Comments

What on earth is going on with Trump? — 77 Comments

1. Yes, Trump is an ill man. Let us all leave him as we should have done after the election while he gets better and let us turn towards DeSantis who seems our only sane hope.

2. not the best set of impulses, on one hand, on the other hand most of what he predicted has come true in spades, this was as much due to the collaboration of dead tree and digital media, and the possum wing of the gop, as due to the skill of the dems,

   they are relentless in trying to burn this country to the ground, and the possums are twiddling their thumbs, well when they aren’t giving away the store in central asia, or allowing china to steal a march from us,

3. How is Trump siding with Disney the fault of the media or the…”possum wing” (whatever that is), of the GOP? Is Trump ever responsible for his own failings?

4. It sounds as if DeSantis didn’t get his way with Disney and is still trying. How often have we heard (fill in blank) ”Well, Trump was right again.” And yeah, it seems squatters, once in your house, have the law on their side in FL.

   https://nypost.com/2023/04/18/trump-ron-desantis-getting-destroyed-in-feud-with-disney/

5. i was explaining the last two years, how much the dems have advanced,

   I disagree with this particular tacks, i’ll probably vote desantis in the primary, as has happened in the last three contests, when I didn’t vote for the front runner,

6. disney has tried to circumvent the rules, no one has challenged them in 50 years, in part because they had a reservoir of good will, but sadly they have become hydra, or some other dystopian concern,

7. One friend of mine pointed out that Trump has to have someone to fight with. He has a problem identifying who is the best person to fight with; sometimes it seems like he picks the easiest.

8. Trump will be 78 in 2024 and 82 in 2028. I’d be pleased if Melania and Ivanka could persuade him it was time to pass the baton.

9. This makes no sense, but it isn’t the first time a Trump attack wasn’t prudent, or sensible. In the Disney matter DeSantis has the high ground here with Conservatives and Republicans. And the law. It’s also beyond bizarre that Trump attacks DeSantis on how he (DeSantis) handled COVID.

   It’s no surprise, because this is Trump’s nature, but it is not helpful to the GOP that Trump is choosing to plow through the GOP bench before targeting the Dems.

   As a knock on DeSantis, I thought DeSantis’ recent statements about AB-Inbev and the boycott were ill advised. As the Governor of a state with a lot of products it seems petty to pick on a company that has done nor said nothing negative about the state of Florida, or Floridians.

10. It sounds as if DeSantis didn’t get his way with Disney and is still trying. How often have we heard (fill in blank) ”Well, Trump was right again.” And yeah, it seems squatters, once in your house, have the law on their side in FL.
    ==
    You’re not hearing very well.

    https://jonathanturley.org/2023/04/17/disneys-wild-ride-desantis-appointed-board-set-to-declare-disneys-unchecked-authority-null-and-void/

11. the post seems to operate with a defective babelfish some times,

12. you may get your wish with those ham sandwiches planted in dc atlanta and gotham

13. @ Art D: As stated “he (DeSantis) is still trying.” All Trump said is ‘make a deal’ or face losing a business many of your people rely on and do more than one thing at once and help folks evicted by squatters get justice.

14. Seems like T should run, get his 85M or whatever the number of voters is locked in, shut up about DeS, attack the mess the D’s have made of things by contrasting it to what he did while in office and while being constantly attached from all sides, and then gracefully bow out while handing all 85M over to DeS.

15. The linked article, and several others on RedState were all written by Bonchie, a staunch anti-Trump writer, so I would take the stories with a grain of salt.

    I’m curious if anyone has interviewed Trump why he thinks the Florida move to strip Disney from self-government is bad.

    I do know this, and the Bud Light controversy are being used by the media to prove conservatives’ hatred of the gay and transgender community. Since most of America appears to be more concerned with appearances than substance– it will no doubt be used in the next Presidential campaign to bash DeSantis, if he becomes the candidate.

    It may be simple politics, but since President Trump has significant real estate holdings in Florida and does understand real estate, even better than a reporter at Red State, I’d be interested to know if there is more than just the reflexive reasons given in the story.

    Bonchie: “If he (Trump) can’t stand firm against a company as blatantly woke as Disney, then that calls into question his resolve to face down any serious cultural challenge. If you aren’t even willing to face down Disney, you aren’t going to defeat the deep state.”

