The Purpose Of the Revenge Rallies Roadshow Is To Put A Stranglehold On GOP. They’re Going Along With It

If Trumpanoia, or “fear of Trump” isn’t in the psychology books, then it’s high time to get it in there. Donald Trump made it clear last night in his Revenge Rally in Ohio that he intends to hold the GOP in his thrall and like some deranged orange sorcerer in a low budget dungeons and dragons movie, he will destroy anybody who opposes him first, and ask questions later. Daily Beast:

But his return to the rally circuit also serves another purpose: scaring off potential competition for holding dominant power over the Republican Party, and keeping himself positioned as the 2024 GOP frontrunner.

“In [recent] conversations that I’ve had with him, he has said that he wants to be everywhere to remind people, not just Republicans, that he’s still in charge,” a person close to the former president said, paraphrasing Trump. “The message is a pretty straightforward one: I am still leading this party, and if you want to try to challenge me for that, it will get ugly.” […]

According to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, Trump has repeatedly inquired this month about his standing in the polls of potential 2024 Republican contenders, asking advisers about how his numbers stack up against the likes of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s former VP Mike Pence, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump’s onetime ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, and others.

Close advisers have routinely assured Trump that he is a shoo-in for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, should he ultimately run, and that any of the other heavy-hitters in the party would be crushed if they took him on, according to three people with knowledge of such recent conversations. Still, Trump is keeping a watchful eye, in the event any of his current allies end up growing dissatisfied with being relegated to the ex-president’s 2024 running-mate considerations.

This is one reason for his Revenge Rallies Roadshow, but there is yet another one which is more sinister: Trump just might incite more violence. He’s gone on record saying he’ll “be back in 2024, or before.” Or before? He’s got no legitimate way to regain office and he knows that, but he may take another shot at playing the rubes and seeing what lengths they’re prepared to go to, just like he did on January 6. And don’t forget all of his right-wing colleagues and QAnoners, talking about an August return. The Bulwark:

Make no mistake: Trump is laying the groundwork for a coup—or at least trying to do so. At his Ohio rally, he claimed Joe Biden “is destroying our nation” and “has violated his constitutional oath.”

More importantly, Trump is now trying to undermine military leaders who disagree with him. In one of the only original passages in his Ohio speech, he criticized “woke generals” and claimed that political correctness means “our military will be incapable of fighting and incapable of taking orders.” America’s “military brass have become weak and ineffective leaders,” he claimed.

He never addressed the fact that his complete bungling of the COVID pandemic is what ultimately cost him the election. His weak and ineffective leadership, being twice impeached and often violating his constitutional oath, were never addressed in his latest hysteria.

In a sense, Trump’s rally was historic. He sounds like a man on the campaign trail—less than six months after leaving the Oval Office in a historic defeat. Only one defeated president succeeded in coming back to the presidency (Grover Cleveland) and only a handful of others have even attempted to run again for the office (Van Buren, Fillmore, TR, and Hoover).

Yet with its continuation of the Big Lie about the 2020 election—with the audience even cheering “Trump won!”—Trump’s rally was less historic than dangerous hysteria.

This is very dangerous hysteria. Five people died in the January 6 riot and over a million dollars worth of damage to property was done. We don’t need an encore.

The GOP has a literal madman at its helm and they seem perfectly okay with it. If you listened to the Ohio rally last night you heard a number of candidates refer to themselves as “Trump-endorsed” and of course you heard toadies and sycophants Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene go on about how wonderful Trump is.

These are the hard-core Trump Republicans, and the only difference between them and the rest of the party is that they’re more verbal about their endorsement of Trump. A lot of the party is hoping that he just goes away so that repairs can be made and the GOP can stand for something again, but they’re petrified to say anything out loud. The people who do say something out loud — Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump, is an example — find themselves on Trump’s enemies list. Trump endorsed Max Miller, Gonzalez’ opponent last night. That was one of the main reasons that particular Ohio venue was chosen.

Then there are the traditional Republicans, Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, who have come out against Trump and you know what has happened to them, local party censure, threats of being primaried.

Trump lives for the Big Lie. He ended his rally in Ohio saying that the Democrats “used COVID in order to cheat. They used COVID in order to rig the election.” And he’s portraying himself as the savior of democracy.

This is going to continue all summer. Trump needs the juice that he gets from the crowds. He needs to feel the anger and the hate and throw flame accelerant on it. That’s his plan for the summer and then come the fall, who knows?