Trump's Next Act
Donald Trump is, in a word, performative. His entire political career has been one long installation of performance art. He lives to see good television ratings. It is his own personal measure of his self-worth. And tomorrow night, he'll be unveiling his next act.
It's far from being a secret what this act will consist of. Tomorrow night, Donald Trump will announce his third bid for the United States presidency. He has wanted to make this announcement for months now, but has so far been talked into delaying it by his advisors. Tomorrow, the delay will be over and Trump will throw his hat back into the ring.
The effect of Trump's announcement will be multifaceted. But what it all really boils down to is this: everyone will be talking about it. Here I am talking about it, and it's not even going to happen for another whole day. Trump will once again occupy the center ring under the American political big top.
The first effect of all of this that is worth considering is what Trump's announcement will do to the rest of the Republican field. He's always wanted to announce as early as he could in an effort to clear that field as much as possible -- and he's probably right about that to some extent. Republican hopefuls can be roughly divided into three groups: anti-Trumpers, Trump wannabes, and those who would really prefer not to even mention Trump's name ever again. Trump announcing won't scare off the anti-Trumpers, since they'll all be running to beat him and drag the GOP in a different direction. People like Chris Christie and Larry Hogan spring immediately to mind. Perhaps Liz Cheney will make her own bid, as well. None of them are going to be fazed by Trump entering the race; they've been expecting it all along.
It is the other two groups where Trump's entry to the race will change the calculus in a big way. At least one Trump wannabe is almost certainly going to run, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now seen as some sort of savior for the party -- the new Trump, but without quite as many Trumpy qualities. Call him "Reduced-Drama Trump Lite," maybe. DeSantis scored one of the very few truly impressive GOP wins in the midterm elections, proving that he (unlike Trump) is an actual winner with the voters. But what of the rest of this pack, who don't currently have the mojo DeSantis is enjoying right now? Will they really challenge Trump directly? He will see any such moves as disloyal, which is about the biggest sin there is (to Trump). Trump is already warming up his efforts to savage DeSantis, and all the other Trump wannabes have to be closely watching this dynamic play out.
The "lets just get back to normal" Republicans consist of those who would prefer to gently urge the party to "move on" from Trump, without actually directly attacking Trump. They will still sing his praises, but then "more in sorrow than in anger" argue that Trump's day is past. They want the Republican Party to return to some less-dramatic traditional political agenda and stop with all the personal invective and crazy conspiracy theories. But with Trump actually running, it will be impossible for them to ignore him. Trump is going to viciously attack any other Republican candidate who seems like a threat to him in the polling. Trump may ignore candidates who are only pulling very low single digits as being beneath his notice, but anyone who cracks five percent is going to be a big target of Trump's wrath.
Trump may have picked tomorrow (he initially stated he wanted to announce today) because it is the same day Mike Pence's book comes out. In excerpts already released, Pence offers up some very lukewarm and moderate criticism of Trump but also attempts to laud Trump to the skies as some sort of political genius. My sympathies for anyone forced to read the entire book (which I seriously doubt is going to rocket to bestseller status any time soon). Pence still lives under the delusion that he can win his party's nomination while somehow avoiding Trump's wrath, but this is simply not going to be possible (either part of it, really).
Many Republicans tried to talk Trump into holding off on his announcement until after the December 6th runoff Senate election is held in Georgia, but Trump does not care one bit who wins the race, at this point. He backed so many other losers in last week's election that perceptions of Trump's political acumen in picking candidates are already pretty set in stone, even if Herschel Walker does somehow manage to squeak out a win. Trump has no interest, however, in doing "what is best for the party," and Trump is already trying to somehow shift all the blame for the disastrous midterm results onto Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- so it's not like Trump is in the mood to do McConnell any favors right now.
Whenever disaster strikes Trump, his go-to move is to change the subject as quickly as possible. That's what tomorrow's announcement is designed to do. Trump fervently hopes everyone will stop talking about the midterms and focus on him once again -- that much is pretty obvious. He will reportedly give a "very professional, very buttoned-up" speech rather than one of his rally stemwinders. But it's hard to know what Trump truly considers "very professional," so who knows what he'll actually say? Maybe he'll go off-script and drop a few off-the-cuff remarks into the middle of it -- it's certainly always a possibility, with Trump.