    Is this just politics, or is there more to this than that?

16. I dislike Trump’s approach recently, which has been to try to destroy DeSantis. That’s not constructive for the conservative movement; it’s deliberately destructive.

    An interesting theory, Neo. He clearly was very, very ill with COVID.

17. As stated “he (DeSantis) is still trying.”
    ==
    You’re not understanding the implication of Turley’s assessment of the situation.
    ==
    All Trump said is ‘make a deal’ or face losing a business many of your people rely on and do more than one thing at once and help folks evicted by squatters get justice.
    ==
    The state doesn’t need to ‘make a deal’. Disney doesn’t have a leg to stand on legally and their physical plant is a sunk cost.

18. It’s the vax.

19. Many (perhaps most, or all?) large Democrat run cities are turning into hellholes—dramatic increases in crimes, homelessness and spreading homeless encampments, used needles and filth scattered all over, open air drug use and defecating in the streets, these coupled with parallel efforts to defund and to denigrate the police, and official’s deliberate refusal to prosecute criminals—all inevitably leading to increasing violence, criminality, the spreading of unhealthy public health conditions, an increasing aura of fear and unease, and a general breakdown in public order.

    All of this causing increasing numbers of residents and, now, more recently, businesses to flee these areas for locations where public order is upheld and defended, businesses and people can feel and are secure, and can operate and live their lives without undue fear.

    Given these developments, and presuming they continue on their current path, I’m wondering if these Democrat controlled cities won’t ultimately become our very own American “no go areas,” places to avoid, spots on the map you make sure you travel around, “dead zones”—largely abandoned, order and resource starved wastelands, where anarchy and violence are routine; just the order of the day.

    They can lie to everyone around them and perhaps lie to themselves,* but these downward spirals–which these Democrat leaders have created—and the fate they lead to–should be very obvious to everyone, which makes me think that these conditions were very deliberately created.

    Why?

    * See https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/democrats-to-participate-in-ny-judiciary-committee-hearing/

20. It maybe that and it also maybe that to this day he is trying to do what he did in New York and elsewhere, be celebrated by both political parties.

    Problem is, from his own experience, one party is almost exclusively against him, the other political party has some major power players against him, and, most importantly, the real United States government, the bureaucracy, is strongly against him.

    I like DeSantis, he fights too, very successfully like Trump. Yet, there is this weird thing I feel about DeSantis.

    I think DeSantis will be allowed, as President, to give a sup to conservative views, maybe a lot, but ultimately, DeSantis will be like all the other modern day Republicans, yes, even Reagan, the real US government will march left no matter what.

    Trump threatened a lot of people and many of his issues was his own doing, even trying to supplicate the left with appointments like Wray.

    Yet, unlike DeSantis, I don’t feel the same capitulation to the hard march left. And, yes, I know black people, like my boss, who voted for Trump, twice.

21. DeSantis is the appropriate GOP candidate for 2024.

    Trump should produce a ghost-written account of his political adventures of the past few years. The book will top the best-seller lists for a very long time.

22. If times and affairs change, he is ruined if he does not change his course of action. But a man is not often found sufficiently circumspect to know how to accommodate himself to the change, both because he cannot deviate from what nature inclines him to do, and also because, having always prospered by acting in one way, he cannot be persuaded that it is well to leave it.

23. @ Niccolo. The consensus seems to be Trump should ‘change’. Curious to know how far left and on what topics? Also, would that pacify the rabid left without losing maga support?

24. @ Niccolo. The consensus seems to be Trump should ‘change’. Curious to know how far left and on what topics? Also, would that pacify the rabid left without losing maga support?
    ==
    Trump should realize how old he is. The complaints about Trump concern the uneven quality of his decision-making. He can be quite inspired and quite impetuous. He’s 76 and likely a finished product, so the problems that presents are not going away.

25. Jack:

    Perhaps you are making a joke.

    But if not, your contention is absurd. I have spent a great deal of time on this blog explaining what the vaccine is and isn’t, what it’s flaws are and aren’t, and why despite those flaws so many of the anti-vax contentions are wrong.

