Donald Trump capped off his split-screen debacle of an appearance at the border with a weekend speech in Virginia driving home exactly how mentally unfit he is to be commander in chief of the U.S. military.
Trump, using the specter of nuclear mayhem, sought to suggest his chief political rival for the presidency was a threat to global stability.
“Putin has so little respect for [Barack] Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word," Trump told the rally, as the crowd fell silent.
Trump, seeking a reaction, revisited the word “nuclear.”
"You heard that—nuclear. He's starting to talk nuclear weapons today," Trump repeated, falling completely flat with the audience.
Trump topped off his botched attack by adding, "We have a fool—a fool—as a president."
The pitch here from the ultimate chaos candidate was supposed to be that America is unsafe under "Obama"—otherwise known as President Biden to the rest of us—but will be safe under Trump because he's a stronger leader. In other words, Trump will supposedly impose world order across the globe if he reclaims the White House. Never mind the fact that he has mixed up former President Obama—whom he's never run against—with President Biden at least eight times during the past several months of campaigning.
Call us crazy, but we like the nuclear codes in the hands of people who can remember who they are running against for president.
Trump also had a choice message for all those reality-based Mitt Romney Republicans out there: Take a hike.
After claiming that MAGA Republicans account for "96% and maybe 100%" of the GOP, Trump said, "We're getting rid of the Romneys of the world.
"We want to get Romneys and, uh, those out," Trump added, in a dash of verbal mastery.
“Those,” as Trump so aptly put it, account for anywhere from 25% to 30% of the Republican Party. In South Carolina, for instance, Trump's sane GOP rival, Nikki Haley, won:
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30% of self-identified "Republicans."
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43% of "somewhat conservative" voters.
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74% of "moderate/liberal" voters.
Following Haley's 43% finish in the New Hampshire primary, Trump threatened her donors with being permanently blacklisted from the party in a Jan. 24 post on his Truth Social site.
"Anybody that makes a 'Contribution' to Birdbrain," Trump said, using his pet name for Haley, "from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!"
Just to be clear, Haley's share of the Republican electorate—'those' looking for an alternative—is a sizable portion of self-identified Republicans by any stretch in a general election that promises to be a nail-biter. That share is exponentially more crucial to a candidate who has never won more than 47% of the vote in either of his presidential bids. Yet Trump is absolutely insistent on subtracting Romney and Haley supporters from his coalition.
“Never Trumper” and publisher of The Bulwark Sarah Longwell took the opportunity to remind moderate Republicans that there's no place for them in Trump's Republican party.
Over a Biden-Harris HQ tweet of Trump promising to cast out all 'those' non-MAGA Republicans, Longwell tweeted, "Are you a Republican who respects Mitt Romney?Trump doesn’t want you in the party. He doesn’t want your vote. Supporters of Nikki Haley are permanently barred. Vote accordingly."
Simon Rosenberg from the Hopium Chronicles Substack is back to talk about the facts of the 2024 election cycle. The facts are: Things look bad for Donald Trump—and even worse for the Republican Party.
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