Trump demands that you vote against your own interests
Brady Leonard
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Former President Donald Trump speaks often of loyalty. He accuses his critics on the Right of being disloyal, as if the presidency was his birthright since he managed to best Hillary Clinton in 2016. Loyalty goes both ways, however, and the 45th president appears to be unwilling to display loyalty either personally or in terms of the promises he has repeatedly made to supporters.
In an effort to smear Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the man the former president clearly believes is his greatest primary threat, Trump has pivoted hard to the left and is spending much of his time, and the time of his paid campaign staff, criticizing the governor for enacting wildly popular policies that were once championed by the GOP base and Trump himself.
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For example, DeSantis has made it a priority to punish Disney after the company made the decision to throw its weight behind an effort to stop the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prevented schools from teaching about gender identity and alternative sexual lifestyles to children in the third grade or younger. Team Trump threw its support behind Disney in an effort to discredit DeSantis.
“DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney. His original P.R. plan fizzled, so now he’s going back with a new one in order to save face. Disney’s next move will be the announcement that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the Governor — In fact, they could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch! That would be a killer. In the meantime, this is all so unnecessary, a political STUNT! Ron should work on the squatter MESS,” the former president wrote.
Trump is also attempting to rewrite the history of the COVID-19 lockdowns. The former president has accused DeSantis of tyranny when it was Trump who failed to fire Anthony Fauci and attacked DeSantis and Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) for reopening their state economies. Trump is demanding that his supporters believe him, not their lyin’ eyes, and forget that it was Florida under the leadership of DeSantis that led the way in the fight to return to pre-pandemic sanity.
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After Republicans were wiped out in the 2022 midterm elections, the pro-life movement became another target of Trump’s ire. “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms. It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Woke capital, COVID-19 tyranny, and abortion are all topics that matter deeply to Republican primary voters, and Trump is asking his supporters to abandon their convictions and back him against a man, DeSantis, who has been correct on all of these subjects. The Florida governor refused to go along with Faucism, signed a six-week abortion ban, and is taking Disney to task. Trump remains personally popular with the base, but he has resorted to leftist corporate media talking points in his attacks on DeSantis. Politics is transactional, and Trump is no longer offering the correct policies on the issues that matter.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and the host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.