by Victor Davis Hanson
Former President Donald Trump has signaled he will announce his presidential intentions after the November midterm elections. Yet his record of endorsements is quite mixed. By the sheer numbers of winning primary candidates his stamp of approval is impressive, but in a few of the most important races, not so much.
The disaster that is the Biden Administration has been a godsend for Trump. Had President Joe Biden simply plagiarized the successful Trump agenda, there would have followed no border disaster, no energy crisis, no hyperinflation, and no disastrous flight from Afghanistan.
Had Biden followed through on his “unity” rhetoric, he could have lorded over Trump’s successful record as his own, while contrasting his Uncle-Joe ecumenicalism with supposed Trump’s polarization.
Of course, serious people knew from the start that was utterly impossible. A cognitively challenged Biden was a captive of ideologues. Thus, he was bound to pursue an extremist agenda that could only end as it now has — in disaster and record low polls.
Still, how ironic that the Biden catastrophe revived a Trump candidacy. Biden likely will cause the Democrats to lose Congress. His pick of a dismal Kamala Harris as vice president has likely ensured, for now, fewer viable Democratic presidential candidates in 2024.
So, will Trump run?
Some logic might dictate that Trump not try a second campaign. He would be 79. The recent record of doddering septuagenarian and octogenarian politicians — Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein — has warned Americans that one’s late 70s certainly are not, as the Baby Boomer generation may try to hype, the “new 50s.”
In addition, Trump’s old and new business ventures would take further and greater hits.
His family would again be targeted and unfairly maligned.
An otherwise nihilist progressive and media agenda would reawaken solely to destroy Trump — not his policies against which the Left has offered nothing of substance.
The Trump MAGA legacy is now largely institutionalized.
All Republican candidates will run on secure borders, energy independence, deregulation, Jacksonian foreign policy, a populist, middle-class, nationalism, and deterrence against China — albeit with much-needed new emphasis on destructive deficit spending.
Candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, (R-Ark.,) are all close with or have worked for Trump and would, more or less, carry though the Trump agenda.
The Trump record itself between 2017 and 2021 would be assessed more positively, especially in comparison to what preceded and followed it, and with Trump in retirement.
On the other hand, in 2016 the Republican field was also hailed as a dream team. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was acclaimed as the hands-on pro who ran a purple state, battling successfully public-employee unions and left-wing monied special interests.
We know how that field ended.
Trump supporters would counter that a wiser Trump would hit the ground running. He would likely not recruit disloyal outliers or Republican Party apparatchiks.
Much less would he trust the ossified hierarchy of the FBI, CIA, DIA, CDC, NIH, or any of the other alphabetic, deep-state soups.
The Trump base would add that a non-Trump Trump candidate would never endure, much less brawl against, left-wing madness. They would claim that avoiding cul-de-sac spats while doubling down on the Trump agenda sounds nice — in the fashion that, theoretically, there could be sunshine without the sun.
In the end, none of the above considerations will likely matter.
Instead, the outcome of the midterms will tell a lot. A clear but not overwhelming Republican win will likely discourage Trump and empower his critics.
But a historic blowout will spur Trump. In the end, even if most Republicans would prefer he not run, they will likely vote for him over the hard-left alternative.
As for the Democratic landscape, it will not be the case that Joe Biden may choose to run. He will not run because the decision will not be his.
Even if he manages to last another two years in office, Democratic grandees know his cognitive faculties are eroding rapidly. They read polls and know what his non compos mentis optics have done to their party.
These same interests are just as terrified of Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Those two believe that the Biden disaster was not due to his embrace of hard socialism, but to his insufficient embrace of socialism.
Given the poverty of alternatives, all sorts of names will arise, from Mike Bloomberg-like billionaires and Michelle Obama to most of those dismal 2020 primary retreads.
In the end, a Republican nominee can win who convincingly promises a secure border, a pathway to a balanced budget, energy independence, a crackdown on crime, and a strong, nonpolitical military with a commitment to missile defense.
And the nominee would have to do all that neither with gratuitous insults nor playing by wishy-washy Marquess of Queensberry rules against those whose toxic agendas here and abroad have created the present disaster.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Serious question:
Who cares?
Right. Cannot make my eyes read another word about Trump.
You missed nothing, Abigail.
Townhall are a bunch of ziotraitor jackals in sheep’s cloths.
“In the end, a Republican nominee can win who convincingly promises a secure border, a pathway to a balanced budget, energy independence, a crackdown on crime, and a strong, nonpolitical military with a commitment to missile defense.”
Note the key phrase, “convincingly promises.”
Notice, too, not a word about limited government in that platform he proposes.
Nope, just pedal to the medal big government, only with the Republicans giddily in control of the trillions being stolen and pissed away.
reee pub blick kun?…….
No. Never again with Donald Trump, done with him.
Doesn’t matter what puppet is in the white house obviously. I’d bet anything Trump and Biden are buddies.
Forget Trump.
Let’s try Mike Rowe. After all, it’s a dirty job.
Like it matters who anyway.
This article (I did not read to the conclusions) falsely assumes that Trump and the Republican party are working in support of the Constitution that has defined, until recently, what the USA is. In fact, neither Trump nor the Republican party have any care whatsoever about the viability of the Constitution and, therefore, about the viability of the USA as the Founding Fathers created it.
Trump gave us the Shit Shot.
Trump gave us Fauchi.
Unforgiveable sins.
Dump Trump 2024!
I give that statement a high five!
this will be the excuse for why Biden wins a second term
I prefer someone younger and sharper who doesn’t push experimental drugs on the population. I do think Trump was doing ok until he accepted advice about the beer virus. It’s tough, when people hit DC their common sense and decency seem to vanish. Maybe someone like Cruz or Rand Paul would be as ok as it’s going to get.
The Establishment (Democrats and GOPe) is going to cheat again, so what difference does it make?
MAGA is the answer but I’m not sure Trump is. Not sure about Republicans either.
He had his chance at the Jan 6 fedsurrection to start a third party if the GOPe betrayed him in Congress. Now he has nothing.
The uniparty will make sure that all we get is some cheese dick career politician
I can’t believe people still hang Trump Signs and flags. That bastard told everyone to get their death shots, and did nothing to revive American manufacturing. He is nothing but a different boss in a rotten system doomed for collapse. His owners are the Blackrock people and their merry little tribe of Larry Fink acolytes.
There is one good thing if Trump runs. The next voting fraud will be so obvious that no one will be able to deny it, and that will speed the destruction of our Criminal imperial state.
the forced shot is all joey obiden. Trump provided the option…Fauxi and obiden forced it down your throat…or more correctly in your arm…wanted or not.
If the choice is offered, its no choice at all. Select a preapproved option? Hows that been working for the last 50 years?
Ok, not reading pap from VDH anymore. He’s become an official of the so-called “right” wing of Clown-World.
And the ballot harvesting shall continue……
And anyone who will DEPORTING 40 million illegals and those inappropriately given legal immigration status. Adding a new application of birthright citizenship to only those born to parents legally in the US retroactively.