Trump will indeed rip into President Joe Biden and the entire Democratic Party, that's guaranteed. He'll state that America is living through some apocalyptic nightmare and only he can save the country. But will his criticism be limited to the party across the aisle?
What I wonder is if he'll even mention the midterms at all. He may just ignore the subject completely, in an effort to convince everyone else to do the same. But he could also decide the time is ripe to unload on members of his own party. He could rip into Mitch McConnell and lay all the blame on him for the election results. Or he could proactively go after DeSantis (which he's already been doing on his failing social media network). While DeSantis hasn't announced his own presidential bid yet, it's pretty obvious he intends to run, which might be enough for Trump to go scorched-earth on him.
Will Trump claim (as he's already doing) that some of the midterm elections were "stolen" from his chosen candidates? That would certainly not be surprising. He will almost certainly rehash his own Big Lie about the 2020 elections, since he pretty much does this whenever he opens his mouth. There are races (mostly for House seats) that haven't been called yet and may not be called by tomorrow night, and the most tempting one for him to mention may not be called by then either. Kari Lake still has an outside chance to win in the Arizona governor's race, but she's been behind as more and more votes are counted, so this may be a prime target for Trump's lies and conspiracy theories about election fraud tomorrow night.
There's one other big reason Trump is announcing his third presidential run so early -- because he thinks it will somehow insulate him from the judicial system. This isn't true at all, but it will allow Trump to make claims of being "persecuted" just because he is a candidate. He would have made these claims anyway (he has been all along), but perhaps he somehow thinks being a presidential candidate is some sort of magic "get out of jail free" card (spoiler alert: it is not). Trump is facing multiple investigations by multiple judicial systems, all of which have been holding off on doing anything dramatic in the run-up to the midterm elections. Those elections are now over, so indictments may be coming soon for Trump. In fact, the sooner any prosecutors or grand juries decide to bring charges the better, because every day that passes means one less day before the 2024 presidential election.
Trump will try to project an aura of inevitability tomorrow night, that much seems certain. His next act will be making the case that he will be the Republican presidential nominee no matter what else happens, because so many MAGA voters love him so much. He may wind up being right about this, at least to the extent of winning the nomination. In 2016, he won the vast majority of his delegates by pulling in only around one-third of the total Republican vote. The other two-thirds was split between all the other candidates, and there was no move to coalesce around the perfect "not Trump" candidate. There's a very good reason for this and it is that nobody runs for president altruistically. It is all about ego -- "I can win!" All the non-Trump candidates all thought they were the perfect foil for Trump and they all fervently wished all the other GOP candidates would gracefully drop out so they could beat Trump. Which, of course, never happened. The same dynamic could easily play out again. Perhaps Christie, Hogan, Cheney and even a few others will divide the anti-Trump vote so evenly that none of them ever has a chance. Trump actually would benefit from as many other Republicans running as possible, but he would much prefer to just be anointed as the nominee without anyone challenging him. Look for Trump to be projecting his own inevitability from tomorrow going forward, probably on the lines of: "Well, I'm going to win, so I don't even know why anyone else is even bothering to run."
Donald Trump, for the past two years, has been all but invisible on the political scene. He holds rallies, but the news networks don't broadcast them live anymore. He hasn't given a major speech since he left office. He hasn't held the entire country's attention at any one time, unless you count the House Select Committee's investigation into his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election (where Trump himself was the main subject, but was also personally offstage during the proceedings).
All of that is going to change tomorrow night. All of a sudden, Trump's performance art will be a shiny object to distract all the political media once again. Which is exactly what Trump wants, because the more people are talking about him the less they'll be talking about anyone else or any other subject. Which is truly his overarching goal in all of this.
Or to put it another way: Yes, I will watch Trump's speech. So will a lot of people. He'll get the one thing he loves most in this world -- attention and good television ratings. That much seems certain.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Where will you watch it? It doesn't seem very newsworthy, so why would networks preempt their regular programming?
He could rip into Mitch McConnell and lay all the blame on him for the election results.
He could even make this work:
Old Crow McConnell stole that supreme court nomination from BHO and gave it to him. Then that Leonard Leo guy gave him a list of disloyal scum who lied to the senate and rejected his frivolous legal motions. Then Old Crow refused to finance that Unabomber fan's senate campaign in AZ.
