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      Is rising Maga star Ron DeSantis the man to displace Trump in 2024?

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      Is rising Maga star Ron DeSantis the man to displace Trump in 2024? The Florida governor has beaten the former president in recent polls of activists and could offer a younger version of Trumpism without TrumpAs Donald Trump continues to prevaricate over a further run for the White House in 2024, another name has emerged as a possible candidate for the Republican party’s presidential nomination: Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.The rising star of the conservative Maga movement – named for Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan – has beaten the former president in several recent polls of party activists, some of whom appear to finally be growing weary of Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.Republican primaries offer look into future of Trumpism without TrumpRead moreAnd with Trump’s grip on Republicans taking hits, aided by scrutiny of his actions around the deadly 6 January 2021 riot when a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to keep him in power, some analysts say the time could be right for a younger, more appealing candidate to seize the baton.DeSantis, 43, appears to offer everything that the Maga base would want in a candidate, a high-profile yet irascible and media-hostile politician who embraces the ultra-conservative tenets of Trumpism, but without the baggage of Trump’s two impeachments and seven-million vote thumping in the 2020 election after a single term in office.While Trump, who left the White House in January 2021, berates his enemies real and perceived from his waterfront Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, DeSantis has been enhancing his governing credentials from the Florida governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.In recent weeks he has signed numerous “culture war” bills into law, including stripping Black voters of power by gerrymandering Florida’s congressional districts to favour Republicans; restricting how race and diversity are discussed and addressed in schools and businesses; and banning conversations of gender identity and sexual orientation in certain Florida classrooms with his “don’t say gay” law.DeSantis’s self-styled war on “wokeism” has also encompassed banning mathematics textbooks deemed to contain “prohibited topics” including critical race theory; attempting to ban medical care for transgender youths; and picking a fight with Disney over its opposition to his clampdown on LBGTQ+ rights.“He’s nicknamed Governor Grievance,” said Michael Binder, political science professor and director of the public opinion research laboratory at the University of North Florida (UNF), Jacksonville.“Even though he has an election [to remain Florida governor] coming up in a few months, and I’m sure he’s taking it seriously, the choices that he’s making, the issues he’s attending to and the actions he takes are really designed for 2024.“The types of issues that are being discussed, particularly a lot of these social issues, in all honesty are not what matters in the state of Florida, but it’s generating immediate attention. It’s getting him on Fox News, and he can play to that conservative base that maybe has a feeling of that kind of white grievance that maybe their general state in society is slipping.”The argument that DeSantis is focusing on topics more in alignment with his individual political ambitions than the good of the state he serves has traction with opponents.Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic state congressman who has criticised the governor over concerns ranging from banning mask mandates at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to vetoing $500m (£400m) from the Florida budget for a housing program for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, challenged DeSantis this week over his latest hobby horse, a threat to have child protective services investigate parents who take their children to drag shows.Even so, DeSantis remains favorite to comfortably win his re-election race in November, and use that as a likely springboard to seeking the 2024 nomination, regardless of whether Trump, who will be 78 by the time of the next election, runs again or not.While DeSantis won’t comment on the speculation, he has been fundraising in recent months in other states. In Colorado, Republican activists at last weekend’s Western Conservative Summit voted 71%-67% for DeSantis over Trump in a straw poll for their preferred candidate for 2024, his second successive win (participants could offer multiple responses).DeSantis also won a straw poll of Wisconsin Republicans last month with 38% to Trump’s 32%.“There is no real party standard-bearer at the moment, and DeSantis in many eyes is starting to define the post-Trump party,” veteran Republican operative Tyler Sandberg told Politico.“He fights more about policy and less on his Twitter account.”Trump, as expected, is not appreciating the prospect of being usurped by his former protege, whom he described in 2017 as “a brilliant young leader”. The two have clashed over their respective responses to the pandemic while Trump was in office, and Axios reported more disharmony, claiming that Trump had privately slammed DeSantis as a “dull personality” with no chance of beating him for the 2024 nomination.This week Trump sent out emails highlighting a Morning Consult poll that showed him still in command of the Republican party nationally with 53% support, although he dropped 3% and DeSantis rose by the same mark since the previous poll in March.Binder, the UNF professor, expects a crowded field chasing the Republican nomination, which could include former vice-president Mike Pence, Texas senator Ted Cruz, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley, previously South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations.“I’d venture you’d probably see closer to a dozen-plus candidates rather than just two-plus candidates, maybe even more,” he said.“Anybody that doesn’t show deference to Donald Trump is potentially on the enemy list of Donald Trump no matter what your politics are [and] certainly it’s been clear for a while that DeSantis has had his eye on 2024.“Trump has been cool, if not outright cold towards DeSantis since a lot of that has become known. If and when Trump decides to get into the race, the interaction between those two candidates, and that relationship, will tell a great deal about how the entire election is going to play out.”TopicsRon DeSantisRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsDonald TrumpUS midterm elections 2022featuresReuse this content More

