Why Trump Would Probably Blow Up The World Before Accepting Primary Loss To Gov. Pudding Fingers
Trump isn't a one-coup wonder.
The mainstream Republican strategy regarding Donald Trump seems similar to the mother's from the VC Andrews classic Flowers in the Attic — just flatter and appease the crazy old man and reap the rewards once nature takes its course. Sure, you might endure a few vicious beatings at first and eventually have to kill your own kids, but it’s better than poverty and socialism.
Some Republicans think they won’t have to wait until Trump expires. Ron DeSantis might save them. We assume they’ve actually met DeSantis, but they are nonetheless optimistic.
None
— (@)
Even non-Republicans believe DeSantis can oust Trump next year. Political strategist Rachel Bitecor tweeted last week, “From the political science perspective, the last time we saw as strong an insurgent candidate as DeSantis is at this stage [of] presidential primary, it was some dude named Barack Obama in 2008 taking on a much better known [Hillary Clinton].“
We should point out here that Obama's insurgent candidacy benefitted from a system of proportional delegate allocation. Republicans have winner-take-all and winner-take-most contests, although pre-March 15 "early" states award delegates somewhat proportionally. Trump tweaked the system even further to his advantage in 2020, and the minimum threshold for candidates winning any delegates at all has increased in many states.
Recent polls have actually shown DeSantis losing ground to Trump over the past few months — sort of the opposite of Obama less than a year before Iowa — but I’m not going to bore you with polling data because that’s all beside the point. Hillary Clinton isn’t a delusional sociopath, so when she lost the 2008 primary to Obama, she conceded gracefully — yes, she did, don't test my last nerve on this — and endorsed him. Trump would burn down the entire Republican Party if he was denied the nomination.
Unless we all have amnesia, we should recall that Trump refused to accept his last personal, political defeat. His election denial was not some one-time quirk, unique to Joe Biden. It’s not that he just can’t stand losing to a Democrat. He can’t emotionally handle a public loss to anyone. Biden was at least a former vice president. It would arguably devastate Trump more to lose to someone who was French-kissing his ass and calling him "daddy" just five years ago.
Biden had decisively clinched 270 electoral votes by November 7 but Trump pressed on with his coup, through frivolous, desperate legal challenges and outright intimidation and coercion. It's safe to assume he'd try to steal the nomination from DeSantis because of his documented history as a liar who tries to steal elections. There’s some irony in this potential scenario, as anti-Trump Republicans were begging for a contested convention in 2016. Amy Davidson Sorkin wrote in The New Yorker:
The Republicans will meet in Cleveland this July, too, for what many in the Party are openly hoping will be a contested Convention, if only because the most likely alternative is Donald Trump winning the nomination outright. So far, as in 1924, not enough people are for anybody else. But Mitt Romney has called on Republicans to vote strategically in the primaries, in order to deny Trump the majority of the twelve hundred and thirty-seven delegates he needs. John Kasich has said that a brokered Convention would be “exciting” and his path to victory.
MSNBC contributor (don't get me started) John Kasich only won his home state of Ohio, but he still thought establishment bigwigs could just gift-wrap him the nomination despite fewer people having voted for him than Trump or Ted Cruz.
Trump would make a more outwardly populist appeal, based on the big lie that he was robbed in 2020 and is the rightful president. It’s unclear how he’d spin losing to DeSantis, but he’d probably just deny it. True political spin involves acknowledging some element of reality. Trump just makes shit up. He wouldn't hesitate to unleash another January 6 on the Republican National Convention. Republicans might've hoped their Trump problem would just go away but it's only gotten worse.
Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter if it still exists.
Catch SER on his new podcast, The Play Typer Guy.
Did you know SER has his own YouTube Channel? Well, now you do, so go subscribe right now!
Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty.
TFG is still the wind in the sails of the derelict ship known as the GOP.
I'm sure the sales of popcorn and home defense weapons are increasing inversely proportional to the time between now and election day.