Trump’s Trap for the GOP

By David Corn  July 23, 2022

Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Alaska on July 9, 2022. Bill Roth/AP

Donald Trump is laying a trap for the Republican Party.

 

There’s been lots of talk lately in the political punditocracy about whether Trump will run in 2024 (general consensus: probably) and whether he will announce his bid before the coming midterm elections (general consensus: no one knows). This chatter has led to discussion of Trump’s political weaknesses. Some commentators and analysts have pointed to polling that shows that Trump only commands the support of half of GOP voters for a third presidential campaign reality show, while Florida Gov. Ron “I Do Trump Better Than Trump” DeSantis has the backing of a quarter of Republican voters. Will Trump jump in early to slow DeSantis-mentum and shut out other possible GOP contenders? If so, he would likely hinder the Republicans' chances in November by making the congressional elections about him and not President Joe Biden and inflation.

 

There’s another reason prognosticators cite when predicting Trump will waddle into the race sooner than later: announcing early could undermine the various legal cases that threaten him and his business. There are too many investigations to track: the New York City district attorney examining Trump’s business shenanigans, the New York attorney general doing the same, the Georgia state election interference case, the pilfered classified document case, the Justice Department inspector general probe, fraudulent electors, whatever else Merrick Garland’s Justice Department might be doing, possible witness tampering, and more. Should Trump be an officially declared candidate, the thinking goes, he would be better positioned to characterize these serious probes as mere political attacks.

 

Whenever Trump huffs his way into the GOP 2024 bake-off—before or after the midterms—it will be a problem for the Rs. Not just for the obvious reason that he remains an unpopular and divisive political figure for much of the electorate. Even though many Republicans have been saying that Trump and the party must move beyond the 2020 election and Trump’s Big Lie, Trump won’t let that happen. In Trump world there’s a way for him to turn this obsession into a political advantage.

 

Over the past 18 months, Trump has created a loyalty oath for the GOP: To be a Republican in good standing requires you to support the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from him. As PolitiFact noted last month, polling consistently shows that 70 percent of GOP voters do not believe Biden was the legitimate winner. Should Trump be a contestant in the 2024 nomination battle, he will demand that his rivals—DeSantis or other serious contenders—state their positions on 2020. They will also be pressed to address the matter by reporters.

 

It’s hard to envision any Republican candidate adopting a sane stance on this question and remaining competitive in a GOP primary election. Look at the recent GOP gubernatorial contests in Pennsylvania and Maryland. In the Keystone State, Republican voters picked state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a QAnonish 2020 election denier who participated in the January 6 riot at the Capitol. In Maryland, this past week, they anointed state Del. Don Cox, another election denier who pushed conspiracy theories, organized buses for January 6, and that day tweeted, “Mike Pence is a traitor.” Cox soundly defeated a well-regarded mainstream Republican, state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, who was supported by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the rare moderate anti-Trump elected Republicans. The polling and these two races show that the GOP base remains inextricably wed to Trump’s dangerous disinformation.

 

Thus, any 2024 GOP candidate who craves a fighting chance will have to bow before the altar of the Rigged Election. Some may try to concoct clever formulations that address these Republican voters’ misguided concerns about the 2020 election without going full Kraken. (Glenn Youngkin threaded the needle during his successful bid for governor in Virginia last year.) But in some fashion, they will have to go with the Trumpian flow. Once they do, Trump can spring the trap.

 

It's quite simple. Trump will argue something like this: How can you say the 2020 election was rigged or illegitimate and not support the effort to restore to the White House its rightful winner? Would you deny the party leader who was victimized by the evil Democratic schemers and unfairly forced from office the opportunity to undo this great crime? Certainly, a Trump challenger could pay obeisance to Trump and contend that the party would have a better chance with a candidate other than Trump (namely, himself or herself). But that would be a tough sell for a still-loving-Trump GOP electorate that believes it was swindled out of a second Trump term by a conspiracy of villainous Democrats, foreign forces, and the diabolical media. Trump will have an easy rhetorical retort: “Excuse me? You believe the election was stolen but you won’t help the guy it was stolen from get it back?”

