Trump needs good allies. Too bad he already alienated them all
Brady Leonard
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Most teenage boys learn a difficult but vital lesson growing up, typically on a street, in a hallway, or on a playground. If you talk, let’s call it “smack,” you will invariably get hit at some point down the line. It makes sense that some politicians go through life never having learned this sometimes-violent lesson firsthand.
Many of them, former President Donald Trump included, grew up extraordinarily wealthy and attended top-tier schools. Fist fights among children of the uber-rich are far less common than they are in, say, Toledo, Ohio, but the timeless principle “talk smack, get hit” does not just apply to testosterone-fueled children with underdeveloped prefrontal cortices; it very much applies to politics as well.
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If there is one thing we can all agree on, it is that the 45th president talks a lot of smack. He always has, and I don’t expect that trend to change as the former president approaches the age of 80. Sometimes The Donald talks about liberal cable news hosts and their “bloody face lifts,” and sometimes he insults and tries to ruin the career of the governor of the state that houses the 12 jurors who will be deciding whether he continues his outrageous super model-marrying, private jet-owning, golf-playing, well-done steak-eating fantasy lifestyle or dies penniless in a steel cage somewhere in Fulton County, Georgia. In fairness, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) has no pardon power in this case and cannot personally help Trump legally, but popular governors are nice allies to have when “smack” hits the fan.
Kemp pushed back on Trump’s most recent claim of the 2020 election in Georgia being stolen in a reminder that Trump is not the only hypercompetitive ego-driven knife fighter out there. It takes an alarming level of drive, money, and hubris to get yourself elected governor of a major state. Many Republican primary voters roll their eyes at presidential candidates such as Mike Pence and Chris Christie, but these former governors are successful, wealthy, ego-driven men who are undoubtedly salivating at the chance to land a good one on the former president. Governors, like mob bosses, don’t get to their positions without an ax to grind and a willingness to get their hands dirty.
Trump has a bigger issue than the political enemies he has made along the way: He is in desperate need of elite legal representation. The former president is facing 91 felony charges punishable by an astonishing 700 years in prison. Trump has a long history of firing, and not paying, lawyers, decisions that he almost certainly regrets now. Several of the lawyers involved with the failed attempt to uncover election interference in Georgia following the 2020 election have been indicted alongside the former president, a move that prosecutor Fani Willis hopes will compel one or more of them to flip on their former boss. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is struggling with personal legal bills after not being paid by Trump for his work in 2020. A 79-year-old with an alleged drinking problem and a laundry list of other personal issues would be a prime candidate to flip on a client who stiffed him.
Kemp would be a far stronger surrogate in a potential 2024 general election than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) would make a much stronger pitch to swing voters than deranged team Trump hangers-on such as Laura Loomer. But I doubt Reynolds would be inclined to lend a hand anytime soon. Trump needs to clean house and surround himself with top-tier lawyers and popular, powerful allies if he wants to stay out of prison and have any chance of victory in 2024.
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Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.