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      DeSantis beats Trump in conservative group straw poll for 2024 nomination

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      DeSantis beats Trump in conservative group straw poll for 2024 nominationDenver poll indicates Trump is losing grip on Republican party as DeSantis wins 71% of the vote to Trump’s 67% Conservative activists in Colorado have again placed Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a rising star in Republican circles, above former president Donald Trump in their preference for their party’s 2024 presidential nomination.DeSantis won 71% of the vote to the former president’s 67% in the straw poll, which was taken during the weekend’s Western Conservative Summit in Denver and means little in itself. Participants are allowed to offer multiple responses.But there is a growing perception that Trump is losing his previously impenetrable grip on the Republican party, having achieved mixed results in endorsements in recent primary elections ahead of November’s midterms.And a NBC analysis published on Sunday suggests Trump is mulling a third run at the White House which he is considering announcing imminently, in part to deter a growing field of likely other Republican candidates, some of whom might be sensing blood in the water.They are said to include former vice-president Mike Pence, the Texas senator Ted Cruz, the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor whom Trump chose as US ambassador to the United Nations.“I’ve laid out my case on why I think he should do it,” Trump adviser Jason Miller told NBC.“I think that … clarity about what his intentions are [is important] so he can start building that operation while it’s still fresh in people’s minds and they’re still active.”DeSantis, who has earned the admiration of conservatives for a range of Republican “culture war” legislation in Florida including restricting the rights of the LBGTQ+ community, Black voters and even Disney, has refused to rule out a run at the presidency, regardless of whether Trump runs again.The former congressman, favorite to win a second term as governor in November, has played down the speculation but has been fundraising in a number of other states, most recently South Carolina.“There are other candidates and politicians that people like ideologically here, but none have the excitement that DeSantis does,” Republican activist Wesley Donehue told Politico. “DeSantis has almost transcended politics to become a celebrity.”Critics, however, have accused him of focusing on “nonexistent issues” at the expense of problems facing his state.The Colorado poll almost exactly mirrors last year’s result, when DeSantis beat Trump 74%-71%. This year’s distant third place choice, Cruz, drew only 28%.And DeSantis also won a May straw poll of Wisconsin Republicans with 38% to Trump’s 32%. No other candidate reached double figures in that poll.DeSantis’s rise to prominence, and his position as a possible rival, has sometimes irked Trump, who takes credit for elevating his one-time protege from an also-ran in the 2018 Florida governor’s race to victor.In January, the New York Times highlighted disagreements over Covid-19 policy as a source of friction between the two, although Trump’s oldest son Eric later denied the report.Axios, meanwhile, reported more disharmony, claiming that Trump had privately slammed DeSantis as a “dull personality” with no chance of beating him for the 2024 nomination.TopicsUS elections 2024Donald TrumpRon DeSantisUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump says Clinton lawyer acquittal fuels 2024 election ambitions