    But in terms of Trump himself, your contention is also obviously wrong because the change in him didn’t begin when he was vaccinated, it began right after he got COVID, which was long after he was vaccinated.

    But to anti-vaxxers, every death, every symptom, every change, is attributed to the COVID vaccine. What reductionism! It’s as though no one ever got sick or died before the COVID vaccine came along.

26. Trump should produce a ghost-written account of his political adventures of the past few years.
    ==
    Trump has earned an agreeable retirement. The question is, can a man of his drive adapt himself to such a state?

27. @ Art D. No need to discount Trump’s genes (dad was 94?). My questions to Niccolo stands.

28. Niccolo’s comment was from Machiavelli, for those not familiar with it.

29. Donald Trump’s primary concern is for the greater glory of Donald Trump. Everything else is instrumental.

    That more or less explains his behavior.

30. It’s not the vax, Trump has gone over to the Uniparty! :0 (sarc)

31. I am seeing multiple ads a day here by the Committee to Make America Great. All sliming Desantis for his votes on Social Security when he was in Congress. They’re nasty ads and very misleading.

    I don’t like that kind of tactic, but I’m sure whoever is running his campaign has assured him that all that stands in his way to another term is DeSantis. Knock him off and then he can concentrate on the Biden administration’s disastrous policies.

    If you look at the GOP primary field thus far, no one is polling above 5% except DeSantis. So, Trump feels he has to go after him, and his campaign advisers are willing to dig up any negative stuff they can to try to knock DeSantis out before he even gets in.

    I hate this kind of politics. It assumes that most voters aren’t very smart. But, IMO, that’s what this is.

32. I don’t share Neo’s somewhat charitable explanation that Trump’s bizarre behavior is a result of Covid, or Covid meds.

    I see it as Trump being Trump; amped up a bit because of recent history; but the same characteristics. It was fun–for awhile– when he was lashing out at Hillary, other Dems, and the media. Even that became cringe worthy as time went on.

    I am not qualified to say it is a psychological problem; but any observer can see that there is a personality defect.

    He has managed to alienate most who worked close to him; e.g. Pence, Barr, et al.

    I have to believe that none of those close to him, Melania and Ivanka for instance, have any influence at this point. Surely, they would counsel different behavior. Donld Jr on the other hand is becoming questionable himself based on recent statemnets.

    We are in a world of hurt when our most visible candidates for national leadership are Biden and Trump. Of course, there is always Newsom. Or, don’t be surprised if Fetterman enters the race. Just kidding. I think.

33. Or, don’t be surprised if Fetterman enters the race.

    I can see it now: Fetterman/Feinstein ’24!

34. “Or, don’t be surprised if Fetterman enters the race. Just kidding. I think.” — One thing is certain, there will (most likely) never be another Conservative in the White House.

35. I considered Trump’s age to be an issue in 2016. It’s damned sure an issue NOW.

36. I’m a little late to the festivities here, but I have this contribution to offer.

    Trump can have terrible judgment, He was stoopid enough to grant an interview with Bob Woodward, and (as I recall, but most specifics elude me right now) he unloaded some pretty damning things about himself and his record: for example, he told Woodward he knew as early as February 2020 that COVID-19 was extremely serious, ‘deadly’ as I recall, but he downplayed it. Why? It was an election year? He could have done himself a world of good by being candid and a true leader.

    The man is his own worst enemy. He is a gift to the left that keeps on giving. One unforced error after another. (I know, I know, if he did not commit unforced errors, the left would invent them. They do anyway.)

    He can have terrible judgment [I said that already]. He put it on display by talking to Woodward, and he puts it on display again by now going after DeSantis.

    He showed knucklehead pantywaist non-liberals/lefties that they need to fight back, and fight back seriously. It took a four year presidential term to do it, but he did it. Our side is slowly growing a spine. He’s no longer needed. He’s old and his judgment won’t be getting any better. Let’s move on, folks.

37. Apparently, Trump is not particularly opposed to wokeness, which is consistent with being a liberal on cultural issues. However, I find his tolerance of Disney’s and Bud Light’s moral depravity to be disturbing. Not that it should come as a surprise, a man controlled by their ego cannot learn from their mistakes.

    That said, I continue to be disturbed by DeSantis having accepted big money from prominent donors to woke causes.

