A thunderous slap in the face for Trump: why his party wants another

Just in time for Christmas, Donald Trump landed low blows. The temper of the former US president is notorious, but the ferocity with which the 77-year-old lashed out at the all-time holiday was remarkable.

Trump wished everyone a Merry Christmas, including “the far-left Marxists who are trying to destroy our country” and the FBI, which “forces and pays the media to promote a mentally retarded Democrat instead of a brilliant, psychic and US-loving’ one.” Donald Trump».

It goes without saying that Trump meant none other than his successor, Joe Biden, whom he despised when he referred to the “mentally disabled Democrat.” It was the message of a political arsonist, not a retired statesman. It’s like Santa Claus in the Grinch costume came to the White House to set the gift table on fire.

Moments later, Trump went on a rampage again. “The United States is dying from within!” he wrote. This could be taken as a commentary on the US Justice Department investigations against him. The judiciary has been on Trump’s heels for years, but so far he has passed all trials and investigations relatively unscathed. That could change.

The current tax investigations weigh heavily, and there are more than 16 other proceedings against Trump. Against this background, it is more than a question of whether he will actually be nominated as the presidential candidate of the Grand Old Party. He had already announced his candidacy in mid-November, just after the disappointing midterm elections for the Republicans.

Trump’s candidate clings to the image of a loser

The public tirades of hate now come at a time when Trump is facing increasing setbacks within the party as well. On Christmas Eve, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in the case of Republican Kari Lake. The gubernatorial candidate Trump backed had complained about the official result of the midterm elections, suspecting systematic voter fraud and a Democratic conspiracy.

Judge Pete Thompson, however, dismissed the lawsuit. His reasoning stated: “The court cannot accept mere speculation and suspicion to be placed on plain and convincing facts.”

A statement could hardly be clearer. Once again, a judge has relegated one of the Trump camp’s untenable claims to the realm of fables. That is also remarkable because the lawyer Thompson was appointed by a Republican governor.

So it is no longer just supporters of the Democrats who do not want to be blinded by the outrageous tricks of the Trumpists. Dissatisfaction with Trump and his protégés is also growing within the Republican Party.

Not because of their radical views or mythical conspiracy stories, which they constantly spread during the election campaign and elsewhere. But because of the loser image that hangs on it now.

Kari Lake is just the latest in a long line of disappointments for Republicans. A dozen Trump candidates lost in the midterm elections.

The red wave stays away

Like Lake in Arizona, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire and Herschel Walker in Georgia, who were massively supported by Trump, also suffered defeats. Especially in the key states, the Republicans’ strategy is to ensure the “red wave” with Trump candidates – i.e., win a convincing victory in both chambers of Congress, which in turn would have put them in a good position for the presidential election in two years – did not work.

Even Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no choice but to blame Trump and his weak candidates for the defeat after the final results were finally known in all states in mid-December.

“Our ability to deliver outstanding results this time around is limited because the support of the previous president has proven to be a critical factor,” McConnell said. “So we had to make the most of the cards we were given.”

“A victory for the history books,” said incumbent DeSantis

A resounding slap in the face from Trump. While influential party friends such as McConnell increasingly distance themselves, large parts of the base are now turning their backs on the ex-president.

A recent USA Today and Suffolk University poll found that while 75 percent of the Republican base still support Trump’s policies, they do not support Trump as a person. Only a third of his own party supporters consider him president. On the other hand, more than 60 percent want to send another Republican to the election. The leading candidate for the candidacy right now is Ron DeSantis.

The governor of Florida secured a second term in midterm elections with a convincing victory. Because, unlike Trump, he understood not only how to grab attention with populist slogans, but also with a long-term election strategy.

For example, Florida Republicans have multiplied their electoral base over the past four years, targeting people who normally don’t necessarily exercise their Democratic right to vote. It paid off.

The people of DeSantis managed to get almost 300,000 more people to the polls than in 2018, increasing the governor’s lead over his opponent by a factor of 46. Nearly 60 percent of voters voted for him, it was the clearest victory of all. a Republican in Florida ever. DeSantis is also the first Republican since Jeb Bush in 2002 to win Miami-Dade County, a former Democratic stronghold. This puts Florida out of the ranks of the traditionally competitive “swing states.” Florida is now red. “It was a victory for the history books,” DeSantis said of his success.

Trump only gives serious opponents a nickname

The 44-year-old is considered tactically adept, but no less radical than Trump. DeSantis embodies a decidedly anti-government and anti-statist policy, and many of his positions are identical to those of the former president. During the Corona crisis, he attacked the Biden administration wherever he could, or he acted against the perceived “awake” dominance of opinion in the country.

In addition to these bulldozer performances, the Iraq War veteran and Harvard graduate has proven himself a forward-thinking political manager: While Trump unleashed a right-wing mob to storm the Capitol, DeSantis sent his Republican campaigners into the streets to rally them. up to two million people across Florida knocking on the front door. Promote your own party, without violence, just with pen and paper. This massive voter mobilization is being carefully noted within the Republican ranks. Some Republicans, some of whom are also influential, have long viewed Florida’s governor as the better Trump: younger, smarter, and above all, more successful.

DeSantis has so far left open an application for the presidential candidacy, so he’s apparently in no rush. That he could become dangerous for Trump is also suggested by the verbal beating that Trump gives his fellow party member. “Infidelity,” he scolded DeSantis and an “average” governor. He also constantly mocks him as “DeSanctimonious” (“The Hypocrite”), and Trump usually only uses nicknames for opponents he takes seriously. He learned that by struggling. He probably suspects he won’t be sending Florida’s governor to the stage any time soon.

The fact that the majority of Republicans cannot imagine supporting Trump in the 2024 presidential race is mainly due to the impressive list of defeats that the former president is now being blamed for. Three consecutive elections were lost under him, the 2018 midterm elections, the 2020 presidential election and now again the 2022 midterm elections. look at things (and at themselves) but knows less and less how to convince people. You could say Trump is playing bogey after bogey.

A dinner with proven anti-Semites

In addition to the momentum at the ballot box, Trump is also losing his political flair. He recently had dinner with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West in his Florida hometown. The Jewish conservatives were outraged. Both Fuentes and West regularly make anti-Semitic statements. Trump didn’t want to hear about it.

Then there’s Special Counsel Jack Smith, who must investigate Trump’s role in the storm at the Capitol and the alleged misappropriation of secret government documents. In addition, there are more than a dozen other investigations against the ex-president. A court recently ruled that his tax documents for the years 2015 to 2020 may be made public. Depending on what the examination of the documents by the tax authorities reveals, it could become legally uncomfortable for him.

Trump often had his back against the wall, whether in business, politics or private life. It never really hurt him. He always knew how to turn defeats into personal successes. But that was no longer possible.

When it comes to the White House, Republicans are unlikely to want to lose the fourth election under his leadership in two years’ time. The future of the Grand Old Party is currently more uncertain than ever, it could be called Ron DeSantis. Presumably only the “brilliant, clairvoyant and US-loving Donald Trump” knows more details.