own mini-media empire, makes a lot of money at speaking events, and even got married at Trump’s winery in Virginia.
Owens doesn’t know much about, well, anything, but she’s happy to spread every right wing conspiracy theory out there for clicks. In one extraordinary interaction with Joe Rogan, a smirking Owens declared she doesn’t believe humans should care for the environment because climate change isn’t real. When Rogan pressed her on the issue citing overwhelming scientific consensus that it was, Owens replied confidently, “I just don’t think so”.
Case closed.
The MAGA movement is packed full of lowlife grifters like Owens. From the shameless con artists like George Papadopoulos and Steve Bannon to carnival barkers like Milo Yiannopoulos and Tucker Carlson, the Trump movement has created a cottage industry for fifth rate intellectuals. They descended on the Trump White House like flies in 2016, recognizing it was a new era where anyone who made enough noise could get a position in the administration, a new TV show, or a book deal.
Unfortunately for many of them, it also meant jail time. But the MAGA cult has generally been good for the pockets of unseemly carpetbaggers, and many of them probably see a stint in prison as a badge of honor. Even post Jan. 6th, there has still been a lot of money to be made saddling up to Trump, and Republicans were still lining up for the MAGA seal of approval when running for office.
Up until last week that is.
No more daddy
The 2022 midterms were an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party — specifically Trump endorsed candidates….
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As horrible as tRump is, DeSantis scares the living daylights out of me. While tRump is a whining, lying, mentally ill old man who believes he is the greatest man who ever lived, he is currently only a wannabe fascist. DeSantis is already a full-fledged fascist ruling Florida with an iron fist. From sacrificing the lives of Floridians in the name of “personal freedoms”, to book banning, regulating speech, and punishing anyone who dates to defy him. We are in for a world of hurt with either one of these choices.