 

Anything is possible in the bizarro world of Republican politics. But given that the party has become a cult of personality, my hunch is that accusing any rival of trying to take advantage of the great Democratic sin that tossed him out of office would become a powerful argument for Trump. It will require tremendous skill and much fancy footwork for DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, or any other Republican to accept the cult consensus about 2020 and maintain Trump should now be sidelined. It’s hard to see how they navigate this. Especially Mike Pence.

 

By dutifully following Trump into the land of the 2020 Lost Cause for the last two years, his fellow Republicans have given him the upper hand (no matter the size of his paws). He has defined 2020 as the fundamental issue for the GOP. How dare Republican candidates who agree that Trump and his tens of millions of supporters were wronged try to defeat him. That will be quite a two-step. When it comes to demagoguery, Trump knows the ropes. And a candidate who affirms Trump’s false reality to suck up to the party’s base will have a tough time justifying a challenge to Grand Old Martyr of the GOP. If you accept Trump’s lies, you’re playing his game, not yours. And for a Republican, that may be the only game in town.

 

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

American Psychosis Update and Tease

For those of you who missed the last newsletter, in that issue I announced the forthcoming publication of my new book, American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy, and described how I came to write the first history of the GOP’s 70-year-long relationship with far-right fanaticism. The bottom line: It didn’t start with Trump. For seven decades, the party has encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia, and I have plenty of receipts. In that issue, I also explained why it is so important for the book to rack up a lot of preorders now and asked for your assistance on that front. Our Land subscribers can preorder a signed (by me!) copy at a whopping 35 percent discount through Porchlight Books. Click HERE to take advantage of this special offer for American Psychosis.

 

The book tells the story of the dark side of the modern GOP—a history that the party and most of the media have long ignored or downplayed. Did you know that when Dwight David Eisenhower was running for president in 1952 as a moderate Republican, he wanted to attack Red-bating Sen. Joe McCarthy, whom he believed was a lying scoundrel and fearmonger? But top Republican Party officials told Ike that McCarthy’s wild and false claims of widespread commie infiltration throughout the US government were helping the GOP at the polls and that assailing McCarthyism would hurt Eisenhower’s chances to win the White House. Eisenhower caved and allowed McCarthy to define his party and dominate the nation’s political discourse. American Psychosis details that story and many others chronicling the long stretch of Republican exploitation of the worst elements of American life.

 

So please help launch the book with a DISCOUNTED preorder. Still not convinced? Here’s a blurb from Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind:

 

In this searing and deeply reported work, Corn recounts how the modern GOP succumbed to the extremism, alternative realities, and paranoia that spread the “American psychosis” that exploded on January 6. A desperately important read.

Our Land This Summer

The heat crisis striking much of the world is quite alarming. It’s truly a summer of worry, especially with the Dark Ages advancing in our own country. For the next four weeks, I will be traveling, heading toward the sea and its cool and soothing waters. Our Land will still be published, yet on an intermittent basis. But don’t worry. You’ll be hearing from me (and Moxie). After all, we have a book to flog!

Dumbass Comment of the Week

The gun fanatics and their GOP supporters will say just about anything to stop reasonable restrictions on mass-killing firearms—even during a summer marked by horrible mass shootings. Count on Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) to show how nothing will change their minds. At a hearing this week, he remarked, “I wonder about the focus on the firearm as an inanimate object. An inanimate object won't cause harm to anyone...What does matter is the person possessing that firearm.”

Cornyn was doing what he could to restore his cred with the NRA and the gun lobby after helping last month to usher through the Senate a bipartisan gun safety package. During that effort, he was booed at the Texas state GOP convention and faced opposition from the NRA, which previously had awarded him an A-plus rating. The legislation included several modest steps but did not fully address the issue of access to military-style weapons, and Cornyn has been scrambling to show he remains opposed to general restrictions on such weaponry. So, he came up with a sillier version of the old chestnut “Guns don’t kill, people kill.”

 

If the discussion were about illegal drugs, would Cornyn say, “An inanimate object won’t cause harm to anyone”? After all, heroin doesn’t kill; heroin users who overdose are the problem. No need to regulate uranium bullets or even nuclear weapons. They’re just inanimate objects. But we regulate cars, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, tobacco, and plenty of other products that can do harm—even though they’re inanimate. The question is not whether something is lifeless but whether it’s a risk to life.