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      Trump says Clinton lawyer acquittal fuels 2024 election ambitionsEx-president reacts to acquittal of Michael Sussmann on charge of lying to FBI about possible Russia link Donald Trump will “fight even harder” on the road to a possible White House run in 2024 because of the acquittal of a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign on a charge of lying to the FBI.Republican party building an ‘army’ to overturn election results – reportRead more“If anything, it makes me want to fight even harder,” the former president told Fox News Digital. “If we don’t win, our country is ruined. We have bad borders, bad elections and a court system not functioning properly.”Trump beat Clinton in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020, a defeat he refuses to accept, claiming it was caused by electoral fraud.That lie inspired the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, by supporters Trump told to “fight like hell”. A bipartisan Senate report linked seven deaths to the riot. More than 800 people have been charged, some – members of a far-right militia – with seditious conspiracy. A House select committee will soon hold public hearings.Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted, leaving him free to run for office. In legal jeopardy over his attempt to overturn the election and his business affairs, he has said he will decide on a run after midterm elections this year.The strength of Trump’s hold on the Republican party has come under question after primary defeats for candidates he endorsed. But he remains popular with the party base. Democrats and other observers have raised the alarm about Trump loyalists moving to take over crucial elections posts in swing states.The Clinton lawyer, Michael Sussmann, was charged with lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Trump and links to Russia. He was acquitted on Tuesday.The case was the first test of the special counsel John Durham since his appointment three years ago to search for misconduct in the investigation into Russia and Trump. Trump supporters have looked to Durham to expose what they say was FBI wrongdoing.The trial focused on whether Sussmann, a cybersecurity attorney and former federal prosecutor, concealed from the FBI that he was representing Clinton’s campaign when he presented data he said showed a possible backchannel between the Russia-based Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.The FBI determined that there was no suspicious contact.The bureau’s then general counsel, James Baker, testified that he was “100% confident” Sussmann told him he was not representing any client. Prosecutors said Sussmann was actually acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another entity.Sussmann’s lawyers denied that he lied and said that even if he made a false statement it was irrelevant since the FBI was already investigating Russia and Trump.Trump claims a vast conspiracy. Speaking to Fox News Digital, he said: “They spied on my campaign. They got caught. If a Republican would have done that, and the obvious steps forward, it would be a virtual death penalty.”He also said: “This was totally illegal. What they did was treason, and it also put our country in a lot of danger with Russia.”Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Trump and Russia, did not find evidence of direct collusion. He did lay out extensive evidence of contacts between Trump aides and Moscow, and he indicted or received guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies, and detailed 11 incidences of possible obstruction of justice by Trump or his campaign.Trump asked: “Where do you get your reputation back?”TopicsDonald TrumpUS elections 2024US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican party building an ‘army’ to overturn election results – report

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      Republican party building an ‘army’ to overturn election results – reportAlleged scheme include installing volunteers as poll workers and getting attorneys who could intervene to block votes, Politico says The Republican party is building a grassroots “army” to target and potentially overturn election results in Democratic precincts, the Politico website reported on Wednesday, citing video evidence.The alleged scheme includes installing party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, creating a website to put these workers in touch with local lawyers and establishing a network of district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts.Many Republicans still believe Donald Trump’s lie that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden because of widespread voter fraud. At state level the party has passed laws that make it harder to vote while pro-Trump candidates are running for positions that would give them control over future elections.Politico obtained a series of recordings of Republican meetings between the summer of 2021 and May this year.It said one from November shows Matthew Seifried, the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) election integrity director for Michigan, urging party activists in Wayne county to obtain official designations as poll workers.Seifried says: “Being a poll worker, you just have so many more rights and things you can do to stop something than [as] a poll challenger.”Some of the would-be poll workers complain that fraud was committed in 2020 and that the election was “corrupt”.At another training session last October, Seifried promises support for such workers: “It’s going to be an army. We’re going to have more lawyers than we’ve ever recruited, because let’s be honest, that’s where it’s going to be fought, right?”Politico also obtained Zoom tapings of Tim Griffin, legal counsel to the Amistad Project, a self-described election integrity group that Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani once portrayed as a “partner” in the Trump campaign’s legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Griffin is seen meeting with activists from multiple states and discussing plans for identifying friendly district attorneys who could stage interventions in local election disputes.He says during one meeting in September: “Remember, guys, we’re trying to build out a nationwide district attorney network. Your local district attorney, as we always say, is more powerful than your congressman.“They’re the ones that can seat a grand jury. They’re the ones that can start an investigation, issue subpoenas, make sure that records are retained, etc.”Politico added that installing party loyalists on the board of canvassers, which is responsible for certifying election results, also appears to be part of the Republican strategy.The revelations are sure to intensify concerns about fresh assaults on American democracy in 2022 and 2024.Nick Penniman, founder and chief executive of Issue One, an election watchdog group, told Politico: “This is completely unprecedented in the history of American elections – that a political party would be working at this granular level to put a network together. It looks like now the Trump forces are going directly after the legal system itself, and that should concern everyone.”The RNC insisted that it is simply trying to restore balance to election oversight in heavily Democratic cities such as Detroit. Gates McGavick, an RNC spokesperson, was quoted as saying: “Democrats have had a monopoly on poll watching for 40 years, and it speaks volumes that they’re terrified of an even playing field.“The RNC is focused on training volunteers to take part in the election process because polling shows that American voters want bipartisan poll-watching to ensure transparency and security at the ballot box.”TopicsRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsUS voting rightsnewsReuse this content More

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      Here’s the Deal review: Kellyanne Conway on Trump – with plenty of alternative facts

