The absurdity of this week can’t be overstated. A senile President overseeing a feckless Attorney General ordering a raid on the house of a former President all while they scream about what a “threat to democracy” the mere existence of the former President is. If you’d written it as fiction your editor would’ve rejected it as too absurd to be true, but that seems to be the singularly appropriate way to describe so much of not only Donald Trump’s political career, but his life too. The question is: what does Trump do now? I have a suggestion.
I know the majority of speculation from the pundit class is the raid of Mar-A-Lago will only ensure Trump will run in 2024. Moreover, it will cause the former President to announce his candidacy before the midterms. I hope he doesn’t.
It’s not that I don’t want Donald Trump to run again in 2024, I don’t really care one way or the other about that. Not because I wouldn’t vote for him, but because what happens in 2022 is much more important.
The next election always takes priority, or at least should. If Donald Trump launches his 2024 campaign before the 2022 election it risks sucking the air out of what should be a good election for Republicans. And if Republicans don’t at least take the House this fall we’re screwed.
Honestly, the Senate should already be in Republican hands. Thanks to Trump and many of his vocal media boosters lack of focus on the ultimate prize in 2020, the Senate is evenly divided. Has they put their personal feelings aside, the GOP could have won one, if not both, of the Senate seats in Georgia’s run-off election. They didn’t do it and both lost to radical Democrats.
Would it have made a difference to not hear Georgians shouldn’t waste their time voting? We’ll never know, but it couldn’t have helped.
Currently, Donald Trump is getting a lot of credit for “picking winners” in Republican primaries. Many of those victories were tap-in putts, so obvious anyone could have predicted the winner. Others, and in no insignificant way, Trump’s endorsement was the difference-maker. But it means exactly nothing to help someone get a nomination if they go on to lose the general election.
Rather than worry about 2 years from now, Donald Trump should spend his time helping drag some of the candidates he endorsed over the finish line.
Polls don’t matter this early, but they are indicators of where things stand now. And where things stand in some of these states is not good. The Pennsylvania Senate race is not looking great. The Dr. Oz endorsement made little sense, aside from the celebrity aspect of it, and Oz has distanced himself from the former President since winning the nomination. None of that matters. Oz has to run his race and Trump should offer to help in any way whatsoever.
Same goes for Georgia. Herschel Walker is a legend in the state, but he’s not the greatest candidate in the world. Donald Trump needs to help his friend win, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but to make up for the last election.
Part of that “help” in Georgia needs to either be getting over whatever animosity he still holds for Governor Brian Kemp or at least keeping his mouth shut about it. Neither would be easy, but either is wildly important.
Any Republican would be better than every Democrat. That has to be the attitude, for the sake of the country. Egos need to be put in check; smacked down or ignored. If Donald Trump can’t put the party first, why should the party put him first the next cycle? If what he built isn’t about, or can’t be about, a set of core principles for the betterment of the country, what’s the point?
The Republican Party needs Trump as much as Trump needs the Republican Party. If the former President really wants to stick it in the eye of those people abusing the power of government to make his life hell, destroy the entire political movement stalking him by turning them out of power every chance he gets. That would be best revenge against Democrats anyone could deliver.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily nationally syndicated radio show, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.