 

If you want a runner-up this week, let’s turn to Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to Peter Navarro, Trump’s White House trade adviser. He recently was interviewed by the House January 6 committee because he had brought into the White House in December 2020 a group of far-right nutbags who tried to convince Trump to seize voting machines and nullify the election. After his deposition, Ziegler called the committee members “anti-white” Bolsheviks and used misogynistic slurs to describe his former White House associates.

In case you didn’t know, “thot” is an abbreviation for “that hoe over there.” Remember this crude clown worked in Trump’s White House. Not shocking at all.

The Mailbag

Many readers wrote to cheer the news about the forthcoming release of American Psychosis and noted they were helping its launch by preordering through the special deal offered to Our Land subscribers. Kris Weinschenker, for one, emailed, “Ok....you gave me enough of a deal, I bought it. Plus....it's a signed first edition😉.” Cyndy Nayer wrote, “Can’t wait to read it. Just ordered it. Wahooo!” Many thanks to all of you for the enthusiastic welcome for this book—and for boosting preorders so that Amazon and other booksellers noticed. As I explained in the last issue, the more preorders, the more those booksellers will promote the book when it is released on September 13. You can assist by ordering the book now, and the special discount (35 percent off for a signed copy!) is still available. By the way, several people emailed to ask if the book is available for Kindle. The answer: most certainly. Click HERE.

 

Readers also responded to my recent piece asking if Steve Bannon and Donald Trump believe the BS they dish out to their followers about the 2020 election and everything else.

 

Ken Cohen wrote:

 

The very definition of delusional thinking is promoting a fixed, incontrovertible belief system not anchored and not based on real evidence. The internet echo chamber allows for these ideas to take root and proliferate. Detached and distant from the mechanics of politics and complexity of governance, a vast population of impressionable Americans are easy pickings for manipulative, devious characters like Trump and Bannon, especially with internet access. 

 

The cold calculations of Bannon and Trump in choreographing a coup d'état well before the election even occurred suggests premeditation rather than immersion in a delusional system. No question Bannon fed and manipulated the delusional beast, but he is conducting that orchestra that includes Trump as the first seat violinist. Trump's psychopathic indifference and his very transparent narcissistic hunger makes him an easy character to direct. I believe that Bannon is the real threat and danger to our democracy. He can live in the shadows and be the puppet master. 

 

A reader who asked not to be identified shared this thought:

 

Projection by the Republican right wing has long appeared to be a persistent thing, the most obvious being vote-rigging; after that, pedophilia, ad infinitum. By the way, nowadays many educated, well-read boomers are so disgusted with what is perceived as the long-running unwillingness of the Democratic establishment to play hardball, they don't intend to vote.

 

Voters are often faced with lousy options, but right now the nation is endangered by authoritarians and far-right extremists. If people who recognize the threat posed by Trump and Bannon do not vote because they are dissatisfied with the response from Democrats, they will be aiding the forces of fundamentalism and autocracy. It’s that simple. If citizens do not fight back, we will be screwed.

 

Cheryll Willin emailed:

 

Hello David. I appreciate your work. Like good love, honest journalism is hard to find…to borrow from Tom Petty. Hit the mute button when it comes to Trump, do not add any oxygen to his name, movement, etc. Really! Let him slide back into the primordial ooze where he belongs. The January 6 committee will pull the truth out of the conspirators, enablers, toadies and place treasonous acts in a forum where they can be held accountable…to law, to the Constitution. 

 

Thanks, Cheryll. Any reference to Tom Petty is appreciated at Our Land. As for muting Trump, I beg to differ. As a persistent threat to democracy, he needs steady watching—not to amplify his lies and his messages of hate and authoritarianism but to remind people of the ongoing danger. Eternal vigilance, it is said, is the price of liberty. (No, Thomas Jefferson did not say this.) That means vigilantly monitoring Trump, and somebody’s got to do it.