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      Here’s the Deal review: Kellyanne Conway on Trump – with plenty of alternative facts The former White House counselor’s memoir is tart, readable and thoroughly selective when it comes to inconvenient truthsKellyanne Conway joined Donald Trump’s orbit after Ted Cruz’s presidential bid collapsed and Paul Manafort wore out his welcome. The Trump White House was a snake pit. Like most Trump memoirs, Conway’s book revels in selective recall as well as settling scores. After all, this is the woman who coined the term “alternative facts”.A Sacred Oath review: Mark Esper on Trump, missiles for Mexico and more Read moreConway strafes Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff. Her disdain is unvarnished, her language tart. Her book? Readable.Conway labels Bannon a “leaking dirigible” and an “unpaternal, paternalistic bore of a boor”. She dings his aesthetics and questions his stability. Confronted with the possibility Bannon might receive a presidential pardon, Conway says, she told him Trump didn’t owe him anything.“You were a leaker,” she remembers saying. “You were terrible to [Trump] in the press … You were the only source for at least two books riddled with lies.”He got the pardon anyway.Some who feel Conway’s sting are very close to home. She sticks a knife in her own husband, George, for trashing Trump and embarrassing her. Between the two men, Conway posits that Trump was the one who remained loyal. She may wish to reconsider. Her book has kindled Trump’s wrath.“I may have been the first person Donald Trump trusted in his inner circle who told him that he had come up short this time,” Conway writes, about the 2020 defeat Trump has refused to admit. But Trump denies she said any such thing.“If she had I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer – she would have been wrong – could go back to her crazy husband,” he “truthed” on Thursday on his own ersatz Twitter, Truth Social.But Trump can’t say he wasn’t warned. The Devil’s Bargain, Joshua Green’s 2016 campaign exposé, captures Conway both badmouthing Trump’s chances and playing the sycophant.In 2019, Cliff Sims, once a junior White House staffer, framed things this way in his memoir, Team of Vipers: “Kellyanne stood in a class of own in terms of her machinations – I had to admire her sheer gall.”In Here’s the Deal, Kellyanne soft-pedals Green but is far less charitable to Sims. She rehashes his departure from the White House, dismisses him as a lightweight and gloats over Trump targeting him with a “brutal” takedown on Twitter.Left unsaid is that Sims played a significant role at the 2020 Republican convention, drafting speeches for two Trump children. And whatever his sins, he came to be re-embraced by senior Trump staff even after he challenged a Trump-induced non-disclosure agreement in court.On a matter of greater importance, Conway lauds Bob Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, the conservative mega-donors who invested in Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct psychographic profiling company which was linked to Bannon.Rebekah Mercer allegedly provided connective tissue for the January 6 insurrection, via Parler. Conway omits such details. Not surprisingly, she also ignores Bob Mercer’s tax woes. In 2021, with his business partners, Mercer reportedly entered into a $7bn settlement with the IRS.Like many in Trumpworld, Conway hits Facebook for its role in the 2020 election. But she omits the nexus between Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant and Cambridge Analytica, in 2016 and beyond. The two businesses shared more than a passing acquaintance.Cambridge Analytica illegally harvested personal data from Facebook. Conway takes Bannon to task for profiting from his investment in Cambridge Analytica but stays mum about the Mercers’ ownership.In 2016, the Cruz campaign spent more than $5.8m on Cambridge Analytica services. That same year, the unseen hand of the company put it sticky fingers on the scales of Brexit. This past week, the attorney general for the District of Columbia launched a lawsuit against Facebook in connection with the Cambridge Analytica data breach.Here’s the Deal also contains its fair share of semi-veiled ethnic reductionism. Conway writes of how she “made her bones” – a term with mafia origins – in Trump’s 2016 campaign. Elsewhere, she deploys “clever”, “shrewd” and “calculating” to describe Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who is Jewish. At the same time, she shares a desire to keep things “classy”.Some realities cut too close to the bone. Despite acknowledging Trump’s loss in 2020, Conway is silent on his infamous post-election call with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which he sought to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”The only thing missing was the president telling Raffensperger he was receiving an offer he couldn’t refuse. Unsurprisingly, Conway has few kind words for Biden. She recounts the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and rightly tags his administration for inflation. But she also blames the president for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and for Iran threatening nuclear breakout.This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for DemocratsRead moreHello, alternative facts. In February, Trump praised Vladimir Putin as smart and denigrated Nato. These days, Putin is under siege and Nato is the club to join. This somehow escapes Conway’s attention.As for Tehran, Axios reports that senior Israeli military officials now view Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal as having “brought Iran closer to a nuclear weapon and created a worse situation”. An attempt to placate Trump’s base had a cost.Conway remains in the arena. Here’s the Deal doubles as an audition for a campaign slot in 2024. In Trumpworld, few are ever permanently banished. Conway should ask Steve Bannon. He could tell her some things.
      Here’s the Deal is published in the US by Simon & Schuster
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      Shapiro: ‘Dangerous’ Republican rival Mastriano could override will of voters

