The Trump Show: Are we really going to do this again?
“Trump transforms primary,” read a push notification on my phone recently.
“Trump’s new rage,” read another.
I had the same reaction to both: Are we really doing this again?
Really?
With or without the indictment that came this week, how is everyone not sick of this?
The first of the two Axios articles reports that Trump is currently outpolling other Republican presidential hopefuls nationally in a new Monmouth poll.
Other candidates are underperforming at the moment, but it’s early and Trump has consistently benefitted from a wide field and support from the 40% of Republicans who just love him — the Forever Trumpers.
While it’s thankfully not a majority who support him, there’s still far too many who are not exhausted and bored by the Trump Show.
For someone who claims not to be a politician, Trump can’t seem to move on.
The second Axios article played one of Trump’s greatest hits: abandoning a short-lived, disciplined approach to campaigning for his usual campaign-by-grievance tactics.
This time he’s apparently lashing out at everyone over a potential indictment and playing footsies with violence.
“Our country is being destroyed, as they tell us to be peaceful!” Trump tweeted (or whatever you call posting on his Truth Social platform).
Subtle!
Considering he already caused one angry mob to try to overthrow the government, he just doesn’t have a lot of credibility when he claims these comments aren’t meant to incite violence.
Of course, I can’t seem to find any attempt to walk back his comments. Fortunately, his attempts to bring on protests have so far been a bust.
I’ve been called a Never Trumper, but it’s really an inappropriate term because it implies that I’m a single-issue voter, which I’m not.
Sure, I have never and will never vote for Trump, but that’s because he fails on a range of issues important to me.
As a conservative, there’s very little to like. Trump tears down American institutions, he has zero respect for veterans who disagree with his worldview (which means he has zero respect for veterans), the people he surrounds himself with are often absurd, he’s anti-free trade, he sucks up to dictators, he refuses to meaningfully address the federal budget and he’s a blowhard.
As a Christian, the lies, the immaturity, the name-calling, the lack of character, the lack of respect for Christians (holding up a Bible he’s clearly never read while park police were tear-gassing Americans is disqualifying enough) and the lack of humility all make him impossible to support.
As a Republican, he has not only wasted eight, and possibly 12, years of my presidential choices, but he also degraded the party and inspired some of the worst candidates in recent memory, leading to blown chances for a Republican-controlled Senate in both 2020 and 2022.
He almost single-handedly turned Georgia blue and lost a seemingly-unloseable Senate seat in Alabama by backing a candidate accused of dating minors when he was in his 30s.
What advantage does he provide Republicans? We often hear he’s the only Republican who can win the presidency, but he already lost.
Being without him for a while, I had forgotten how deeply hostile and annoying he can be. But then I browsed his Truth Social account and was immediately reminded of the endless stream of mindless tweets (or whatever).
Lots of talk about Florida Gov. Ron “Desanctimonious” DeSantis, “Horseface” Stormy Daniels and the New York district attorney.
These insults are so lame. If you heard a standup comedian with those jokes, you’d walk out. If you heard a CEO say them, you’d walk out and there’d be a lawsuit. Shouldn’t the standard be higher for the president?
The first season of the Trump Show was bad; a second will only be worse.
Can we please change the channel now?
Follow Matt on Twitter @FlemingWords