Guess Who Came to Dinner
December 8, 2022
Trump candidates fared badly in the mid-terms and his announced run in 2024 for President received scant attention. No high-profile endorsements followed and the news cycle dwelled on speculation about the legal nooses that tighten around the ex-President’s “neck” in a number of jurisdictions. Worse, several Republicans threw their hats into the ring, including members of his cabinet and former Vice President Mike Pence. Polling support sags. But Donald Trump is the American political version of Vladimir Putin: Even though his latest forays were flops, he escalates and embarks on a “scorched earth” policy. In November, Trump hosted a white supremacist and an anti-Semite at Mar-A-Lago; he endorsed QAnon crazies; he pledged support for January 6 rioters, and on December 3 he called for the “termination” of the U.S. constitution. Some commentators believed these antics, plus this week’s election loss in Georgia of Trump’s Herschel Walker, portend the end of Trump. But that’s wishful thinking.
On November 22, Trump doubled down by inviting Kanye “Ye” West to Mar-A-Lago, a rapper who is married to a Kardashian and a self-professed anti-Semite. A day or so later, West made it all worse during an appearance on InfoWars, hosted by the unspeakable Alex Jones who remains on air despite losing lawsuits after broadcasting that the Sandy Hook massacre of small children and their teachers was a hoax. West told Jones that he admired Adolf Hitler because he had a lot of “redeeming qualities” then Tweeted out a swastika and was suspended from Twitter for a second time.
Trump’s other dinner companion was Nicholas Fuentes — a wacko, white supremacist and Holocaust denier who was kicked off YouTube for hate messaging. He identifies himself as an “incel” (involuntary celibate) which is a cult of males who are misogynistic and self-pitying and worse. In recent years, several “incels” have committed mass murders in California, Toronto, and elsewhere. Fuentes also describes himself as a Catholic “Integralist” (Catholics who believe in dictatorships), is friends with a former leader of a Neo-Nazi organization, and in 2017 attended the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville then in 2021 attended the Capitol Building attack in DC.
Days after this get-together, Trump “saturation bombed” America with a post on his Truth Social platform suggesting that the country’s constitutional infrastructure be destroyed because he lost the 2020 election. Wrote Trump: “So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION [his caps] in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections! UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!”
His intemperate outburst and twisted dinner party have only generated publicity. The public is used to Trump tantrums, and his followers saw the dinner differently. It was not about West or Fuentes, but their leader had set places at his table for anger, intolerance, grievance, and crazy. It was not a meal but an act of defiance which was also designed to distract from Trump’s electoral failures, to grab attention, and to enhance his status with his MAGA base. And Trump is immune from criticism because he is a master of jujitsu, as is Putin, and dismisses denunciations as injustices heaped on him and his MAGA followers by America’s evil elites and dark state.
As matters now stand, Trump cannot be dethroned. The dial didn’t move last week despite the scandals or the conviction of his company in New York for conspiracy, criminal tax fraud, and falsifying business records. That case rested on testimony by long-time executives, led by Trump’s Chief Financial Officer and guru Allen Weisselberg, who was hired decades ago by Trump’s late father. Trump threw him under the bus and claimed he had no knowledge of any illegality. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that even if Trump is finally put on trial or convicted of crimes, he will retain roughly 40 percent of his party’s support. And that’s all he needs. As the 2024 primaries loom, there will be multiple Republican candidates but they will be left to divide the remaining percentage, as happened in 2016. The MAGA ballast is why Trump crosses red lines with impunity and will continue to do so unless an alternative leader can navigate MAGA and can disgrace and replace him.
So what are Republicans to do? MAGA is the tail that wags the Republican dog and Trump controls candidacies and voting preferences. The Grand Old Party used to stand for law and order and to be a bulwark against Russia and Communism. Today, 25 per cent of “Republicans” support the January 6 insurrectionists and a growing number have joined the “Pro-Putin” branch of the party who are opposed to helping Ukraine defeat the Kremlin. “Not a penny more to Ukraine,” pledges MAGA’s poster girl Marjorie Greene Taylor.
“Republicans have a real dilemma, because they can’t win without the MAGA faction and are having a hard time winning with it,” said political scientist Gary Jacobson with the University of California-San Diego in a recent newspaper interview. There may be intra-party skirmishes but “never underestimate the motivating force of negative partisanship; you really have to hate Democrats and want your party in power to show up and vote for someone with [recently defeated Georgia Senate candidate] Herschel Walker’s character. But the vast majority of Georgia Republicans did.”
However, there’s some slippage in support. Most of Trump’s hand-picked candidates, including Walker, were rejected by the electorate in the mid-terms. More recently, prominent Jewish leaders who used to back him said his get-together with Kanye West and Fuentes was a “breaking point”, according to The Jerusalem Post. Finally, a few prominent Republicans speak out but are, unfortunately, out of power. Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said: “It’s pretty clear that he’s become a toxic force and that’s going to diminish his influence a lot.” And former Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said “people in my party have to decide: Do they want to keep giving oxygen to somebody who is trying to sell tickets to his own proprietary circus, or do they want to be a constitutional party that has a clear agenda.”
Unfortunately, most wimp out. They may criticize his constitution-bashing but not by name. Some admit Trump has gone too far but, when pressed, do not disavow support for him if he becomes the candidate. Said one “I will support whoever the Republican nominee is”. Another party member told a newspaper that “he says a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen.”
All of which means that it’s likely that President Joe Biden will have to run in 2024. He beat MAGA in 2020 and weathered the 2022 mid-terms despite fierce headwinds. He is also the polar opposite to Trump and is not angry, intolerant, resentful, or crazy which is obviously why seven million more Americans voted for him than voted for Trump in 2020. The problem is that Biden is too old, say polled voters, but they feel the same way about Trump.
And Biden is far from perfect, but is, stylistically speaking, Presidential material. He’s measured. He’s polite. He picks his spots. He compromises. He’s moderate. He’s not a needy, attention-seeker. He’s pulled together alliances to contain China and to fight Putin. He’s a de-escalator and, most importantly, he’s not Trump. When asked recently what he thought about Trump’s anti-Semitic and white supremacist dinner guests, he paused and politely said “you don’t want to know what I think” then boarded his vehicle.
Last 2 paras superb. America is so fortunate to have Biden. Perhaps, and just perhaps, the vile headbanger Trump got elected because Americans did not want Hilary Clinton?
Also remember the Ugly American's Dad did not join up to fight Hitler on some false health report.
I wish the media would stop obsessing about this man.
1) Donald J. Trump doesn't give a damn about this country.
2) Donald J. Trump doesn't give a damn about the Republican Party, either.
3) Donald J. Trump cares about one thing and one thing only, and that is Donald J. Trump.
4) If he burns down the country in order to gratify his colossal ego, he is perfectly fine with that.
5) The Republican Party leadership is feckless and cowardly, and will remain completely in thrall to him and his cultish supporters.
6) If you don't believe any of the above, just look at how long it took any "leaders" in the party to condemn him having a meal with an avowed Jew-hater and a Neo-Nazi. In many cases, we're STILL waiting for that condemnation.
7) MAGA nation is also perfectly fine if the nation is destroyed, so long as the end result is that "it" is in power at the end and the Democrats are not.
8) This country is in serious trouble, for all of the reasons listed above. We need two (or more) serious political parties which may differ on policies but who both ultimately want what is best for the country. We do not have that anymore, nor is there any sign of the situation improving (no one should bring up Governor DeSantis in Florida; he's just a more polished and smarter version of POTUS45).