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      Shapiro: ‘Dangerous’ Republican rival Mastriano could override will of votersDemocratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor says if Mastriano wins he could wield power to choose his own slate of electors and overturn presidential election results Josh Shapiro, who was nominated this week as the Democrats’ candidate for governor in the electorally critical state of Pennsylvania, has accused his Republican rival of intending to override the democratic will of voters and pick his own winners in future elections.Shapiro launched his attack on Doug Mastriano in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. He called Mastriano, a far-right state senator, “dangerous and divisive” and warned that were he to become Pennsylvania’s governor he could wield power to choose his own slate of presidential electors as a means of overturning the results of the 2024 presidential election.“Senator Mastriano has made it clear that he will appoint electors based on his belief system,” Shapiro said. “He is essentially saying, ‘Sure you can go vote, but I will pick the winner’. That’ is incredibly dangerous.”Republicans just nominated one of the most radical governor candidates in history | Judd LegumRead moreFears about the anti-democratic leanings of Mastriano have rippled across Pennsylvania and through the country since he won the Republican primary last week. Were he to go on to defeat Shapiro, the state’s current attorney general, in November he would have considerable powers at his disposal to support what would in effect be an insurrection.As governor, he would theoretically be able to refuse to certify the results of an election even though it had been conducted freely and fairly. He would also have the power to appoint Pennsylvania’s secretary of state – the position that controls all elections in the state.Donald Trump endorsed Mastriano for the governor nomination shortly before the primary. The move was seen as rewarding the candidate’s loyalty in backing the former president’s attempt to cling to power illegitimately in 2020 – as well as paving the ground for a possible similar attempt at insurrection in 2024.Mastriano was one of the most avid proponents of Trump’s “big lie” that electoral fraudsters stole the 2020 race against Joe Biden from him. He was present at the US Capitol on 6 January when Trump supporters and white supremacist extremists made their violent attempt to throw out the election results and keep Trump in office.“Senator Mastriano wants to take us to a divisive and dark place,” Shapiro told CNN. “He has openly talked about, if he were governor, with a stroke of a pen doing away with voting machines which had votes that he didn’t agree with.”Republican ‘big lie’ supporters triumph in sign of Trump’s enduring powerRead morePennsylvania has been a vital swing state in recent presidential elections. Trump won the commonwealth by 44,000 votes in 2016, but he lost it to Biden four years later by 82,000 votes.Mastriano is seen as being so extreme by Democratic strategists that the Shapiro campaign went to the lengths of running adverts during the primary that appeared to boost the Republican state senator – presumably on the principle that his far-right tendencies would make him easy to beat in November. The ad called Mastriano “one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters” and said if he won the Republican nomination “it’s a win for what Donald Trump stands for”.Shapiro was asked by CNN whether the move was an irresponsible attempt to help a candidate “because you think you can beat him”. The Democratic nominee denied the claim, saying he ran the ad as a way of getting an early start on the general election campaign.TopicsPennsylvaniaDemocratsRepublicansUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022US elections 2024newsReuse this content More

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      Texas attorney general says state bar suing him over bid to overturn 2020 election – as it happened

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      US politics liveUS politicsTexas attorney general says state bar suing him over bid to overturn 2020 election – as it happened
      Full story: Ken Paxton says state bar plans to sue him over election lies
      No-exception abortion laws gain traction across US
      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
      Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
       Updated 1h agoGloria OladipoFri 6 May 2022 16.22 EDTFirst published on Fri 6 May 2022 09.06 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyFrom More

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      Trump still won’t shut up. He’s doing Democrats running for office a huge favor | Robert Reich

