On Trump at CPAC
Welp, all the Trump loyalists showed up one more time at CPAC to hear the former president speak, and naturally, this happened:
Wow, that sure got Trump promoter Benny Johnson excited, huh?
Here’s an excerpt from the story at Fox News:
Former President Donald Trump topped the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll for the 2024 GOP nomination by a wide margin at the conservative conference Saturday.
Trump won 62% support in the poll, which was announced shortly before he was scheduled to speak to the crowd gathered at the Gaylord in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in as second choice with 20% support. The third-place pick at 5% support was long-shot GOP candidate Perry Johnson, a businessman who attempted to run for governor in Michigan but was blocked from participating in the Republican primary.
[End]
Ok, well, big deal. No one expected any other result from CPAC, which became a bastion of Trump-ism during his presidency. These are loyal folks, and that’s not a bad thing.
But I want to talk a little bit about the speech Trump delivered there on Saturday, because he said some things that all those Trump fans really need to think about before they go forth and slander Ron DeSantis at their hero’s behest.
One thing he said that is likely true was this:
Had Trump been elected in 2020, does anyone really doubt the war in Ukraine would have never happened? There is not a chance in the world that Putin would have mounted that war if America was executing foreign policy from a position of restrained strength.
And Trump is most likely correct that, if elected, he could quickly bring an end to that war with a negotiated agreement that included NATO’s abandoning its stupid plan to bring Ukraine into its member ship and Ukraine ceding the eastern territories that have always been a part of Russia historically. This has been the obvious rational compromise since Day 1, but the warmongers in the Biden administration and congress can’t bear to allow it to happen.
So far, so good.
But then Trump, in his rancid paranoia about a challenge from DeSantis, decides to trot out Page 1 from the Democrat Party playbook to attack DeSantis:
“We’re not going back to people that want to destroy our great Social Security system,” Trump said in his speech. “Even some in our own party.”
Trump then added with a smirk: “I wonder who that might be.”
Page 1 in the Democrat party playbook is “Scare the old folks about Social Security and Medicare.” I’m officially one of the old folks these days, and I am not in any way scared that Ron DeSantis is going to get elected and take away or even cut those programs.
This is an incredibly counterproductive and frankly stupid attack to mount against a fellow Republican, but then, Trump really isn’t much of a “Republican,” is he? He is in fact the single biggest spender in presidential history. He’s a populist running in the GOP primary system, which again, is not necessarily a bad thing until you start doing stupid crap like using the other party’s playbook against your primary opponents.
But his CPAC sycophants applauded wildly with their blind loyalty.
They also went wild when Trump issued this coup de gras:
For those of you who are still big Trump boosters, I beg you to take a step back and reflect at this statement.
Think about this: Just one month ago, when the RNC was deciding who its leader would be for the next four years, Trump had a chance to “obliterate” part of the “Deep State” by joining Gov. DeSantis in rejecting the re-election of Mitt Romney’s niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, to that job, by endorsing Harmeet Dhillon for the job.
Instead, though, Trump endorsed the establishment, status quo candidate for the job.
Doesn’t that tell you something?
Also, think about this: Trump had four long years to go after the Deep State while he was in office. I defy anyone to identify a single square foot of territory the Deep State was forced by Trump to surrender during those four years. Hell, Trump couldn’t even replace James Comey with a real patriot. He couldn’t even place a real patriot in the Attorney General’s job despite having two bites at that apple.
But this time, if he just gets four more years, it’ll all be different, right?
C’mon, folks: Get real.
Bottom line: The truth is, none of this even matters because, if the 2024 election is a replay of Biden v. Trump, Trump cannot win. Four more years of the Sock Puppet is what we get from that rematch, sure as hell.
Stop this madness, people. I beg you. Just stop it.
That is all.
If 2024 is a replay with mail-in ballots, Dominion voting machines, ballot curing, ballot harvesting, etc. then yes Biden will “win” again.
Somebody needs to get MTG to have a nice talk with DeSantis and Boebert to have a nice talk with Trump and get these two to buddy up, bury the hatchet. Good deal: DeSantis for 2028 or Trump takes him as VP, you sure as hell don't want Pence who is crooked as a $3 bill.
Remember the vitriol Kamala Harris launched against Biden in the DNC debates. Devastating & super-nasty. Now she's his VP.