Semafor has an amusing story up today. What if the new normal for the GOP and by extension, the rest of us, is that Donald Trump simply runs in every election until he’s dead? That’s not as bizarre a notion as it may seem. As a matter of fact, that idea has a lot going for it. Trump will always claim that the election is stolen. He will always grift off the MAGAs. So why should that end in 2024?
Let’s start with one simple fact: President Biden will turn 82 just two weeks after Election Day 2024. Donald Trump will be the same age on Election Day 2028. God is the ultimate decider when it comes to their political futures, but age alone is no guarantee against another run.
Another fact: Trump is extremely predictable. He does not acknowledge defeat, he lashes out at the people he blames for sabotaging him, and he responds to setbacks by trying to immediately prove his dominance again. There’s little reason to think a loss would prompt a different reaction this time.
Another round of appeals from Republicans to think of the health of the party, or about the legacy of “Trumpism without Trump,” is unlikely to do much either. Trump is disconnected from the institutional conservative movement and GOP. He does not view his political career as a link in a centuries-long chain of ideological struggle like, say, Mike Pence. He believes he should hold the presidency because he is uniquely suited to hold it.
And DeSantis winning the primary in 2024 may not be the showstopper that you would assume. Not at all. Trump will merely co opt DeSantis into his new scheme of things and figure out how best to use him. You recall how he made nice nice with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, not to mention Ben Carson, after an acrimonious 2016 primary.
It is true that a world in which Trump has lost a primary to DeSantis is a world in which Trump feels very angry with DeSantis. But DeSantis is not the only person Trump feels angry with. Trump has spent the past several years simmering with anger at Joe Biden. And while a contested primary would make Trump resent DeSantis more than he does now, it’s hardly certain that it would make him hate DeSantis more than he hates Biden.
More important, it would be uncharacteristic for Trump to allow his grudges to get in the way of his clear self-interest. Trump does lash out wildly at anybody who disrespects him, but he also turns on a dime and makes friends with his former enemies. You can see this pattern in the way he lashed out at the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio before reconciling on the basis of mutual interest.
What interests would Trump have in common with DeSantis? For one thing, DeSantis could offer Trump legal protection — either pardons or immunity from additional prosecution. Second, DeSantis already commands a massive fundraising network, and as the Republican nominee, he would hold enormous power over various revenue streams around the party, ranging from its scam PACs to its media outlets. DeSantis would be in a position to make sure Trump is very well compensated in return for an endorsement.
“Trump’s willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle but on his own supreme narcissism,” complains Barr. This is only somewhat true. Trump understands that the threat to abandon the party gives him leverage. He said as much in 2016 when he refused to sign a promise to endorse the eventual nominee. And he used that leverage to pressure Republicans not to abandon him after the insurrection.
The GOP’s Trumpenstein monster is not going to go back to the luh-bore-atree. Not a chance. No, it’s going to rampage across the country ginning up the rubes and fundraising until its tiny orange hands (white, actually, only the face is orange) go cold and dead and can’t hold a Trump burger or a golf club.
That’s the fate that the GOP chose back in 2016. The political soothsayer Lindsey Graham described the situation eloquently: “If we nominate Trump he will destroy us and we will deserve it.” Remember the last part, Linseed, “we will deserve it.”
Lindseypoo a soothsayer! Who knew? I wonder if, in his far reaching insight, he saw himself as the gimp in Pulp Fiction? A part the censors cut out for the TV version. Racist nazis in our government are ok, just don’t show human depravity, other than the 24/7 news of murdered children. I guess lindsey sweetie that would mean no more crocodile tears and hissy fits when a rapist gets questioned for a Supreme Court seat. As far as baby huey goes, he will be buried with a marker that says: I’m still a candidate & my life has been stolen!
TFG continuing to run and grift is a win-win for us. Yes he energizes his shrinking base to come out, but he also energizes our side to show up too. Three election cycle losses haven’t taught the brain-dead trombies anything. In the words of Barack Obama, “Please proceed.”
What would you expect from a career criminal with a federal “judge” for a sister.
He looks at her as an example of how easy it is to defraud America….
If former guy were in good shape and healthy I’d think this was a possible scenario. He’s not. More to the point, if he’s in prison, and the shit Mr. Smith is gathering looks more and more like that every day, not only will he not be running from a jail cell, he’ll be in very bad shape by 2028 IF he’s still alive. Prison would mean no more media attention and I think THAT more than anything else is what former guy craves. It is bread and meat to him and without it I think he’d expire in short order.