    Trump is not a man of principle but of instincts, so inconsistency is to be expected. Whereas, DeSantis portrays himself to be one. So any inconsistency on his part calls that portrayal into question.

38. The radical right, headed by Trump, has lost the plot just as much as the radical left has.

    This is no news, we’ve seen this for years.

39. Trump’s track record since 2020 hasn’t been good. He didn’t quite make our side lose the Georgia run-off, but his actions sure didn’t help. His candidates in 2022 were a disaster. The Dems having perfected the art of absentee ballot harvesting and the media cheerleading for them, we cannot afford to keep making unforced errors like this. I’ve been gung ho for Trump all the way, but ultimately the cause needs to take priority over the personalities. Time for new blood.

40. Apropos of Pennsylvania’s gift to the Senate: Brandon won’t need to worry about a Fetterman primary challenge after all: “Fetterman’s first time leading a hearing in the Senate on Wednesday was met with concern among social media users, with many saying that the Pennsylvania Democrat’s obvious trouble reading his opening statement signals that he is unfit to serve. . . . ‘Good lord. This dude is not remotely well or able to do this job. Embarrassing for Pennsylvania,’ Outkick founder Clay Travis wrote in a tweet.”

    Audio of Fetterman’s remarks at the link: https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/john-fettermans-opening-committee-hearing-statement-raises-concern/

41. @JTW

    Ah yes, if it isn’t the abusive, gaslighting bigot and bully.

    The radical right, headed by Trump, has lost the plot just as much as the radical left has.

    This is no news, we’ve seen this for years.

    Firstly: I don’t think most people here who have paid attention to your truly dismal track record of comments here are going to be very trusting of what “the plot” is and who has lost it, considering how you have accused many of us of being genocidal towards transpeople (on the basis of bullshit argumentation that doesn’t hold up to critical analysis) and then accusing people like me of being thoughltess and hateful (ironically in part because we refuse to accept your accusations at face value).

    You have been treated quite civilly and compassionately here, as can be seen from the responses to your comments (that are not blatantly rude), as shown by things such as this.

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2022/07/02/doctors-trans-surgery-and-language/#comment-2631265

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/03/21/the-distinction-between-intersex-and-transgender/#comment-2672219

    You have rewarded that civility with relentless bad faith and guilt-tripping, as shown by things such as this.

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/04/17/missouri-puts-some-brakes-on-transitioning/#comment-2676199

    (And this is not the first time I’ve caught you doing this nonsense, it’s just when I lost my temper with it, I am still looking for the previous case I commented on).

    Your conduct by any objective standard has often verged into the grotesque and dishonorable, with you outright engaging in demonization and condemnation of the people on this blog and millions upon millions of others far more than we have. The fact that you have done so because of such gratuitously stupid and unethical reasons as the concept of medical gatekeeping for what even you admit is a fundamentally transformative (and I’d add unproven) surgery is the icing on the cake.

    You owe me an apology, but if that were the case alone I’d be able to walk it off. What’s more important is that you owe almost every single person on this blog that has interacted with you an apology, as well as our host. And you should either make it to us, or cease coming here.

    And no, I do not intend to drop this particular issue, and I encourage other commentators to not drop it either. You shouldn’t be able to turn your coat as you wish and on one hand exploit the good will and community of this blog by pretending to be just another occasionally vocal and temperamental regular, while on the other hand engaging in demonization, dehumanization, and psychological abuse of almost everybody else on this blog.

    And the fact that you seem to instinctively draw back to the most transparently egotistical and fallacious of justifications, the implicit idea that “It’s ok when you do it”, underlines why I am not going to forget and I am not going to forgive without due cause for such.

42. PA+Cat – Embarrassing for Pennsylvania, but also embarrasing for Mehmet Oz and Donald Trump.

43. Turtler–

    Have you read Brendan O’Neill’s April 17 post on trans intolerance? “What is it about the trans lobby that makes it so unforgiving of opposition? It strikes me that this is a new species of censorship. One underwritten less by ideological arrogance than by hyper-fragility. Less by a dogmatic conviction that we are right and everyone else is wrong than by a brittle fear of the impact dissent might have on one’s entire being. Trans activists fear words to an extraordinary degree. . . .
    The trans lobby’s hyper-fragility does not mean it is a weak, non-threatening movement. On the contrary, we are now witnessing the fury of the fragile. The more that identitarian movements come to believe that words and ideas cause them immeasurable harm, the more they will seek to shut down every wrongthinker and every witch. After all, if dissent kills, it follows that dissent itself must be killed. Liberty is the true victim when victim culture rules.”

