Yeah, feel the anticipation? It’s like a world title fight. All of the preliminary bouts are over, and now the lights have gone down for the fighters to enter the ring. And once they do that, like iconic referee used to rasp, Let’s get it on!
What the hell am I talking about? This. Traitor Tot formally came out and announced his 2024 candidacy in the week following the 2022 midterms. And since then? Other than a ration of Trumper tantrums on his loser platform, Bullshit Social, all we’ve had is crickets.
But we do have a few preliminary indicators, and they aren’t good;
- In the last weeks of the midterms, Trump made several rally appearances for favored Senate candidates like JD Vane and Herschel Walker. Reporters stated that the crowds weren’t the old size, and started to dissipate about halfway through Trump’s diatribe
- For his candidacy announcement, Trump chose to hold in a ballroom at Mar-A-Lago, normally used for weddings and parties. The place was at least full, though likely less than 1000 people, and security and porters had to lock the exit doors midway through the speech when hostages started escaping
- Since then, El Pendejo Presidente has made two road trips, neither rallies, and neither of which he paid for. One was for a small GOP state political fundraiser and the other a state GOP convention. Both were held in banquet facilities, again with moderate at best crowds
- Oh yeah, The Pampers President also spoke as the keynote speaker at CPAC. Which for Trump is kind of like telling jokes at a poolside party he’s throwing at Mar-A-Lago. Everybody laughs. But reporters noted that the room wasn’t even full, and the crowd response was nowhere near as rabid as it used to be
If The Cheeto Prophet weren’t such a psychotic narcissist, he should be ashamed of himself. After all, Trump is the most popular political figure since, since? Since anybody! And with his avalanche of legal troubles, never has Il Douche’s ego needed a boost more than now. But he’s bunkered up in his McResort. Meanwhile Nikki Haley, the only other announced candidate, has already made two road trips and spoke at CPAC. Mike Pence is already making public speeches at events, as well as touring early states, and even Ron Pissantis made a day trip to Iowa. Wazzup Donnie?
Well all of that ends tomorrow. While his former fixer Michael Cohen is busy roasting Trump’s chestnuts over an open grand jury fire, Trump is finally going to pretend that he’s actually running for President. Trump is going to set down in Iowa to make his first campaign appearances of the primaries. And that’s when we’ll see what happens when the rubber meets the road.
As far as I know, Trump has no mass rallies scheduled, after all, this is Iowa, the home of up-close-and-personal retail politics. Which will be interesting and informative all by itself. Because, like DeSantis, The Mango Messiah is far more comfortable in front of mass audiences. A self admitted germaphobe, Trump loathes close proximity and personal contact. But germs is what he’s going to get tomorrow.
There are a few things to watch for tomorrow, all of which could point the way forward. For one thing, what kind of venues does His Lowness appear in? Is it open air, are there rope lines and security to keep the great unwashed at bay? If so, he’s hosed, Iowans like up close and personal.
Next, what kind of message does Trump deliver, and how does he deliver it? Let’s look at the message first. Of all, as polling and the 2022 midterms graphically show, voters, even Iowa voters are sick to death of relitigating the 2020 election and The Big Steal! Does Trump break right into his standard riff about being robbed in 2020, and top it off with a double scoop of self pity and victimhood over his legal troubles? Most primary voters like plans, and an optimistic vision of the future.
Second, how does Trump deliver his message. From what I saw of CPAC, Trump was once again chained to a teleprompter, which is death-by-1000-cuts for Trump. He’s a free wheeler. It might be that his lawyers chained him to the teleprompter to keep him from saying something that could bury Trump in court. Either way Trump has a problem. He has no concentration or attention span. Whether he’s speaking from rote, or winging it off of the cuff, the thought of his former fixer burying him in the grand jury should make it impossible for Trump to concentrate on a cohesive message.
Third, what size(s) of crowds does Trump attract? In his glory years, Trump was like bad weather, he was everywhere you were. On television every night on the news. Making speeches at mass rallies for his reelection. Tweeting and Facebooking like a drunken sailor on shore leave. And that kept his rabid base loyal and motivated. They got their daily fix of racism and stupid. But since the election was called in 2020, Trump has basically fallen off the face of the earth. Did that cause some of his followers to detox and move on from him?
And last of all, how does the crowd respond to his messages? After all, The Tiny Thumbs Dictator has never been a public speaker who was accused of either coherency comprehensibility. That’s a kind of an acquired taste. And Trump has been pretty much media silent for the last three years. Which begs the question. After almost three years without the almost constant daily bombardment of drivel, racism and nonsense, do some of these former true believers show up to hear the Mango Messiah, only to suddenly discover that he sounds every bit as stupid and incoherent as the rest of us always knew he did?
That’s a lot to watch for, but it should be easy. Because, as high as the stakes that Trump is playing for are here, there should be a solid phalanx of media every step of the way. And wouldn’t it be fun if the reporters and media cameras outnumbered the number of Trump supporter? We’ll know in 24 hours.
“Most primary voters like plans, and an optimistic vision of the future.”
Gotta disagree with you here, Murf. That may apply to DEMOCRATIC primary voters but GOP primary voters? Last year, the GOP had NO plans whatsoever (except “investigate, investigate, investigate”) and nothing remotely close to an “optimistic vision of the future.” In 2020, again, no plans and no optimistic vision on display. In 2018, no plans, no optimistic vision. And on and on and on. The last time that I’d be willing to say that the GOP had any kind of “plan” was 1994 and the “Contract with America” (and, as for an “optimistic vision” that wasn’t necessarily limited to just GOP voters–maybe in 1980 when Reagan ran for the White House; Reagan was garbage but his “vision” was, in theory at least, to improve the lives of all Americans regardless of party or race or social strata or religion–it didn’t work out that way, of course).
No, GOP primary voters nowadays only seem motivated by “pwning the libs” and the same old “cut taxes” and “drown the government” crap they’ve been doing for the last quarter century.
If ideas were dollars, the Guns Over People party would be flat broke.