Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Trump and his minions falsely claimed that he won the election, and have kept repeating the Big Lie. And we now know how close he came to subverting the Constitution.
On Wednesday night, Donald Trump demonstrated why he leads the 2024 Republican field. The audience was his from “hello”. The town hall was a prime-time infomercial. Kaitlan Collins, the moderator, was no match. For good measure, he called her a “nasty person” and questioned her intelligence.
Trump arrived amid a standing ovation and repeatedly tangled with CNN’s Collins. He directed congressional Republicans to go over the fiscal cliff and trigger a default but waffled over a federal abortion ban.
The 45th president repeated the lies that birthed the insurrection and repeatedly asserted the 2016 election was “rigged”. He expressed no remorse for Mike Pence almost winding up on makeshift gallows.
Trump beatified Ashli Babbitt, the Capitol rioter shot dead and committed to pardoning most of the January 6 rioters. For Trump and his minions, law and order hinges on “who” and “whom”. As for E Jean Carroll, Trump ridiculed her and the $5m verdict. She was a “whack job”, he said.
Immigration and energy remain Trump talking points, catnip for independents and working-class voters alike. The Democrats ought to start worrying. In 2020, Covid sapped Trump’s appeal while Biden possessed the luxury of a basement campaign. That’s gone. Trump is a natural counter-puncher. He shows no sign of letting up. 2024 is shaping up as 2016 redux.
