Breaking Don: Travails of a Former President

Donald J. Trump wins hearts by fighting for America and Americans in an age when freedom, justice, and the American way are under assault. His narrow win in 2016 was epic, and he achieved some success before falling victim to his fatal flaw. 

The tragedy of Trump is that he’s more peevish than principled. Consequently, he is easily baited by his opponents into distracting fights over petty matters. How else can one explain his current predicament and the danger he presents to our principles?

His enemies don’t even hide their designs. Democrats lay traps in plain sight, and the muscle head of U.S. politics walks right into them, time after time. True, he rallies his MAGA loyalists with each fight, no matter how ill-conceived. Most Republicans who are not Trump haters watch his travails with admiration and morbid fear: Can the old lion escape the jackals yet again?

But, a criminal trial brought by the Deep State over moldy documents that Trump just could not bring himself to return is scheduled for the end of the presidential primary season. Republicans have to ask: Is this trial a struggle over the future of freedom in this country? Or just collateral damage from Trump’s inability to skip a fight?

Bear in mind, too, that there’s still more to come in les travails de Trump. We are always just a day away from more drama. Special Counsel Jack Smith is targeting Trump for another federal trial, and there are also possible state charges in Georgia, both arising because Trump picked a fight he could not win after losing the 2020 election.

There were irregularities and none of this is fair, I hear fellow Trumplicans declare! His fight is our fight! But is it really? 

Or is Trump just a vain old guy who’s easily egged into pointless bar fights that end up undermining our ability to win the broader war for our nation’s future? 

Note all the polls showing Trump losing to Biden. 

Nor does it look like a third-party candidate could save him – one poll has him losing by an even greater margin with a third-party candidate or independent.

A solid majority of Americans have tired of Trump’s travails and will not vote to renew Trump for four more years. So, every Republican needs to decide for himself or herself: In the fight for freedom, what’s more important – the fight or freedom?

Trump supporters will say they are the same, but of course, they are not. Trump started the America First movement to take back our country, but now we need new leadership for the movement to gain greater success.

We have terrific candidates who share our views: Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor who showed leadership on race issues and who did a superb job at the United Nations for the President. Tim Scott, an African American conservative appointed tothe Senate by Haley and who wears his Christian love so well. Mike Pence, the loyal number two, whose decency and love of the Constitution kept him on the rails when others lost their way on Jan. 6. Even Vivek Ramaswamy, the brilliant, hip intellectual and successful entrepreneur and first-time candidate who is attracting young voters to the GOP for the first time in years.

Each of these candidates would match up well against President Biden in a general election. But a candidate must secure the nomination to run in November 2024, and doing so means breaking Trump’s hold on the Republican base. Anyone who spends time among our grassroots voters knows that Republicans will choose our nominee viscerally. We are not a crowd inclined to accommodation; the base has had it with woke nonsense from their government, capitulating corporations, and weakness in our own establishment.

We want a strong, proven leader who takes the heat for us without ever wilting. Trump voters will not vote for an anti-Trump, or someone that “agrees” with our policies but is “nicer” to those that hate us and hate America.  

No. Our nominee will either be Trump or someone better than Trump – someone with chutzpah, but savvier and more likely to succeed. I believe that after flirting with other attractive candidates, the Republican alternative who will emerge is Ron DeSantis. 

Florida’s governor distinguished himself during the pandemic, resisting pressure from the media and from federal and international health officials. He’s the de facto leader of everyday Americans because of his willingness to forcefully reject the top-down cultural revolution, despite howls from the woke media and chiding from quisling CEOs.

On the economy, DeSantis drove Florida’s low tax, low regulation advantage, with the fastest population growth and among the fastest GDP growth in the United States. He successfully restrained government growth, serving more people than New York at well less than half the cost, and he improved public safety too. Florida’s crime rate defied national trends and actually declined.

DeSantis has not bent to the wind. He wins and proves that conservative ideas make life better for non-ideological Americans who seek to pursue their own happiness.

Republicans will weigh our attractive alternatives in the debates, as we should. But with Trump in a commanding lead and only one candidate within shouting distance, the choice seems stark: We can win with Ron or lose, and lose everything, with Don. 

Richard Porter is the National Committeeman from Illinois on the Republican National Committee.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.