It wasn’t pretty, but when you’re riding a losing streak, a win is a win. In the annual CPAC straw poll today The Pampers President did what he had to do, tripling up on his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by a 62-20 margin. But considering the fact that Trump wasn’t really pressured, Nikki Haley was the only other 2024 contender who spoke, I personally think the margin should have been wider. But His Lowness will gladly take the two points.
Here’s why I say that. CPAC used to be a serious thing, serious people met to discuss serious issues. But since Trump was elected, CPAC has continued to swing so far right it’s now like an Amway convention for political mental defectives. Case in point. In March of 2016, how much did Trump win the CPAC straw poll by? He didn’t he got stomped. Ted Cruz won with 40%, Marco Rubio logged in at 30%, and Trump placed at 15%. That was nine months before Trump got elected. As completely as El Pendejo Presidente has taken over CPAC, Trump should have won by 50 points. After all, would Vlad the Imp settle for a result like that?
But now, with this purely symbolic win under his belt, what does Trump do with it? Frankly I’m not sure that it does him much good. For a couple of reasons. In a recent Monmouth poll, while 53% of Trump supporters still love Trump, they’re not sure that he’s the one to head the ticket in 2024. And that’s his base. I can’t help but wonder what the poll results would have been if DeSantis had shown up, and given them at least one reasonable alternative.
Thankfully I wasn’t forced to sit through the entire Trumper tantrum today, I’ve only seen random clips. But to my practiced eye, he just doesn’t look like FrankenTrump anymore. When he walked out his face almost looked wistful, like an athlete that has already announced his retirement, basking in the glory of his final games.
And while he occasionally wandered off the reservation, Trump once again relied largely on the teleprompter, which led to a wooden, almost narcotized style of delivery. And from what I saw, it rubbed off on the audience. There weren’t as many standing ovations, and they weren’t as raucous or last as long. This is Trump’s red meat base. If he can’t get them revved back up to having fist fights at rallies, he’s in deep trouble.
It’s funny how glaringly two faced The Mango Messiah is. In 2020 Trump hammered Joe Biden mercifully for campaigning from his basement in Delaware in the middle of a pandemic, instead of holding super spreader events like Trump. These days, the only way they can get the Tiny Thumbs Dictator outside of the Mar-A-Lago gates is to do a Hansel and Gretel, lay down a trail of bacon double cheeseburgers to wherever it is you want him to go.
Which brings us to the biggest problem confronting Trump this time around. trump can’t campaign like Trump! Because for the first time in his life, Trump isn’t some freewheeling badass outlaw politician, he’s a criminal subject. Which means that anything he says on the campaign trail can be used against him in the investigation or at trial.
Which may be one of the reasons he hasn’t been out and campaigning, his lawyers have him chained to the omelet bar. Trump the effective campaigner is Trump unfettered and unchained. And with Trump that means that a rally is a two hour psychiatric free association victimhood grievance session. And that means he’ll lash out against anybody he feels is screwing him, and if they’re involved in any of the active investigations, he’s putting himself at risk. And without personal grievance and victimhood, Trump has nothing to sell.
I stand by my previous article. Trump’s base is still the same immovable 28-33% it’s always been. And they’re the ones most likely to show up and vote in a primary. As long as the field stays fractured and weak, Trump’s 33% will be enough to sweep the early winner-take-all delegates, and set him up for the nomination.
But if he wins the nomination, he’s dead meat, and so is the GOP. Because too much of the mainstream OP, voters, donors, and activists have already moved past Trump, or are moving on from Trump. And if that means taking one more on the chin in 2024, then so be it, as long as it puts Hair Twitler in the rear view mirror. Unless Jack Smith does a white knight and fixes their problem for them. Don’t touch that dial.
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Trump has an addiction to worship from screaming crowds. He didn’t get that at CPAC but I’m betting he was counting on just that. Oh, as you note he got some standing ovations and cheers but the freaking room wasn’t even full. For an enclosed area the sound level of the crowd was underwhelming to say the least., Or, to quote Trump himself “sad.” That adrenaline rush he grew to crave from his signature rallies didn’t happen for him at CPAC. He had to be one disappointed asshole when he left the stage. Not to worry though, he will work himself into a rage soon enough. As I wrote in a comment on Ursula’s article he will be touting crowd size (biggest ever!) and how loud and “energetic” they were and all manner of bullshit. Anyone care to bet otherwise?
Holy shit Denis!!! Not even full??? The coverage I saw was all stage sentric, so I couldn’t see the room…But on all honesty I’m nor surprised…I whink Traitor Tot knows the bloom is off of the rose…That’s why he’s appearing exclusively at small venues somebody else is paying for…And why I wrote that he looked almost wistful, like this was his last hurrah…Thanks for the info nuddy!!!
Ursula’s article contained several twitter links, one of which panned the room from the back and yes there were rows of empty chairs. More importantly Trump was speaking during the shot so claims it was pre-speech are busted right out of the gate.