Democrats and their allies in the legacy media, Justice Department, and intelligence agencies had to learn the hard way that former President Donald Trump ’s influence grows the more he’s in the headlines. Hillary Clinton ’s strategy to make the 2016 presidential election a referendum on Trump’s malformed personality, punctuated by her seminal campaign ad that featured ethnically diverse toddlers watching MAGA rallies on TV (why toddlers were watching MAGA rallies on TV remains unclear), came back to bite her in the end. In the social media era, regardless of the arena, whether it be politics, entertainment, the news media, etc., the largest presence wins. Clicks, views, and follows equal “influence.” And influence equals power.
In recent years, the establishment has learned to manage Trump’s influence by adjusting his volume as it suits their political needs at a given moment. Since the primary season began in earnest, the Democrat machine has turned the Trump dial to 11.
There are two reasons behind this.
First, they know that targeting him boosts his standing within his own party, which is ideal since they view him as the most beatable Republican currently in the running for the White House. And with good reason. Despite his relatively strong polling numbers in a hypothetical general election rematch with the octogenarian incumbent, President Joe Biden, Trump is loathed by independent voters. A recent Marist poll shows that two-thirds of independents “don’t want him to be president.” He’s doing even worse with suburban women, 70% of whom don’t even want to see Trump running in the first place. It’s difficult to imagine these abysmal numbers improving over the coming year since everyone on the planet already has a baked-in opinion of the man, who is perhaps the most well-known figure on Earth.
This makes it nearly impossible for him to win. Indeed, a Trump nomination presents the only conceivable path to reelection for Biden. Many, including the Washington Examiner’s editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon, suggested that the indictment of Trump in New York by Alvin Bragg worked to the mutual advantage of the Democrats and Trump by keeping him in the headlines and in the polling lead. This take has borne out in the months since, as Trump's lead ballooned at that moment and has yet to subside. Seemingly at will, the Democratic establishment has the power to boost Trump's political fortunes within his own party.
But that’s not the only way Trump is uniquely useful to the opposition. Due to his boundless narcissism, poor judgment, and diminishing political acumen, Trump diverts attention away from the poor judgment and even criminality of Biden and his family. Of course, it was not a coincidence that the announcement of Trump’s federal indictment by special council Jack Smith came on the same day that members of Congress were provided bombshell evidence that alleges Biden (AKA the “big guy”) earned a $5 million dollar bribe to alter U.S. foreign policy as vice-president. They were holding it in their back pocket for just such an occasion.
This strikes many as unfair, and it is. But so is life, and so is politics. Republicans have no one to blame but themselves; if they had a standard bearer who wasn’t afflicted with Trump’s massive character flaws, they would be less politically vulnerable and more capable of holding the other side accountable. It appears highly likely that Trump did indeed commit a felony (or 37) by hoarding and boasting about possessing classified documents, which included U.S. military plans to attack Iran . No one this attention-starved and needy should ever come close to the presidency.
Now, of course, a deeply corrupt 80-something whose reactions are so delayed that it took him nine months to process the death of Queen Elizabeth shouldn’t be president either. I have no doubt that Biden has committed crimes worse than those described in any of Trump’s ongoing indictments — last week’s revelations from the IRS investigation whistleblower and unearthed Whatsapp texts make this a near certainty. But until GOP voters decide to ditch the Donald, they won’t even be able to beat a bum like Biden.
They’ll keep getting played like a fiddle while America crumbles all around us.
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Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner and the founder of Crush the College Essay. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, the National Catholic Register, and the American Spectator.
