This week’s election results affirmed that the most corrupt, unpopular, and sleepiest president of the modern age somehow retains an unbreakable chokehold on his political party. Trump-endorsed primary candidates prevailed while the Republican incumbents he targeted—including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy—lost bigly.
Consider the peculiar case of Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost his House seat in a Kentucky district. Trump had soured on him after Massie demanded the full release of the “Epstein files.” Massie wasn’t alone in attracting the president’s ire on this issue. The president has turned on many more of his former biggest supporters—MTG and Lauren “second base at Beethoven” Boebert, among them—for similar reasons.
The situation was perhaps best described by the political commentator Mehdi Hasan: “Republican voters in Kentucky who presumably spent much of 2024 banging on about Epstein just ejected from Congress their own Republican congressman, who helped get the Epstein files out, in order to please the close friend of Epstein, Donald Trump.”
How do we explain Trump’s continued grip on his party? The obvious answer is his raw sex appeal, but is that hot, scaly bod of his really enough to get primary voters to the polls? There must be more to it.
Perhaps it’s his mastery of the issues? The endearing way he slurs his words? Maybe it’s all the wars he ended when he wasn’t starting them. Or, perhaps, it’s simply his stirring vision of the United States of America as a shining city on a hill where any white South African can come live out his dreams.
Whatever the reason, those of us watching from the opposing side find Republicans’ continued fealty to the fatuous huckster as much of a mystery as the contents of his long-promised healthcare bill. Or for that matter, his tax returns…
It doesn’t make sense. Because nothing makes sense. The president who swore to “drain the swamp” just created a $1.8B personal swampy slush fund, paid for by you, to pay off January 6 insurrectionists and anybody else who feels the gub’mint done did them wrong. Democrats need not apply.
It’s been a decade of this nonsense. Ten years of Trump shooting people on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it. Ten years of empty promises, outright lies, and more Kid Rock than anybody should have to stomach. Ten years of this s--t and yet here he is at the Coast Guard graduation ceremony musing on a third, unconstitutional term.
Granted, Trump’s overall approval numbers have sunk so deep into his golden toilet I’m not even sure a visit from Roto-Rooter could get them out. But among the Republican base, the president retains his messianic appeal. Or is he more the golden calf? The question now is whether the Trump shine will rub off when voters are asked to support this latest crop of bootlickers at the midterms.
Further, he’s picking one loony goon after another. There’s Texas AG Ken Paxton, who just received the coveted Trump endorsement over Senator John Cornyn. Neither one is great, but only one of them was investigated for bribery, abuse of office, and felony securities fraud. I won’t tell you which one, but hint: it’s the guy who just got the endorsement.
Then there’s Kentucky senatorial candidate Andy Barr, whose television campaign ads ended with “It’s not a sin to be white. It’s not against the law to be male. And it shouldn’t be disqualifying to be a Christian.” While it’s true that being a Christian ought not be disqualifying, shouldn’t being a racist assh**e be?
What does this mean for the power-mad Trump? Will shaking the nut tree for candidates improve their dire outlook in the fall? Is he going to further erode his support among independents? Will some medium-rare pink Republicans turn to the Blue side? I don’t know, but I’m at least slightly optimistic. Trump has never been weaker politically. Current analysis has the Democrats retaking the House come November, with an outside shot of also regaining the Senate.
Should that happen, will the MAGA faithful finally turn on Dr. Jesus?
Or will they, as I suspect, cry foul? In other words, is Trump actually hoping to tank the midterms in order to set up a predicate for a 2028 “rigged election” claim? The fact that I’m even asking the question provides its own answer.
According to a February Chicago Sun-Times poll, 60% or MAGA “hardliners” support a third Trump term even though they were aware such a term is expressly prohibited in the Constitution. How could this be?
These people have shown their entire asses on constitutional questions. They are not pretty asses. They are, instead, pimples on the cheeks of democracy. MAGA supports Trump because they support absolute power, just so long as they view themselves as the beneficiaries of that power.
It’s why they see no contradiction between the First Amendment expressly prohibiting the government from establishing a religion and the “Rededicate 250” Christian Nationalist prayer picnic, last week’s Bible readathon held at the Mall and financed with $100,000,000 in taxpayer dollars. To them, the Constitution is no different than the Bible – it means whatever you want it to. Which is why that same poll shows 75% of Trump voters believe supporting him is part of “living out my faith.”
This week’s election results showed these diehards are still living out that faith. Still showing up. Still breathlessly ogling the comings and goings at Trump’s Circus Maximus Gluttonous and, somehow, envisioning themselves cavorting among the inner circle. As a certain real estate con artist often says, “Sad.”
That’s the hell of the thing. It really is sad. No, it’s worse than that. It’s tragic. Tragic that we gave the kings to the kingdom to the only man in America unwilling to surrender the crown. Tragic that those who oppose him, even at the margins, are routinely excommunicated from public life. Tragic that those who know better refuse to speak up. Tragic that those defeated only find their voice when it no longer matters. Beyond tragic that the rest of us have to live with the consequences.
We will have midterms in a few months. Some familiar names will not be on the Republican side of the ballots. So be it. I do not mourn their political passing; they made their choices. When November 3rd comes, I hope good Americans in the tens of millions make theirs.