    O’Neill makes the additional point that in contrast to women’s and racial minorities’ demands for equal treatment as adults competent to participate in civil society, “[t]he trans lobby could not be more different. This is an entirely self-infantilising movement. . . . Where the old warriors for equality were determined to prove their fitness for public life, the trans set seems hell-bent on doing the opposite.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/04/17/why-the-trans-movement-is-so-intolerant/

44. Trump is and always has been about himself, not about us. No one person is indispensable when it comes to preserving our liberties.

45. Bucky – Bingo. Trump’s path to power in 2016 was to cater to the right, which he did. Now the right, in the form of Ron DeSantis, the pro-life movement, etc., is an obstacle to Trump’s power, so he is attacking the right. (But he fights! – Yes he does.)

    FWIW, I’m still mildly surprised that the left didn’t try to coopt Trump when he was in office. If they had tried to actually work with him, I think Trump would have made a lot of “deals” that led to really progressive legislation passing with big bipartisan majorities of Democrats and MAGA Republicans. (Remember that Trump asked Chuck Schumer to speak at his inauguration – and does anyone really think that Trump would have passed up the opportunity to be the FDR of the 21st century?) Instead of working with him, the left tried to destroy him, which just drove him further into the arms of the right.

    I think the left believed that they would sweep into power in 2020 with huge majorities like they did in 2008. It looks like the left miscalculated, at least with respect to 2020. I believe they’re looking for a mulligan in 2024.

46. Interesting discussion. I have been registered as an independent for over a decade after I got disgusted with the GOP. I’m thinking now of changing back to GOP registration as Florida is a closed primary state and I think I want to vote in the primary this time around.

47. PA Cat, thanks for that O’Neill link. I had seen it, and had not bothered to read it.

48. no they stuffed the ballots to show how much contempt they have for us and our institutions, kemp and ducey did much the same except kemp made sure to pull the ripcord to protect himself,

    the dems want absolute power so they can destroy this country, take a look around they don’t care how many they murder in nursing homes, how many children they mutilate how many businesses are destroyed because they are absolutely evil, they deserve the grand guignol fantasy they conjured up on january 6th, and much more,

49. Trump did push for some cuts in discretionary spending under mulvaney, but ryan and mcconnell would not even consider it, they put us on this glide path to disaster,

    entitlement cuts are increasingly harder to allow, because the savings of millions through weakening stock market, negative equity, makes future survival less tenable, conversely, the increasing superfluous spending puts it at risk,

50. this is what passes for sane commentary, the kind of thing allowed under the restrict act

    https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-florida-higher-education-desantis-commentary-20230420-oy7spynztndnda4ziv3yt3ezhm-story.html

51. The radical right, headed by Trump, has lost the plot just as much as the radical left has.
    ==
    Trump was notable for (1) proposing to enforce the immigration laws, including the construction of a physical barrier; (2) a more combative disposition in trade negotiations; (3) a more Kissingerian / business-case approach to foreign affairs; and (4) a certain rapport with segments of the population the faculty, the upper tiers of the legal profession, corporate communications, corporate HR, and the Capitol Hill / K-Street nexus despise. That’s the ‘radical right’ in your mind.
    ==
    I’ve a shirt tail who installs windows for a living. I want him to build a new Overton window just where it was 40 years ago and toss you through it.

52. No need to discount Trump’s genes (dad was 94?).
    ==
    His father was gaga from about 1991 onward. That happens to people.
    ==
    Joseph Biden’s father lived to be 88 and his mother 92.

53. he’s batting about .300 isn’t he,

    the radical left is doing everything to dismember this country, but orange man scary,

54. Trump will be 47. DeSantis hasn’t a prayer. Biden? ? ? ? ? ?

55. “Donald Trump’s primary concern is for the greater glory of Donald Trump. Everything else is instrumental.”

    Nailed it.

