EVEN TRUMP’S BASE CAN’T TRUST HIM NOW
“America’s comeback starts right now,” former president Donald Trump said Tuesday night as he announced another White House run. Trump ticked off a list of real accomplishments, took potshots at President Biden, railed against the status quo and, in an unintentionally humorous moment, promised to “unify people.”
The ex-president’s devoted base makes him a legitimate contender. Even after Trump refused to concede the 2020 presidential election and sparked a riot at the U.S. Capitol, his base has largely remained loyal to him. Why is it so hard to let Trump go?
The comedian Dave Chappelle offered insight into this question when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend. Chappelle, who lives in Ohio, said Trump is “very loved” because he is “an honest liar.”
Here’s what Chappelle meant by that oxymoron: Trump’s appeal was admitting to the “commoners” that their suspicions about how the rich play the system were true.
“We’re doing everything that you think we are doing,” he paraphrased Trump as acknowledging, like an insider sharing trade secrets with the masses.
Trump’s shamelessness among a sea of posers has meant that neither offcolor comments nor Jan. 6 nor underperforming midterm elections would ever end his bond with his voters. But something else might. In a surprising instance of his instincts failing him, Trump seems to be turning his gifts for gaming the system against his allies — something that’s beginning to dawn on his voters.
Trump’s first misstep came at a rally in Florida on the Saturday before Election Day. He referred to Ron DeSantis, Florida’s popular Republican governor, as “Ron De-Sanctimonious.” The nickname wasn’t clever, just clunky.
Then, two days after the election — and DeSantis’s resounding re-election — Trump issued a blistering statement taking credit for DeSantis’s success.
The very next day, Trump faltered again, taking to his Truth Social platform to weigh in on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, proclaiming, “Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me.” Trump was being not only predictably juvenile, but also intentionally racist against a member of Team Trump.
Trump voters are understandably confused. Trump is not wrong when he boasts of helping to create DeSantis and Youngkin. He should be proud of them, not disparaging. His base loves them, considers them their own and thinks Trump should love them, too.
Trump has never been averse to criticizing his fellow Republicans. He deployed an unforgettable mix of insult humor and shock comedy to take down a series of GOP governors and senators in 2015 and 2016.
But attacking DeSantis and Youngkin is different than taking on Jeb Bush. It’s as though Trump suddenly started mocking Don Jr. or Ivanka. If Trump will turn on his proteges, his followers are realizing, he’ll turn on any of his acolytes. Even his base can’t trust him now.
The separation is happening fast. The divorce will follow.
When the party leaves Trump, where will it go? Never Trump Republicans have clung to the hope that their prodigal party would return to them. They still don’t accept that the party they loved didn’t just leave — it died. These Republicans, wedded to a bloodless country club conservatism, would hardly recognize most rankand-file members of today’s populist GOP, let alone have brunch with them.
No, “Trumpism” will outlast its maker. “There has never been anything like it, this great movement of ours, and there may never be anything like it again,” Trump said Tuesday. He may well be right. But he cannot win a general election, meaning his movement will thrive only if someone other than Trump leads it.
Trump will not go quietly. We will watch him exit kicking and screaming. It will be satisfying for his adversaries, painful for everyone else. But breakups are often messy — especially at the very end.