For months, far-right author Ann Coulter has been saying that the Republican Party needs to abandon former President Donald Trump and look to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the 2024 election. And with Trump having officially announced that he is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Coulter is doubling down on her assertion that Trump has become a major liability for the GOP.
Coulter isn't the only well-known Republican who is hoping that Trump won't be the GOP's next presidential nominee. Others include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
During a late November discussion on SubStack, Coulter argued, "No, don't tell me, 'Oh, you're voting for Mitch McConnell or Romney if you're for DeSantis.' No, DeSantis is the true right-winger. Trump is the j*****s RINO."
Coulter, during the conversation, pushed back against the view that Trump maintains a firm grip on the Republican Party even after its many disappointments in the 2022 midterms — which found a long list of Trump-backed MAGA candidates losing to Democrats.
"He is so done," Coulter remarked. "He is on his last legs…. There are so few Trump diehards…. Trump won't be the nominee."
One anti-Trump conservative who clearly doesn't share that view is Lincoln Project co-founder and former GOP strategist Rick Wilson. The Never Trumper, during a late November interview with The Guardian, predicted that Trump will be the Republican Party's 2024 nominee and crush DeSantis in the primary.
Wilson told The Guardian, "Has Ron DeSantis been to the rodeo? Has he been out there in the fight? Has he actually faced up against a full campaign of the brutality and the cruelty that Donald Trump will level against him? He has not. It's like he's walked onto the field onto third base and thought he hit a grand slam home run…. Even Trump in a weakened state still has an innate feral sense of cruelty and cunning that Ron DeSantis does not have."
Wilson commented that whenever a pundit claims that the GOP is ready to move on from Trump, it doesn't happen. "I've just been to this f*****g party too many times now," Wilson told The Guardian.
Interviewed by Newsweek, Coulter compared Trump's 2024 campaign to his activities in 2012.
Coulter told Newsweek, "They've been saying, 'It's 2016, again' through three losing election cycles. No, it's 2012, again. That's when Trump tried to run for president by activating the crazies, crashed and burned. 2016 was the exception, when — instead of birtherism or a stolen election — he ran on my book, 'Adios, America!' Then, he blew off his promises on immigration, and went right back to his losing streak."
Watch Coulter's SubStack discussion below or at this link:
I guess Trump answered the question of who his remaining diehard supporters are with his Mar-a-Lago guests this week.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 26, 2022
Full video - https://t.co/pjsGKxmdN0
See discussion here - pic.twitter.com/Z5SYg1FAw9