    Throughout his career, Trump has always tried to be the center of everyone’s attention, all the time. He automatically lashes out at anyone who distracts attention away from him. If it wasn’t DeSantis it would be someone else.

56. Art Deco:

    I want him to build a new Overton window just where it was 40 years ago and toss you through it.

    Three cheers.

57. This is completely predictable, with or without the medical angle.

    It will turn out that Robert Iger called him up and told him that he (Trump) was an “incredible” president and that Iger modeled his career on Trump in New York. He had voted for Trump in 2020, but he couldn’t tell anyone because, you know, Hollywood. Then he told Trump how unfair it was for DeSantis to take on an agreement that had been in place for 40 years to ruin Disneyworld out of purely personal and political spite. If Disney’s Reedy Creek deal was so bad, why didn’t DeSantis worry about it during his first term? Trump completely agrees with Iger, saying that Iger had learned well from him (Trump), and that he (Trump) wasn’t surprised that the Disney board had brought him (Iger) back. He promises to take down DeSantis.

    Or even if that didn’t happen, Trump is in Trump Mode. He’ll denigrate DeSantis with outrageous and frankly stupid allegations, hoping to leave him in smoking wreckage in a ditch somewhere. 35% of the GOP primary voters will buy it and vote for Trump. DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Sununu, and a few players yet to be named will split the rest of the primary votes with no one getting more than 25%, and Trump will emerge with what he will call “the largest victory ever achieved on our history.” He will then lose the general election by historic margins in the Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee suburbs, and consequentially fail to carry GA, PA, MI, and WI.

    Happy days are here again. You can’t keep a good man down.

58. Kate on April 19, 2023 at 8:23 pm said:

    An interesting theory, Neo. He clearly was very, very ill with COVID.

    —————–

    With everything that gets immediately leaked about Trump, there’s no way the Democrats and media wouldn’t have gleefully reported that Trump was severely ill with covid in the immediate run-up to the election if there was any truth to that story (I believe some did speculate when he first got sent to the hospital, but the story had no legs). And there would have been plenty of potential leakers to be found between White House staff and Walter Reed staff…

59. I am also disturbed by the Trump ads I see trashing DeSantis. They will be recycled by Democrats if DeSantis is the candidate. It seems to me that Trump’s judgement was affected by 2020. Yes, the election was stolen but his team did not do a good job anticipating that. He was well served by his campaign managers in 2016, Manafort excepted but he was gone before he could steal any money. In 2020, Kushner largely ran the campaign and he hired a couple of “professionals” who spent all the money by September but did not ensure the vote counters. Trump wanted to open the economy after Memorial Day but Kushner and his “team” prevented that for fear of Media backlash. Scott Atlas’ book makes that clear. Trump is distracted by the Democrats’ “Lawfare” campaign. I’m not sure any Republican can win in 2024. Trump is not helping himself.

60. I have no opinion on whether Trump was mentally compromised during his bout with Covid or not. But I think Amadeus48’s scenario is fairly plausible. It’s no big secret that Trump is especially susceptible to flattery and dissembly by unscrupulous individuals who have their own agenda. His administration was plagued with such characters. They’d first flatter him. Trump would reward them with some sort of cabinet position or whatever and then they would betray him by leaking and undermining him in various ways.

61. He is childish, vindictive, petulant, dictatorial and shows all the signs of pre-dementia and he is also turning into a rotten human being. Still, the Forever Trump crowd already has their excuses lined up when he gets crushd next year by the most pathetic Democratic President ever. I was hoping Melania would give him an ultimatium.

62. “I have a theory about Trump which I don’t think I’ve yet aired.”

    You may have a point. Yes, Trump is a bit of a bastard. Unfortunately, that appears to be exactly what we need to get the pantywaist GOP to fight to save this country!

    And here’s a theory I have that I’ve never aired! During the Covid epidemic, Fauci and crew were deliberately trying to goad Trump into going against some of their recommendations, so they could pin everything on him! So much for their Hippocratic oaths!

    Fortunately he did the only thing a President could do and did what the experts told him to do. I saw Fauci asked to name a recommendation of his that Trump had not followed… he couldn’t do it, but looked like he was sucking on a lemon when he said so!