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      Trump still won’t shut up. He’s doing Democrats running for office a huge favorRobert ReichTrump is framing the midterms as a referendum on his continuing influence over the Republican party – even as polls show most voters want him to go away The beginning of May before midterm elections marks the start of primary season and six months of fall campaigning. The conventional view this year is that Democrats will be clobbered in November. Why? Because midterms are usually referendums on a president’s performance, and Biden’s approval ratings are in the cellar.But the conventional view could be wrong because it doesn’t account for the Democrat’s secret sauce, which gives them a fighting chance of keeping one or both chambers: Trump.According to recent polls, Trump’s popularity continues to sink. He is liked by only 38% of Americans and disliked by 46%. (12% are neutral.) And this isn’t your normal “sort of like, sort of dislike” polling. Feelings are intense, as they’ve always been about Trump. Among voters 45 to 64 years old – a group Trump won in 2020, 50% to 49%, according to exit polls – just 39% now view him favorably and 57%, unfavorably. Among voters 65 and older (52% of whom voted for him in 2020 to Biden’s 47) only 44% now see him favorably and more than half (54%) unfavorably. Perhaps most importantly, independents hold him in even lower regard. Just 26% view him favorably; 68% unfavorably.‘JP, right?’ Donald Trump appears to forget name of candidate he endorsedRead moreRepublican lawmakers had hoped – and assumed – Trump would have faded from the scene by now, allowing them to engage in full-throttled attacks on Democrats in the lead-up to the midterms. No such luck. In fact, Trump’s visibility is growing daily.The media is framing this month’s big Republican primaries as all about Trump – which is exactly as Trump wants them framed. But this framing is disastrous for Republicans. The Republican Ohio primary, for example, became a giant proxy battle over who was the Trumpiest candidate. The candidates outdid each other trying to imitate him – railing against undocumented immigrants, coastal elites, “socialism”, and “wokeness”, all the while regurgitating the Big Lie that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election.Whether Trump’s endorsements pay off in wins for his chosen primary candidates is beside the point. By making these races all about him, Trump and the media are casting the midterms as a whole as a referendum on Trump’s continuing power and influence. This is exactly what the Democrats need.June’s televised hearings of the House January 6 committee will likely show in detail how Trump and his White House orchestrated the attack on the US Capitol, and rekindle memories of Trump’s threat to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Ukrainian president Zelensky came up with dirt on Biden. But the real significance of the hearings won’t show up in Trump’s approval ratings. It will be in the heightened reminders of Trump’s reign in Washington, as well as Trump’s closeness to Putin. The result is an almost certain shift in marginal voters’ preferences toward the Democrats in November.The leaked decision by the supreme court to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks and reverse Roe v Wade – courtesy of Trump’s three Court nominees – will green-light other Republican states to enact similar or even tighter bans, and spur Republicans in Congress to push for national legislation to bar abortions across the country. Republicans believe this will ignite their base, but it’s more likely to ignite a firestorm among the vast majority of Americans who believe abortion should be legal. Score more Democratic votes.There is also the possibility of criminal trials over Trump’s business and electoral frauds – such as his brazen attempt to change the Georgia vote tally – whose significance will be less about whether Trump is found guilty than additional reminders, in the months before the midterms, of Trump’s brazen lawlessness.Meanwhile, Trump will treat America to more rallies, interviews and barnstorming to convince voters the 2020 election was stolen from him, along with incessant demands that Republican candidates reiterate his Big Lie. More help to Democrats.Somewhere along the line, and also before the midterms, Elon Musk is likely to allow Trump back on Twitter. The move will be bad for America – fueling more racism, xenophobia and division. But it will serve as another memento of how dangerously incendiary Trump and Trumpism continue to be.Accompanying all of this will be the ongoing antics of Trump’s whacky surrogates – Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Steve Bannon, Madison Cawthorn, Trump Junior, et al – who mimic Trump’s bravado, bigotry, divisiveness, and disdain for the law. All are walking billboards for Trumpism’s heinous impact on American life. All will push wavering voters toward Democrats in November.I’m not suggesting Democrats seeking election or re-election center their campaigns around Trump. To the contrary, Democrats need to show voters their continuing commitment to improving voters’ lives. Between now and November, Democrats should enact laws to help Americans afford childcare, cut the costs of prescription drugs, and stop oil companies from price gouging, for example.But Democrats can also count on Americans’ reawakened awareness of the hatefulness and chaos Trump and his Republican enablers have unleashed. And it’s this combination – Democrats scoring some additional victories for average Americans, and Trump and others doing everything possible to recollect his viciousness – that could well reverse conventional wisdom about midterms, and keep Democrats in control.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsDonald TrumpOpinionUS politicsRepublicansUS elections 2024US midterm elections 2022Joe BidencommentReuse this content More