 

Carolyn Phillips wrote in on a different topic:

 

Carolyn Phillips here in southeast Mason County, Texas, during the extreme drought and heat wave. I follow your writings and appearances on TV, especially MSNBC. I also receive your newsletter. My concern: broken young men who commit mass shootings. Have you written or read anything with insight into the fatherless, angry boys who want to take revenge on the world with an automatic weapon? It seems to be the one common theme running through the many mass shootings. Why aren't men talking about this factor? Of course, the job of father is really hard for most men. When I lived in Austin in the 80s there was a show on Access TV (locally produced shows) called The Dad Show. It was designed to be very casual and very inclusive for fathers of both sexes. The set reminded me of the Charlie Rose round table gatherings for civic minded men to make themselves available to answer questions from anyone who wanted to approach a microphone and engage with a caring fatherly adult male. They discussed family problems, common legal matters and you name it. David, you know a bunch of smart men who could start a discussion about the importance of having a caring father or father figure in one's life. Women have tried but I don't think it's the same, not really. Maybe you could invite some good fathers to a round table discussion and open the subject to national attention.

 

Carolyn, I have not seen much about mass shooters and their relationships (or lack thereof) with their fathers. I do know that experts in the field do try to figure out what drives these shooters to commit massacres. I’ll keep my eye out for information on this.

 

Robert Coombs wanted to share a recommendation:

 

I have just finished re-reading Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral by President Jimmy Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, which was published in 2005. It deals with the separation of church and state, the lines between politics and rigid religious fundamentalism, the increasingly intertwined religious and political worlds, "moral values," women's rights, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, science and religion, environmental degradation, America's global image, fundamentalism, the melding of religion and politics and other pertinent, perplexing subjects of today's world. This remarkable book reminds us that these subjects are not new... The book, written in his traditional Christian faith, also reminds us how intelligent, compassionate, and inciteful this Baptist preacher has been and how far our American people have strayed from "adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

 

Kathy McMillan, a self-described “Canadian fan,” needed to vent:

 

The media and, more often than not, Morning Joe, keep claiming the progressives (or lefties as he calls them) are the most disruptive in getting things done. I think he’s totally wrong. The progressives have worked with Biden and probably made the party more palatable for the population with their ideas of paid pre-school, voter rights, etc. For me, it’s Joe Manchin, the arrogant self-serving senator who is filling his pockets from his corporate sponsors and flaunting his yacht around Washington, and his side-kick Kyrsten Sinema who have proved disruptive and have pulled the rug out from the party every time they want to get some issue taken care of—issues that are important to the population. They’ve got to rein him in. Let’s just hope democracy will survive.

 

The progressives early in the Biden administration did work hard to support his ambitious agenda. But then, none of them could figure out how to deal with the obstructionism from Manchin and Sinema. To much of the country, it looked as if the main problem in Washington was internal Democratic squabbling. The Ds messed up by failing to advance the simple message that the main obstacle was not Manchin and Sinema but the Republicans who refused to support paid family leave, lower prescription drug prices, universal pre-K, Medicare expansion for dental coverage, climate action, and other measures. They still have not conquered that challenge, though the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade has prompted some Democrats to work up a tougher message targeting the GOP—and, according to polls, it may be working.

MoxieCam™

“Is this some cheap trick to sell preorders of your new book, American Psychosis?”

“No, Moxie, not at all.”

“But our readers can get signed, discounted copies if they preorder now, right?”

“Yes, they can.”

“Do you remember what National Lampoon did? With that dog?”

“I do, Moxie.”

“Yeah, we all do.”

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

July 19, 2022: Announcing the forthcoming release of American Psychosis; Breitbart gets something right; The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and The Player (three decades later!); Simon Winchester’s The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology; and more.

 

July 16, 2022: Does Steve Bannon buy his own BS?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Catherine Glenn Foster, Lauren Boebert, and Dave Yost); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

 

July 12, 2022: It’s about sex; Iran-contra flashback: the day reality died; a dangerous state Supreme Court decision; and more.

July 9, 2022: Why did the Atlantic enable Mitt Romney’s dangerous both-sidesism?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Marjorie Taylor Greene, again); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

 

July 2, 2022: Mark Meadows: one helluva liar; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Ali Alexander); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

 

June 28, 2022: The lessons from the right’s 50-year-long crusade to limit the freedom of women; the end of Ozark; and more.

June 25, 2022: Hooray for the Trump Republicans who saved the nation—or not?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Clarence Thomas); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

 

June 21, 2022: Is Trump’s GOP getting even crazier?; George Carlin and the American Dream; Alexei Navalny’s nightmare; and more.

 

June 18, 2022: Is Elon Musk more dangerous than Peter Thiel?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Lauren Boebert, again); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.