63. He was very sick, got the monoclonal antibodies, and recovered quickly. (That was my own plan. I didn’t get any boosters, because I knew the antibodies were available where I live.) Whether he was affected by the treatment, or whether his thinking was affected by the situation, I don’t know. He continued to push vaccinations post-presidency, and not just for the old.

64. occput:

    There was plenty of coverage about how sick Trump was. The left was also hoping he would die.

65. he put a lor of his capital behind operation warp speed, he wanted to push more inexpensive therapies, but well they looted ftx and svb in order to make sure those therapies were not widely available,

    brad parscale, was the one who was the strategist in 2016, and he was behind the ball in 2020

66. occput; Kate:

    A typical article of the sort I mean.

67. Interesting article from Forbes, Neo. I have lost so much confidence in the press that fairly objective questions like this are rarely treated fairly by anyone. All the single source, nameless leaking (which so often has been proven wrong later) has really taken out reporters from both sides.
    Does anyone think we are getting the straight story about Ukraine? Biden? Disney? Trump? Does Justice Brown Jackson really not know what a woman is? How about trying “an adult human female?” How could anyone support elevating her to the Supreme Court after that interchange?

68. The trans lobby’s hyper-fragility does not mean it is a weak, non-threatening movement. On the contrary, we are now witnessing the fury of the fragile.

    The trans cries out in pain as it strikes you.

69. Regarding Trump and how he managed the pandemic:

    DeSantis faced all the same “advice,” attacks and accusations. DeSantis looked at the same evidence and decided Florida should re-open, did not mandate masks and made sure in person schooling was available.

    He faced tremendous backlash. Several states, including New York and New Jersey, threatened to prohibit visitors from Florida and to restrict their own residents from returning if they visited Florida. The media flooded the zone with predictions of the deaths that would result from DeSantis’ policies.

    DeSantis did his own research with his own resources, especially the brilliant and courageous Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and went against what the Federal government, and Trump, and all other states were doing.

    Trump deserves tremendous credit for not declaring martial law and allowing the states to continue to operate freely, and he also deserves credit for his travel restrictions from foreign countries amidst tremendous press and political backlash, but as time wore on he grew less able to manage COVID policy.

70. Kate and mikeski–

    As bad as the trans crybullies are here, they’re even worse in Trudeaupia: Jonathan Kay posted an article about a Canadian lawyer and “activist” named Adrienne Smith, who stated openly, “I’m past the point of seeking a respectful debate”– the article describes the fate that befell a Canadian white-collar worker in British Columbia’s Office of the Ombudsperson who asked questions during a DEI “training” session.

    According to Kay, “Smith described life in Canada as treacherous for trans people, due to what was described as an omnipresent threat of misgendering, harassment, and even lethal transphobic violence. This point was dramatized by mention of the ‘hundreds’ of trans people whom Smith described as being killed every year (this presumably being a reference to globally aggregated statistics, since no trans person is known to have been killed in Canada since 2019).”

    The article goes on at length to describe Smith’s brutal treatment of the questioner (named Nick, presumably a person-assigned-male-at-birth) and the equally ugly aftermath. It’s a long article, but revealing in its details about just how bad things are north of the border. Turtler might want to skip it if he needs to watch his blood pressure; I know it didn’t do mine any good.

    https://quillette.com/2023/04/13/a-public-servant-stood-up-for-sex-based-rights-at-a-gender-workshop-and-paid-the-price/

71. Trump’s disappointing performance in the debates could have been a result of COVID, but it could also be that he was stuck in his ways and wasn’t willing to listen to advice.

    In 2016 there was a gap in US politics — issues politicians weren’t talking about. Trump saw the gap and walked through it. I’m not sure the gap is still there, but in any case, Trump become an issue himself and the things he’s doing now don’t do anything to take the spotlight off himself. I’d gladly vote for a focused, mature, responsible Donald Trump, but I don’t think that guy is going to show up.

    DeSantis’s has been a good governor and his state is in good condition. He can make a name for himself with the cultural issues, and that doesn’t involve unnecessary meddling with a state that is working better than the rest of the country. But he risks being typecast as one of the many politicians who focus on cultural issues and ignore economic problems. That would be unfair, but the fear with DeSantis is that he won’t challenge the Establishment on economic matters.

