Crafty Trump is Playing to Win

Part of running a successful campaign for president is avoiding the temptation to step in it.

That is, the candidate needs to tamp down the small fires before they become raging infernos. Sometimes, it is more important to deprive the opposition of the fuel that drives their red meat issues than it is to reinforce support among the faithful.

And recently, that has been Donald Trump’s modus operandi.

The refreshing political naivete that attracted so many to Trump in 2016 has been replaced with a savvy understanding of how the political game is played. It’s still fairly obvious the former president struggles against the instinct he developed while competing in the cut throat New York real estate industry to destroy anyone who represents a threat. However, in the world of politics, over time, he has learned the value of picking and choosing his battles and knowing when to walk away.

Abortion

In 2022, Republicans underperformed in the midterms, and many political analysts attributed the disappointing results to the Supreme Court’s inopportune timing in announcing the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade just four months before the election.

If you’ll recall, there wasn’t much for Democrats to get excited about in that election cycle. Inflation was raging, illegal aliens were streaming across the border, crime was rampant in blue cities and the memory of forced covid mandates was still fresh in the minds of the electorate. However, the left is irrationally passionate about abortion rights, so they immediately began to demagogue the issue by claiming that the GOP would ban abortions completely if given majorities in Congress.

As usual, Republicans, who never waste an opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, were quick to take the bait. In September 2022, about a month and a half before the midterm election, Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a bill that would have banned all abortions after 15 weeks. In comments following the Supreme Court decision, former Vice President Mike Pence said, “…we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.” Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy were also quick to praise the Dobbs’ decision.

Democrats fed off this fuel, and the party faithful expressed their outrage by protesting (of course), but more importantly, they turned out to vote in unexpectedly high numbers. As a result, Republicans ended up with only a six seat majority in the house, when expectations were for a 20+ seat gain, and the Senate remained in Democrat hands.

Crafty Trump Avoids the Trap

Abortion in 2022 wasn’t the first time Republicans fell into leftist traps. In 2020, Democrats used the George Floyd tragedy as an opportunity to exploit racial division by introducing the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” which would have neutered the police in their efforts to contain violent crime. Instead of unequivocally condemning the Floyd event, Republicans were tepid in their response and offered caveats. It was exactly what the left needed to paint them as racists.

However, it seems like Trump has learned from these past mistakes. While the Trump-Biden debate will always be defined by Biden’s senility episodes, a key moment came when the moderator asked a loaded question about abortion. Take note of how Dana Bash phrases the question, and how Trump frames his answer.

BASH: “This is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. This morning, the court ruled on yet another abortion case, temporarily allowing emergency abortions to continue in Idaho despite that state’s restrictive ban.

“Former President Trump, you take credit for the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which returned the issue of abortion to the states.”

TRUMP: “As far as the abortion’s concerned, it is now back with the states. The states are voting, and in many cases, they—it’s, frankly, a very liberal decision. In many cases, it’s the opposite.

“But they’re voting and it’s bringing it back to the vote of the people, which is what everybody wanted, including the founders.”

And with that, the abortion anger fuel Democrats intended to use to propel them to victory in 2024 became inert.

Sure, Trump’s answer didn’t go over well with some parts of the social conservative wing of the Republican party. However, by refusing to back a national ban on abortion, and instead, arguing that every state should have the power to set its own policy, Trump deprived Democrats of their most compelling issue.

Project 2025

The latest leftist election trap revolves around something called Project 2025, which is a collaborative policy statement from the Heritage Foundation in conjunction with a number of other conservative organizations. The plan includes five sections:

Taking the Reins of Government
The Common Defense
The General Welfare
The Economy
Independent Regulatory Agencies

Granted, they might have chosen a less ominous sounding name for the initiative, but the document has a lot of common sense ideas, including the need to dismantle the federal government’s industrial bureaucracy, focusing our defense expenditures on projects that actually increase the military’s lethality, reining in big government pork projects and restoring the Federal Reserve’s original mission or abolishing it completely.

There is nothing inherently radical in any of the material.

Yet, woke leftists have seized on the opportunity to turn Project 2025 into a manifesto for right-wing authoritarianism.

 Democracy Forward starts its assessment of Project 2025 with this statement: “We read Project 2025’s entire 900+ page ‘Mandate for Leadership’ so that you don’t have to.”

Yep, don’t even bother, lemmings. Trust us, we’ll tell you what is says.

The lies and exaggerations are extraordinary. Here are just a few:

(Project 2025 proposals) Make It Harder for Americans to Make Ends Meet
Cut Wages, Create Unsafe Workplaces, and Destabilize Our Economy
Restrict Reproductive Rights and Access to Health Care
Enable Discrimination Across Society
Make Education Unaffordable and Unwelcoming
Set Polluters Loose and Undo Climate Action
Undermine Government’s Ability to Deliver for People

Of course, it doesn’t do any of those things, but the cool part is this. Instead of wading into the quicksand and defending the principles of the document, Trump refused to get sucker punched. He was quick to issue a very forceful denial of any involvement in Project 2025:

Trump has Learned from His Mistakes

Donald Trump may have many faults, but the ability to learn from his mistakes is not one of them. Trump is avoiding Democrat land mines and choosing discretion as the better part of valor. They expected him to interrupt Biden during the debate as he did in 2020, and instead, Trump was courteous and waited his turn. They’ve been hoping to draw him into a quagmire with leading questions and false accusations, and to his credit, he has largely resisted.

The point is that Trump wants to win, and it’s important to recognize nothing good can happen until he takes office in 2025. Remember that the next time you’re grinding your teeth because he doesn’t always forcefully support conservative positions. This isn’t about winning a battle. It’s about winning the war.