Donald Trump Has a New Political Player to Worry About That Is Spending Money to Hurt His Standing: I cannot think of a bigger waste of money than a Right-wing Political Action Committee (PAC), like the Charles Koch Institute-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP), spending almost $2 million on ads in key states in the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election, such as North Carolina, urging residents there to “dump Trump.” But that is precisely what AFP is doing.
Seriously, you’d have better luck taking that money and playing it at the Blackjack tables at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas than you would in convincing enough Republican voters to dump the forty-fifth president.
If anything, the ads in question are going to militate more Democratic Party voters to come out against the Republican nominee in 2024.
At best, it’ll just galvanize a larger share of Republican Party voters to turnout and nominate Trump in the ongoing GOP Primary out of petty defiance.
Donald Trump’s Fame (Infamy?)
Donald Trump entered politics with a degree of celebrity that was unmatched by any previous famous political candidate. Even the great Ronald Reagan, who began his career as a spokesman for General Electric and then rose to become a B-Movie star, never reached the level of fame (or infamy, depending on who you ask) that Donald J. Trump did.
The combination of his celebrity from years of being a fixture in the New York tabloids as well as his highly successful reality television program, The Apprentice, gave Trump a critical advantage over his other rivals in 2016.
What’s more, the air of Trump’s alleged business acumen, which had been reinforced by decades of him having been in the spotlight as the celebrity billionaire business mogul, meant that Trump was the perfect outsider Republicans had been pining for.
Today, after having been in politics for the last eight years, Trump has a die-hard fanbase. Even among those who are not totally in the “MAGA” wing of the Republican Party, Trump has a strange, almost visceral appeal that makes the forty-fifth president a serious—possibly unstoppable—contender for the Republican nomination.
Plus, Trump has ingrained in his ga-ga followers the notion that he alone can fix our most vexing problems while at the same time convincing them that he is the most victimized person to run for office in the history of America.
A Powerful, Noxious Narrative
This twin combination of superiority plus victimhood, combined with the aforementioned celebrity and perception of being a great deal-making businessman from Manhattan, means that no amount of negative ads from Super PACS, like AFP, will dislodge Trump from the Republican Party’s presidential nomination process.
That $2 million would be better spent on the presidential campaign of Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who needs every bit of money the Republican Party can muster to remain in the race, and keep up his viable challenge to Trump for the nomination. It is not kvetching to the voters of various swing states about how boorish Donald Trump is, or about how unelectable he is in 2024, that will move the needle in the GOP Primary away from Trump.
In fact, it will only serve to reinforce Trump’s narrative that he is the David fighting the Goliath that is the corrupt uniparty, the Deep State, the lying press, and the mega-corporations. A better way to fight Trump from the Right would be to simply dump as many resources as possible into the DeSantis Campaign.
Ron DeSantis is David to Trump’s Orange Goliath
Ron DeSantis is the always-serious David to Trump’s tawny Goliath in the Republican Primary. It is only another GOP candidate who can effectively knock Trump out of the GOP race in 2024.
It’s time for all those in the Republican Party who do not think Trump can win the 2024 Presidential Election stop pussyfooting around and simply throw their time and resources into the DeSantis Campaign. Let’s face it, unlike 2016, former President Trump has a record in government to run on. And that record is highly controversial and mixed at best.
Further, Trump’s legal woes mean he might end up being disqualified from running altogether, if he’s found guilty in any of the trials about his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election. Me saying that will not change Trump’s level of support.
Only lots of money and resources being put into Ron DeSantis’ campaign will change that—and even then, it’s a risky bet. But it’s a far better bet than micturating money away on pointless virtue signaling operations in key swing states.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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