Every time that this column — or my colleagues’ columns, or the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board — mentions Donald Trump’s name, there’s a segment of readers out there who demand to know why. He’s been out of office more than a year. Why this fixation on a former president?
Most allege sinister motives: We’re deflecting attention from the failures of the Biden administration. Or we’re trying to embarrass Republicans. Or we’re trying to “sell papers.” (I’ve worked at multiple newspapers over 30 years, and I’ve yet to find that elusive one I keep hearing about that evidently pays its writers extra for days when more papers sell.)
If those aren’t the reasons (and they aren’t), then why is it that we and the rest of the mainstream media can’t seem to stop talking about His Royal Orangeness?
It’s a fair question. Here are five answers:
— Trump still leads a populist movement that’s transforming America
That’s not a compliment. The MAGA movement is putrid and dangerous in a 1930s-Germany kind of way. So much of what’s happening in the U.S. now — growing anti-immigrant xenophobia, widespread distrust of scientists and other “elites,” the embrace of conspiracy nonsense, threats of violence against school boards, book-banning, attacks on the very concept of democracy — is both unfathomable and historically familiar. And the man who ushered in so much of that poison is still packing rallies.
— He’s the favorite of most Republican voters for the presidency in 2024
As disturbing as it is for me to type that sentence, it’s at least as disturbing for genuine conservatives to read it. They are the source of most of the Why are you still talking about Trump? frustration out there.
Oh, they didn’t mind it when Trump was there to help Republicans cut taxes for the rich — which, as we all know, is a panacea to everything from pimples to bad breath. But they always cringed, if discreetly, at Trump’s outrageous lies and transparent demagoguery. He was (is) embarrassing to the country-club set. They may have voted for him, but at some level, they were relieved to see him go. They want him to be irrelevant now.
Unfortunately, he’s not. Every national poll shows Trump with majority support among Republicans for a 2024 presidential run. No other GOP candidate is anywhere near him. That’s unlikely to change as long as other prominent Republicans remain terrified of crossing him because of his hold on the base.
— He has stopped bothering to pretend he’s anything other than an aspiring dictator
Maya Angelou’s often-quoted advice — “When someone shows you who they are, believe them” — has never been more relevant. Last week, Trump praised Vladimir Putin as a “genius” and “wonderful” for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, even as the U.S. and NATO struggled to prevent it. It was consistent with Trump’s long history of admiring autocrats in general, and Putin in particular. Also last week, the man who, as discussed above, has a genuine chance of being sworn in again as president in January 2025 mused, as he has before, about executing his political enemies. Generalissimo Trump doesn’t just say the quiet part out loud; he bellows it.
— Jan. 6 was a practice-run
Trump and the rioters and congressional accomplices like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley failed in their efforts to overturn a valid election last year — but they learned from it. Republican legislatures around the country are now passing laws to make it easier for them to overrule election authorities and send bogus electoral slates to Congress. Trump himself is systematically attacking election officials who refused to go along with his attempted coup, and endorsing challengers for those offices who can be expected to do his bidding next time.
— Democrats have no bench
Normally, we could assume that an incumbent first-term president will run for a second term. But can we really assume that of a president who will be almost 82 years old on Election Day 2024? And who is, undeniably, already showing his age? This most predictable of Joe Biden’s problems is exacerbated by his unpredicted banishment of Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House basement, or wherever it is that he has sent her. (Strange treatment of a veep by a man who, when he held that position, was elevated at every opportunity by President Barack Obama.)
If it turns out Biden won’t or can’t run, Harris’ backers would expect her to be next up — but, fairly or not, her current job approval rating is below 40%. So will some other Democrat challenge the first woman of color (of any color, in fact) to have ever held national office? How will that work out in an already-factionalized party? You don’t have to be a chess grandmaster to look a few moves ahead and see that Democrats have a real chance of losing the White House in 2024 no matter who the Republicans run.
And to reiterate: The Republican favorite right now is a man who tried to overturn a valid election, who daydreams about executing his rivals, who praises a U.S. adversary for invading a U.S. ally, and whose rhetorical jackhammer is still pounding away at our deepest socio-political stress points.
Seriously — what else should anyone be talking about?
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