How is it not MM's fault?
The Club For Growth is messing with the orange one's big day.
Florida Man 2.0 is coming for you Fat Donny
Or as someone posted on reddit:
Begun, the clown wars have
@bashi,
much fear i sense in him. fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to surfing. i mean suffering. no point trying to ride the red wave, dude, it's ebb tide.
@cw [fpc],
nixon doesn't make my bottom five because much like trump, he accomplished a few solidly good things in spite of the damage he did. if you take a cold analytical look at nixon's foreign policy, he basically won the cold war. under reagan's watch is when the axe happened to finally fall, but the asian coups of nixon (and kissinger) are essentially the reason the USSR collapsed. whether it was his intention or not, he also got us out of vietnam. the trump administration kinda rhymes with nixon - in spite of himself he actually accomplished some solid progress in the middle east. thus, neither quite makes my bottom five.
JL
to be honest, nixon may not even make my bottom ten, he's such a mixed bag.
It looks as though Hobbs has won in Arizona.
Kari Fake went to failing hellscape Twitter after losing to finally say something true:
Arizonans know BS when they see it.
He has wanted to make this announcement for months now, but has so far been talked into delaying it by his advisors.
Assumes facts not in evidence..
The effect of Trump's announcement will be multifaceted. But what it all really boils down to is this: everyone will be talking about it. Here I am talking about it, and it's not even going to happen for another whole day. Trump will once again occupy the center ring under the American political big top.
Doesn't that make you part of the problem that the Left claim exists?? :D
proving that he (unlike Trump) is an actual winner with the voters
Ahem... *President* Trump IS an actual winner with the voters. Which is why he is known as PRESIDENT Trump.. :D
He will see any such moves as disloyal, which is about the biggest sin there is (to Trump).
As it is to Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, Weigantians, etc etc etc... Let's be factually accurate here, eh? :D
Or did I just dream all those MDDOTW awards to "disloyal" Manchin, Sinema et al...
Donald Trump, for the past two years, has been all but invisible on the political scene.
Yer joking, right??
Every day for the past 2 years there were MULTIPLE news stories from the "political scene" about President Trump. Every day for the past 2 years, President Trump was talked about in the vaunted halls of Weigantia..
Invisible?? Shirley, you jest....
All of a sudden, Trump's performance art will be a shiny object to distract all the political media once again. Which is exactly what Trump wants, because the more people are talking about him the less they'll be talking about anyone else or any other subject. Which is truly his overarching goal in all of this.
So, this begs the question.. WHY are Americans who hate President Trump so much, freely and willingly giving President Trump exactly what he wants..
When ya think about it, it's kinda the same dynamic we have here in Weigantia, eh??
1/20
Being a little prediction-shy (who wouldn't be??) I hesitate to put this out there..
But it does look like things are a foregone conclusion, AND since it is the ONLY bright spot of good news out there.....
The House belongs to the GOP..
Let the two years of Biden/Democrat investigations and impeachments begin!!!! :D
Let's salvage something good and decent from this whole sad debacle....
2/20
to be honest, nixon may not even make my bottom ten, he's such a mixed bag.
Wow. That deserves its own column.
So much winning! I'm not getting tired of it just yet. I'm looking forward to the GQP nominating the orangutan's son despite his espionage act conviction although I'm not sure they'll allow him to have any of his Klan rallies at Gitmo. GQP monkeyshines in the house will only help. Please give us lots of Margie Three Names, Matt Pedo Gaetz, Jim Groomer Jordan and company obsessing about Hunter Biden and impeachment. Inflation inschmation.
I find it hilarious how ya'all mock Marjorie whoever for her three names..
It's hilarious because it's America hating latte sipping liberals who made having 3 names such a hip/with it/woke thing... :D
Once again proof positive that Democrats always attack what they themselves are guilty of.. :D
3/20
But what it all really boils down to is this: everyone will be talking about it.
. . . or maybe Poland instead. Looks like Putin wants Fat Donny to remember who the puppetmaster is.
Leave it to a Democrat to stumble the world into WW III... :eyeroll:
nypoet22
whether it was his intention or not, he also got us out of vietnam.
