If Donald Trump was going to run again, we assumed that the media would once again be the former president's largest pool of support, unwittingly, of course, with the nonstop negative coverage that would have only pushed more voters into his corner. Matt Taibbi noted that they're the "kingmakers of suck," arrogant, and more concerned with expounding on their moral superiority than covering the elections properly. Post-Russian collusion hoax, no one believes them, as evidenced by the appalling trust numbers the American public has given this industry over the past five or so years. That all ended last night.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence looking for—get this—classified materials he might have taken with him after his presidency. Oh, so this search was conducted because the National Archives pressured the FBI to get these supposed documents. The safe on the premises was opened, but nothing was found. Are they kidding with this line? Forget their Russian collusion antics that have ruined the credibility of this agency, their public relations arm has also caught the equivalent of long COVID regarding its talking points. It's abjectly unbelievable.
In 2017, they couldn't say if a left-wing shooter, who openly admitted his hatred of Republicans, had a hit list and staked out the field, which led to the attack on the GOP congressional baseball team, was an act of domestic terrorism. They also said it wasn't politically motivated at the time; they amended the report months later. The bureau also had the nerve to declare that the synagogue hostage crisis in Colleyville, Texas, wasn't influenced by anti-Semitism last winter.
The FBI is the Democratic Party's political hit squad whose origins can be traced back to when Eric Holder became attorney general. It accelerated rapidly under the Obama administration, and the same traitorous snakes remain. That was made clear in the Mar-a-Lago incursion, which ended the 2024 GOP primaries.
I was leaning toward Ron DeSantis. I would have been happy voting for either man, but it was a 51/49 split in favor of Ron until last night. The good news is that the debate about whether this would be a bloody duel between Trump and DeSantis is over. Before last night's events, I wouldn't be shocked if DeSantis had beaten Trump should both men run next year. Both can raise money, are base voter favorites, and have grand narratives around their respective campaigns.
Taibbi even noted how DeSantis knows the media's game regarding the increasing coverage and the rise of his national profile. It's the devil's candy since, as we noted before, the more the media says, "Vote for this guy," the more they're inclined to run in the opposite direction.
The Florida governor had the outsider line going in his favor, along with a booming state economy and owning the libs in Tallahassee and the media, but nothing beats being the victim of DOJ overreach. DeSantis also must win re-election this year, which is his top priority, so when it comes to managing time, the most valuable resource, he's at a disadvantage. Trump could declare days after the midterms and be off to the races.
Kurt Schlichter was on the Triggered podcast recently to talk about, among other things, his new book and, at the time, made good points about what Trump cannot do, namely remain obsessed about the 2020 election. As Kurt noted, you lost. It doesn't matter who betrayed whom; you were at the helm of the GOP and couldn't get it done. I don't want to hear anything else. We can't go back in time. We move forward by pushing the types of voter integrity laws that Georgia recently passed that caused the left to go apoplectic. There was a real chance that Trump would fall into this trap of 2020 election rants instead of telling us how he would fix the economy and undo the wreckage left by the Biden administration. That's all under the rug now. That's not even a top item. He, Trump, is viewed as the Democrats' public enemy number one. And now, the state has gone after him—you just cannot beat that campaign line. It's set to fill the war chests of the Trump machine many times over.
The Democrats' last gamble was to use the FBI, DOJ, and later the IRS to go after Americans to prevent them from running for office. It won't just be the presidency. It's not far-fetched now to think that any conservative running for federal office whom liberal America views as a threat to the gravy train will come under federal investigation. This raid was just the first shot, but a Trump presidency, or any presidency that doesn't have Biden in it—can stop that.
Maybe both Trump and DeSantis can do that. For now, I'm Team Trump in 2024. No question.