In spite of everything

Donald Trump isn’t so smart as he, or we, think … but he is oh-so-clever. And in American politics, cleverness, and what it implies, is far more important than mere intellect. And cleverness is Trump’s greatest brain gift, or grift.

For example, Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations for two years, has all but announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential race after unequivocally stating that if Trump runs, she would not, and that she would support his campaign. Donald immediately and cleverly responded to her ambitions on his Truth Social platform with: “Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor. She should definitely run!” In 13 words Donald feigns compassion, sticks a fork in her, questions her word, her honesty, and her integrity … everything he lacks. Yet, his enthusiastic encouragement of her makes him look like one of the good guys, which most of us know, he isn’t. And that’s bigtime cleverness.

For the sake of further gifting him with cleverness let me make the point that Donald will continue encouraging further competition for the GOP nomination, as many as wish to run. In spite of everything, including his Jan. 6 attempt to overturn both the 2020 election and our government, he retains tens of millions of supporters that will stick with him … no matter what. Which means that a “the more the merrier” kind of primary election would easily give him the Republican Party nomination … whose leadership still seems bent on extinction. We live in interesting times … scary, but interesting. As Doris Day might put it, “Que Sera Sera.”

Sincerely-actually,

Gary Lake Bishop