Trump 2024 is a bad idea for the GOP
but the fun starts before the GOP convention
Happy New Year and heads up…the official start of the 2024 presidential season begins in two years.
Officially, that is. Unofficially, it begins right after mid-terms; although any candidate who has not built himself/herself an organizational framework for a presidential run already (e.g. Political Action Committee) is probably dead in the water. Money and organizational strength keeps presidential campaigns viable through the South Carolina primary and money can buy presidential candidates a decent level of organizational heft.
If Donald Trump runs (for real not as a means of avoiding indictment - which is what he is doing now) and wins, he would be the first lame duck president since Ruthford B. Hayes in 1877. And Hayes had the “advantage” of negotiating his lame duck status as part of his stealing the presidency. Trump won’t be that lucky.
The 22nd Amendment will finally show its worth should Trump run and win. But the entertainment value and idiocy of letting Trump run will turn the GOP into a laughstock well before then. If you never saw the Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice”, the 2024 presidential race could be a far more comic reality version of it.
How so?
In case you missed it, the selection of Governor Mike Pence as Trump’s vice presidential nominee was no sooner made than Trump was second guessing his pick on the phone hours later. Vetting vice-presidential nominees has never been the GOP’s best strength. On one end, they have Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and Dan Quayle. On the other, actual fiascoes like Dick Cheney and Mike Pence. Dick Cheney infamously took the job of vetting potential VPs for Governor George W Bush in 2000 and basically told “W” that he was best candidate. Vice President Mike Pence’s loyalty and fealty to Donald Trump was unquestionable for 1448 days, and then on January 6, 2021, the weird alt-right faction of the GOP was prepared to hang him —- and Trump odiously did not call Pence for 6 days. If Mike Pence was an example of Trump’s “picking the best people”, he’ll need to polish up.
The notion that the 6-8 weeks leading up to the 2024 Republican National Convention could be a weekly parade of weird political cake walks to become Trump’s vice -presidential mate should stop GOP Chair Rona McDaniel dead in her tracks. Unless she uncouples Trump’s Apprentice from GOP’s political program, the Republican Party will end up like the Dumont Television Network.