72. Good points R.T. Friday.
    I have no quarrel with how Trump dealt with the Pandemic. I am not qualified to say what he could have done differently; and, of course, living in California I have the option of comparing his actions to those of Newsom.

    On the other hand, DeSantis never wavered in his decisions on the pandemic or anything else of importance. I honestly believe that Trump is going to be “fighting above his weight” if he takes on Desantis. DeSantis is at least as smart as Trump; at least as tough; and infinitely more disciplined. And he does his homework.

    Anyone who writes off DeSantis because he may, or may not, have accepted political donations early in his career from people they don’t approve of, needs to refocus on the crucial issues we face.

73. he had to compete with a sociopathic media (wallace was the designate) and political class, that denied that the antifa terrorism, that insisted any number of insane things were reasonable, like getting rid of fossil fuels, that the corruption of this scranton usher clan wasn’t happening,

74. PA Cat:

    I seem to recall doing some research about those murders of trans people. They are virtually all male-to-female trans people, many of whom were killed for reasons having nothing to do with being trans, including being killed by their significant others. The majority of the rest were prostitutes who were trying to pass themselves off as women.

    Also see this.

75. Lets just say you are Donald Trump, and despite an unbelievable amount of shit thrown your way, and countless obstacles, you’ve still somehow managed to win a second term as President.

    You’ve got just four more years, so what–out of “a sea of troubles,” out of the immense number of very serious problems the U.S. and it’s people face—do you decide to tackle and try to fix.

    Reversing/canceling virtually all of the Executive Orders and changes in policy put into place by the Biden Administration would seem to be the tasks of your first few days in office.

    Then, given the history of your first term, finding subordinates who wouldn’t betray you and who are extremely effective would seem to be high on your list of priorities (and should have been lined up before you even entered your second term).

    But, then, given these things being done, on what do you spend your limited supply of political capital (which usually decreases in value as you work through your term of office)?

    Domestically, and looking for the biggest bang for the buck, and the most beneficial and lasting effect–fixing the Border would seem to be one immediate and essential fix (but, then, do you also go on to embark on a program–as promised–of mass deportations of illegals?), as would trying to stop the importation and distribution of Fentanyl, but then what?

    Do you try to disestablish and then reconstitute the FBI, DOJ, CIA and other corrupt alphabet agencies? How about the State Department?

    Do you take various immediate steps to try to reestablish law and order on a national scale?

    Do you try to work to rein in the Federal Reserve, somehow get Congress to cut spending, pass balanced budgets, and pay off a large chunk of the Federal Debt?

    Do you try to downsize, purge and reform the Civil Service, and reform and purge, as well, our military of leftist influences?

    Do you try to eliminate the Department of Education and the EPA, and what mechanisms can you put into place to purge the Academy of leftist influence?

    How about strengthening the 1st and 2nd Amendments and reforming the ATF?

    Do you want to establish a national industrial policy?

    How about your response to the potential threat of AI?

    Reform Social Security and Medicare so they won’t go bankrupt in the next few years?

    Or, do you expend energy and time going after those enemies who have obviously committed crimes?

    How about corrupt federal judges, what do you do or not do about them?

    Then, in the area of foreign affairs, what do you try to accomplish?

    How do you deal with the UN, with Russia, China, with North Korea, with various NGOs like WHO, with the war in the Ukraine and conflicts elsewhere in the world, with Canada, Mexico, France, and the UK?

76. I think its as simple as Trump recognizing that tilting at culture war windmills is a no-win scenario. And I can’t say I disagree with him. We all hate this #WOKE BS, but DeSantis isn’t “fixing” anything, he’s just having a public fight with Disney. A company, BTW, that is busy committing suicide by #WOKE all on their own.

77. And for Neo and PA Cat, yeah, the “epidemic” of “trans violence” is purely imaginary. Ace had a post in the last month, I think, linking to another article about it. The numbers are so vanishingly small that the activists are literally able to catalog every single murder of a trans person, none of which have anything to do with them being trans.

    The numbers are microscopic. So small, in fact, that the only actual conclusion you can reach is that it is, in fact, SAFER to be trans than not. The murder rate of the general public is higher than for the trans community.

    The entire topic is INSANE

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