Trump won’t change, and he won’t win

This guy.

As some of his allies are trying to rewrite January 6 as an afternoon stroll, Donald Trump is having none of it. In the face of a possible criminal case in New York, he screamed that “death and destruction” would follow any indictment. He posed with a baseball bat aimed at the head of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

THIS is Donald Trump. He hasn’t changed in the slightest. There is no shame. After riling up rioters, cheering for a coup and agreeing that his vice president needed to be hanged he’s back to making violent threats against fellow Americans.

But wait, you say.

This is a biased prosecution. Trump has every right to be upset.

We don’t disagree. This is not a felony case, and Bragg trying to turn it into one is pure politics. But rather than seek his vindication in the courtroom, or even just make an impassioned speech, Trump wants to inspire a mob.

Vindictive & selfish

Time and time again, Trump’s responses have been unhinged, vindicative and self-defeating.

And don’t buy for a second when he says he’s “fighting for you.” If you actually “rose up” and were arrested, Trump would abandon you, just as he has every ally who wasn’t useful to him anymore. What did he do for those locked up for months over January 6? What cash did he hand over for the candidates he endorsed in the recent midterm elections he torpedoed for Republicans?

Ever given Trump money? If you stop, and even if you don’t, the angry pleas come fast and furious. Don’t you care!? How could you abandon him? We understand voters who rallied to his cause, because he vows to fight for them. There is much wrong with the country. And yes, it will take someone strong to wade through the thicket of Establishment opposition to change.

But Trump is not trying to make America a better place. He’s not offering anyone apart from himself a better future. He’s out for revenge.

We know him too well

This is how Trump has been spending his time since announcing his run for president. Stewing in Mar-a-Lago. No grievance is too small. When he found out that Rihanna once criticized him, he took to Truth Social — multiple times! — to bellow how bad her Super Bowl halftime show was. He once posted a screed, at 5 o’clock in the morning, about MSNBC’s programming decisions.

When Trump ran in 2016, he was an unknown entity. Independents took a chance, wanting to break from the stagnant political machines that sought to anoint Hillary Clinton.

But he’s not a mystery anymore. Americans know that Trump can’t stop himself from nursing piddling grudges and throwing out childish insults. The emperor has no clothes.

Perhaps you don’t mind. But there are plenty of middle-of-theroad voters who do. They saw this behavior in 2020 and the 2022 midterms and said we need less anger and more hope. Less rage and more rational action to fix the problems facing our nation.

You want a leader who will fight for you? Then you have to pick someone who can actually get elected. Republicans can’t throw away their shot in 2024.