Oh, it was very much his intention! That's why he prevented LBJ from being able to successfully conduct the peace talks with the N. Vietnamese. It became a Republican go-to-plan for presidential elections... as we saw with the Iranian hostage crisis. Promise the enemy that you will be much more forgiving and generous than the current administration if they hold off until after the election to give the US whatever it wants. Thousands of Americans needlessly died as a result of the N.Vietnamese needing to wait for Nixon to be in office before peace was declared.
I'm no fan of evil, but if given the choice I'll take evil genius over evil fool.
Really? I always thought that evil genius was a lot scarier than evil fool.
Actually, come to think of it, Joshua, YOU'VE been scaring me, lately.
the evil genius has a plan, which in time can be turned to serve less selfish ends. the evil fool's actions are not limited by anything as predictable or malleable as his own success.
You lost me, completely. Maybe I'm just tired but I don't get any of that???
He will see any such moves as disloyal, which is about the biggest sin there is (to Trump).
As it is to Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, Weigantians, etc etc etc... Let's be factually accurate here, eh? :D
By all means, let's be factually accurate here. Trump takes "disloyal" to a whole-nother-level... especially when you consider loyalty only runs one-way with Trump! You cannot compare that to what others who view loyalty as a two-way street do because they are completely different.
Trump claimed DeSantis was disloyal to him for discussing whether or not DeSantis was even interested in running for President in 2024. DeSantis is disloyal for simply considering it aloud despite Trump not having announced for sure that he was going to run. Only Trump gets to consider whether he will run for president and until he does, no one else can even think of considering running themselves? Yeah, that's not so much "disloyalty" as much as it is Trump is a whiny spoiled lil girl.
Every day for the past 2 years there were MULTIPLE news stories from the "political scene" about President Trump. Every day for the past 2 years, President Trump was talked about in the vaunted halls of Weigantia..
We've talked about the crimes he's committed that effected the "political scene". We've discussed how he was attempting to destroy democracy and how far he was willing to go to avoid being prosecuted for the many crimes he committed while in office and since he left office. Pointing out his criminal acts isn't giving Trump what he wants.
y all means, let's be factually accurate here. Trump takes "disloyal" to a whole-nother-level...
That's your opinion based SOLELY on Trump/America hate..
Trump claimed DeSantis was disloyal to him for discussing whether or not DeSantis was even interested in running for President in 2024.
Did he?? Did he REALLY, Russ?? Or did you just HEAR that because of your afore-mentioned Trump/America hate??
We've talked about the crimes he's committed that effected the "political scene".
Fact.. President Trump is COMPLETELY and 1000% INNOCENT of all the crimes ya'all have talked about..
Pointing out his criminal acts isn't giving Trump what he wants
It's giving President Trump your attention.. Ya'all claim that President Trump is all about getting attention..
So, yes.. All ya'all's gibber-jabber IS giving President Trump exactly what you claim he wants..
You can't win, Russ.. I have the facts on my side.. :D
"You can't win!!! I've got god on my side!!!"
-Max Von Sydow, NEEDFUL THINGS
:D
Trump claimed DeSantis was disloyal to him for discussing whether or not DeSantis was even interested in running for President in 2024.
Did he?? Did he REALLY, Russ?? Or did you just HEAR that because of your afore-mentioned Trump/America hate??
He did!! Trump REALLY did, Michael!!
From Trump's Trooth account:
“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” Trump cried. “The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
Again.. YOU are interpreting that President Trump said that DeSantis was disloyal... When what President Trump said has a totally different meaning..
I get it, Russ.. I really do... You hate President Trump..
We ALL get it.. :eyeroll:
Michale
25
Again.. YOU are interpreting that President Trump said that DeSantis was disloyal... When what President Trump said has a totally different meaning..
You need "not" and "loyal" explained to you. You think they mean something different when Trump types them? They don't.
I get it, Russ.. I really do... You hate President Trump..
You clearly do not "get it." Someone/anyone not being an ass-licking member of the Trump cult doesn't exactly equate with "hate."
We ALL get it.. :eyeroll:
Except you, obviously.
*
It isn't exactly a secret that Trump refers to DeSantis as "disloyal" because he refuses to tell the press he will not run for the presidency in 2024; he's been doing that for months already. It also isn't a secret that he refers to him as "fat, phony, and whiny"... which is beyond hysterical since it describes Trump perfectly.