TRUMP HAS THE GOP TRAPPED

Everyone is talking and talking and then talking some more about whether or not Donald Trump will really run for president in 2024. He teases and teases, most notably Friday in Arizona where he blathered on about wining more votes in 2020 than any sitting president - this is actually true, but he failed to mention that Biden got 7 million more votes than that, making him the candidate who got more votes than the guy who got more votes than any sitting president ever before. And he ended off with “Maybe I’ll have to do it a third time.”

Yes, he’s delusional, and there wasn’t a single-digit positive-number collective IQ in that audience of drooling morons slobbbering all over him.

Will he announce before the mid-terms and make Democrats happy and Republicans sad as he turns the election into a vote on him instead of a vote on Biden? Will he wait till after as the Republicans wish he would?

Donald Trump will do whatever he thinks is good for Donald Trump and the devil take the hindmost, as has been the case since the worthless piece of shit was caught at age 9 throwing rocks at a toddler in a playpen next door in Queens.

All of this has led to a lot of chatter about his political weaknesses. There is polling that shows he only commands the support of half of GOP voters for a third reality show presidential campaign. Ron “I Do Trump Better Than Trump” DeSantis has the backing of a quarter of Republican voters.

Will Trump jump in early to slow DeSantis and shut out other possible GOP contenders?

There’s another reason to consider when predicting whether Trump will waddle his fat ass into the race sooner than later: an early announcement could undermine the various legal cases threatening him and his business.

At last count (I think) there are: the New York City district attorney examining Trump’s business shenanigans in the Trump Organization; the New York attorney general examining his shennanigans in the Trumjp Organization; the Georgia state election interference case; the pilfered classified documents case with the US Attorney in DC; the Justice Department inspector general probe; the DOJ investigation of fraudulent electors; possible DOJ inveastigation over witness tampering; continuing Congressional Committee probe into his role as coup master; possible DOJ probe into his role in planning and executing January 6;

Despite Merrick Garland saying he will continue to investigate regardless of what Trump does or doesn’t do about an announcement, there is still a body of thought that if Trump should officially declare himself a candidate, he would be positioned by that to characterize these serious probes as mere political attacks, with at least some of the media outside Conservatism Inc. taking that seriously, along with the Conservative Entertainment Complex trumpeting the claim everywhere.

Whenever Trump waddles into whatever the GOP hopes will pass for a campaign for the 2024 nomination - whether he does it before or after the midterms, this will be a problem for the GOP, and not just for the obvious reason that he continues to be an unpopular and divisive political figure for much of the electorate. Republicans can say all they want that he and the party must move beyond the 2020 election and The Big Lie, but Trump won’t let that happen. Public statements of belief in The Big Lie are Requirement #1 to be a Republican In Good Standing (RIGS - an interesting term, eh?). Right now 70% of Republican votes tell pollsters that they doubt Biden is the legitimate president.

In TrumpWorld there’s a way he can turn this obsession into political advantage.

That is: Trump will demand that his rivals publicly state their positions on The Great Lost Election of 2020. While they’re being pressed by him, they will also be questioned about their belief by reporters.

If 70% of the GOP base believes the Big Lie, how does any GOP candidate answer the question truthfully and stay competitive in a GOP primary election?

In Pennsylvania Republican voters picked Professional Lunatic state Senator Doug Mastriano, a Qanon-believing 2020 election denier who participated in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

In Maryland, they picked state Delegate Don Cox, another election denier who pushed conspiracy theories, organized buses for January 6, and tweeted that day that “Mike Pence is a traitor.”

Mastriano defeated a “mainstream” Republican opponent who tried like hell to sound as Trumpy as he could, but the phoniness was so apparent there was no trouble getting the mouth breathers to go for the real deal. The same is true with Cox, who soundly defeated a well-regarded mainstream Republican, state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, who was supported by outgoing Governor Larry Hogan. They went for J.D. Vance because he had Trump’s “attaboy.” They went for the idiotic Mehmet Oz for the same reason.

There is no possibility that any 2024 GOP wannabe who wants a fighting chance will not bow before the altar of the Rigged Election.

And once they do, he has them. They can’t get out of the trap.

“How can you say the 2020 election was rigged or illegitimate and not support the effort to restore to the White House its rightful winner?”

“Would you deny the party leader who was victimized by the evil Democratic schemers and unfairly forced from office the opportunity to undo this great crime?”

It there any Trump challenger who could sell the idea the party would have a better chance of winning with someone else, to an electorate who Loves Trump, 70% of who believe they were swindled out of a second Trump term by a conspiracy of villainous Democrats, foreign forces, and the diabolical media?

“Excuse me? You believe the election was stolen but you won’t help the guy it was stolen from get it back?”

Can any of them not accept the belief that Trump Wuz Robbed? And then after saying so, say that Trump shouldn’t be the guy who gets to exact revenge?

Dutifully following Trump the past two years down the rabbit hole into the Land of the 2020 Lost Cause has given him the upper hand.

How dare Republican candidates who agree that Trump and his patriotic supporters were wronged try to defeat him? Only a RINO would do that!

And it is obvious that Congressional Republican leaders have no apparent plans to keep him from another run. They’re either not doing anything, or they’re encouraging him.

Surprise surprise, jumped-up little striver Elise Stefanik has already said said she’d endorse him over other GOP candidates for the White House. She’s joined by Richard Hudson, the GOP conference secretary, and Jim Banks, chair of the Republican Study Committee, both of whom said they will back Trump as soon as he gets in.

Most of the rest are ready to follow the same course they did in 2016: Allow a crowded presidential primary field to sort itself out with minimal interference.

They’ll do this even though Trump now has a record as a president: two impeachments, two popular vote losses, and a list of legal liabilities hanging around him like Marley’s chains.

These people face real risks now that the Select Committee divulged new details about Trump’s actions during the Capitol attack, including staying quiet for hours as he watched the violence unfold with his vice president and GOP lawmakers in the building. Not to mention Act 2 coming in September and October, just before the elections.

Politico talked to ten senior House Republicans, including nine who are in leadership or aspiring for leadership roles. Only three were ready to say they would definitely throw their support behind Trump. None of the five elected Senate Republican leaders said they would move to quickly back Trump.

But not one said they’d oppose Trump or work to back another candidate.

And they all know he can and will ask those questions of anyone else who runs. And they can’t give an answer that doesn’t make them unelectable to the base.

Truly “another fine mess.” And they did it to themselves.

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