I have been saying all along that if Trump (a.k.a. Orange Shithead or OS) decides to run again in 2024, he’s no longer the incumbent President like he was in 2020, now he’s just another candidate. And he’s not only just another candidate, but he’s a candidate who isn’t saying anything all that different or new the way he was saying things in 2016.
Because I’m a gun guy, I know a lot more Trump supporters than most of the readers of this column, and what I heard back in 2016 during the campaign was that people liked him because ‘he tells it like it is.’
I heard this bout OS telling it ‘like it is’ particularly after he made that ‘shithole countries’ comment during a White House event in 2018. And every Trump supporter I talked to over the next several days said, “We finally have a President who says out loud what we all think to ourselves.” Or words to that effect.
Well, guess what? Trump is still saying what he wants to say and what he thinks everyone wants to hear. But the problem is that every other politician is now talking the same way, so using some profanity or making fun of someone’s name is no longer any big deal.
After the Select Committee ran a video of McConnell decrying the January 6th riot and blaming Trump for not telling the crowd to leave the Capitol right at the start of things, OS did a rant against the Committee and called McConnell a “disloyal Sleaze bag.” The comment made some mentions on internet blogs, but hardly caused a ripple on the Fake News.
Yesterday, Trump did one of those MAGA-type of rallies in Prescott, AZ to promote a couple of GOP candidates who still believe in his brand. At one point he mentioned a guy who’s running for Congress and the audience broke out in boos. Want to see what happens when OS doesn’t get the cheers he usually expects? Watch it here.
But worse for Trump was an appearance in Arizona on the same day at a campaign rally that featured Mike Pence. He spoke to a crowd gathered in the parking lot of an outfit, TYR Tactical, which sells tactical clothing and other gear to law enforcement (although I’ll bet that most of the sales go to MAGA nuts) and openly rebuked a MAGA gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, who has been running on the idea that the 2020 election was faked.
“Let’s send a really strong message,” Pence said to the crowd, “that the GOP is the party of the future, not of the past.”
In other words, bashing Joe is in, supporting Trump is out.
A seasoned and smart politico like Mike Pence isn’t going to challenge OS by using his name. He doesn’t have to do that. All he has to do is remind the crowd that ranting about the 2020 election is old news. And if Americans want anything, you can always count on them to always want things that are new.
That’s the reason Trump sliced through the rest of the GOP field in 2016. He was new. He was saying things that everyone else was afraid to say. He took advantage of the fact that a lot of White Americans got pissed off every time they heard a recorded message on a phone call which told them to ‘toca numero dos.’
Mark my words. Sooner or later, OS will use the n-word in a public rant. He’ll pretend that he’s just quoting some hip-hop dude, but he’ll have torn down the last rhetorical barrier which exists in public speech.
Another six weeks and things really get going for the off-year election in 2022. For all my talk about the GOP shenanigans, you better come out on or before November 8th and vote blue.
See you again on Monday, if not before.