1/ Trump cut off stimulus talks. It's almost as if he has a political death wish and will take down Republicans with him.
His campaign people are staring mutely at the screens of their phones, stunned and depressed.
Stepien was just on with the pollsters. Ooops. Blindsided.
2/ The desperation is growing in the campaign. They've watched the tracker. They see how badly they've bled out since the debate and his manic behavior since diagnosed.
The stunts aren't moving the numbers. Even the base is fading. Seniors fading. Noncollege whites fading.
3/ What happens next? Well, a lot of places are about to end rent and mortgage forebearance. The COVID bounce is coming.
There is no vaccine. There is no scalable therapy. (What Trump got at Walter Reed was bespoke and expensive.)
More pain is coming because he has failed.
4/ He has failed in every meaningful way and COVID will be his grim legacy. The Trump reality distortion field is cracked and broken; if he's *lucky* history will brutalize him as a clown, a joke, a man without the intelligence to govern either the nation or himself.
5/ The more likely course of history will paint him forever as corrupt, mentally ill, and a wannabe authoritarian without a single redeeming quality.
He will be seen as the first anti-American President, a man who reduced our nation at home and abroad.
6/ His elected enablers will lose, if not this cycle then next. Some will try to wash off Trumpism, but it's a combination of septic muck, stripper glitter, and authoritarian nationalism. "Donald Who?" will rise from their lips daily.
*They* were just being loyal to the party.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1/ It was two years ago today that Donald Trump incited and encouraged a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol.
It wasn't a tourist visit.
It wasn't a protest.
It was an attack at the root of our republic and democratic governance.
2/ He had help. Inside, the cadre of "men" like Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz et al were cheering the mob and efforts to undo the election.
On his agitprop channels from Fox to Bannon to OAN, the lie of a phony election fueled the apocalyptic fervor of his horde.
3/ It was only by the luck, providence and the unrivaled courage of the Capitol and Metro police that the mob was prevented from killing Members of Congress.
Mobs do what mobs do, and this mob was intent, violent, and ready for blood. Luck and courage aren't the worst things...
1/ A bit of faffing about on the anti-anti-Trump right at the moment. I know, I know you hate us with the fire of 1000 Suns, but you don't get to escape as easily as "I love Ron DeSantis! He's DREAMY!"
God, after 7 fucking years, don't you get it?
2/ In 2016 you said, "Never" and meant, "Do me harder, Daddy" once Trump won. Oh, you did the "I hate the tweets love the policy" bullshit but you know in your heart how false and reprehensible that was from the start.
You don't get to walk away from that.
3/ To quote the political philosopher Bane, "Your punishment must be more severe."
Here's how it plays out.
You can write a billion NRO columns saying DeSantis craps gold bullion and smells like summer rain, but the seething, hideous mass of the MAGA base is always there.
1/ Fam, we'll see if y'all are still here in the morrow, but I've got a flight to London tomorrow (a trip that just jumped up a notch) and I'm going to get some sleep.
Before I go, since it may be the last, I have five assertions for assertions for you.
2/
ITEM 1: Everything Trump Touches Dies is an inexorable and inevitable law of the universe. #ETTD
ITEM 2: America was always great. Imperfect but great and worth fighting for.
3/
ITEM 3: Diet Pepsi tastes like yak urine filtered through a Soviet-era diesel engine.
ITEM 4: Small teams of serious people do 99% of the work.
1/ For once, the shoe is on the other foot. Today, it's the GOP wailing and screeching about their failure of messaging. The GOP's message discipline was central to its success for decades.
You could wake candidates up out of a sound sleep and they'd rattle off the MOTD.
2/ They tested and polished and tweaked and worked it on hitting the right tone and messages. It's an art form.
It's also dead.
Trump killed it. Now, the persuasion doesn't matter, only the lib-pwning. They're bound and locked into profoundly stupid ideas like...
3/ election denial, January 6th defenses, and shouting about the catalog of imaginary demons. (Caravans! Antifa! Chynese fentanyl! Drag queen story hour cannibalism!)
They delivered those messages with volume and efficiency from a well-tuned machine.
The Florida GOP is the single best Republican party in the country, hands down. It has infinite money, a deep bench of consultants and operatives, and *wins.*
2/ It’s Alabama football vs the Middle Missouri Girls’ Preparatory Academy Field Hockey team.
The FL Dems? Tough love time: they can’t organize a two-car motorcade, I’ve got more money in my glove compartment, and their skilled operators could fit around a Waffle House table.
3/ And here’s the REAL tough love: they’re too fucking far to the left for a RED STATE. Florida is and has been and is become more of a red state by the day. The idea that DeSantis and Rubio “turned Florida red” is absurd, an almost hilariously bad take.
1/ So here it is. He's back, and people are finally realizing that no amount of "He's the Former Guy" wishcasting was going to work.
No amount of "He CAN'T run if he's under indictment" copium is changing the grim reality of our world now.
Will it be tonight at 8pm?
2/ Lucy, football. Or maybe he'll cry havoc and let slip to mooks of war. Nothing -- save a shark attack, a meteor strike, or a medical crisis was ever going to stop his return.
Already, the replay of 2016 is in full flood. The Good Republicans, that vanishing tribe...
3/ ...are convinced the GOP is ready to move one. Ready to leave Trump behind. Ready for Ron or Glenn or someone, ANYONE else but the gibbering umber golem.
It's only demonstrates how profoundly they misread the MAGA takeover then, and now.