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Why Are Trump’s Online Lackeys Attacking Conservatives More Than Democrats?

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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We’re still in the early stages of the 2024 presidential election, yet battle lines — some of them rather confusing — are already being drawn and attack lines are being tested within the Republican Party. Almost all of the offensive has been launched by former President Donald Trump and the online activists among his supporters, creating a mostly one-sided, inside-the-tent melee that’s expanded to attack many conservatives who are called out for supposedly not being supportive enough of Trump.

The resulting Very Online™ spats launched by a subset of pro-Trump keyboard warriors are as confusing as they are unhelpful.

Trump, while leading in the extremely early and therefore rather unreliable 2024 presidential primary polls conducted so far, has not waited to begin slinging mud at his fellow Republicans — even those who haven’t announced their candidacy — in what is shaping up to be a retread of his 2016 strategy. 

Trump has already started by labeling the Florida governor (for whom Trump proudly voted) Ron “DeSanctimonious” (sometimes just “DeSanctus,” more recently). That nickname was born just after the midterm election last November when Trump released a lengthy statement attacking DeSantis that drew an outsized amount of criticism from Republicans and conservatives.

In addition to posts by the former president on Truth Social, Trump is relying on the digital activists among his supporters to advocate on his behalf and advance attacks on current and potential 2024 opponents, as well as any conservatives or Republicans who dare to speak kindly of those who might challenge Trump for the GOP’s nomination. Mostly, their ire has been directed at DeSantis and those who don’t echo Trump’s attacks on the governor. 

That, of course, means Trump and his supporters are burning daylight attacking one of the 2022 midterms’ biggest success stories, who turned the Sunshine State from purple to deep red and coasted to victory last November by nearly 20 points. 

It’s important to note that there are many past and current supporters of the former president who are willing to put in the work necessary to ensure Joe Biden is a one-term president, regardless of who the eventual Republican nominee is. They supported him in 2016, appreciated what he did to get America on the right track, voted for him in 2020, and will vote for him in 2024 if he’s the nominee. 

But they also believe the GOP should have a robust and rigorous primary to ensure the party puts forward the strongest candidate possible to trounce Biden or whoever Democrats run in 2024. For them, ensuring Biden and the Democrats’ agenda is stopped in January 2025 is the most important thing, whoever the Republican candidate is. 

But not all of Trump’s supporters agree, instead believing that 2024 is Trump’s “turn” and anyone who dares to question that — or even just wants to let the primary season play out — is a disloyal turncoat. Hence, their attacks on DeSantis and dozens of other dyed-in-the-wool conservatives who have only been fair to Trump and continue to defend him.

The attacks originate, largely, from a small group of Trump-backing Twitter folks, as Ben Kew at Townhall’s sister site RedState recently explained. But, as a review of their Twitter activity shows, this crew of pro-Trump tweeters spend almost all, if not the entirety of, their time attacking DeSantis and those who think he’s a successful leader. 

Conservatives such as Dana Loesch are attacked as “paid influencers” by Trump’s social media warriors, including Laura Loomer, for daring to defend conservatives (DeSantis included) against hyperbole and inaccurate spin from the mainstream media. You know, the kind of things conservatives do. In response to one series of attacks launched against her, Loesch rightly noted that Loomer and the pro-Trump keyboard warriors were similar to the House Democrats who called her a “traitor” in the past, making the pro-Trump attackers “no better.” She’s right. 

And that’s why the attacks from this subset of Trump’s online lackeys against strong conservatives — even those like Loesch who voted for Trump twice before and say they’ll vote for Trump again if he’s the nominee — are raising eyebrows: they’re becoming no better than the Democrats and their attacks with which conservatives are all too familiar.

Townhall’s own Kurt Schlichter has even been targeted by Trump’s online activists despite going to bat for Trump on more occasions than can be counted. Most recently, the good Colonel faced a barrage because he dared to call out Trumpworld’s whining about DeSantis responding to the former president’s attacks being somehow unfair. 

For pointing out that “it’s kind of whiny to complain about someone you ran your mouth about,” Schlichter was smeared as a “traitor,” which is quite the kneeslapper. 

Even though DeSantis condemned the Manhattan D.A.’s politically motivated prosecution of Trump, he apparently shouldn’t have said anything about Trump, specifically he shouldn’t have responded to Trump dubbing him “DeSanctimonious.” So, what gives? Vespa and Storm talked more about this on the latest episode of “Triggered,” which is worth a listen

Apparently, expecting consistent rules of engagement in a presidential primary is too much for Trump’s most-rapid online supporters to handle. Kurt has rightly noted that these folks have already made it clear they would never vote for DeSantis if he’s the Republican nominee, “so what’s he got to lose?”

It’s clear that the 2024 Republican presidential primary is going to be a lively one, and that’s a good thing. The eventual nominee should have to earn the nod by proving they have the best policies, tactics, and appeal to win the support of Republican voters across the country and go on to win in the general election. Not by cyberbullying them into supporting Trump, but by winning their confidence as he did in 2016.

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