I saw the following headline in the National Review:
What It Took for Republicans to Break with Trump
The article discussed the overwhelming vote to force a TikTok sale, which Trump “opposes”. This is supposedly in contrast to their kowtowing to Trump in voting against a border control bill, which Trump also “opposes”.
Why do I keep using scare quotes for “opposes”? Because with Trump nothing is as it seems. Obviously, Trump supports forcing China to sell TikTok, indeed he tried to do so back in 2020 when he was president. (The courts preventing the forced sale.) And Trump obviously supports the sort of stricter border controls contained in the bill that failed to clear Congress–he enacted similar policies. So what’s going on here?
In the case of the border control bill, Trump “opposed” it because he wants border chaos in the period leading up to the November election. In his “opposition” to forcing the TikTok sale, he wishes to curry favor with younger TikTok users, who would not like to lose their favorite app. Ideally, Biden would succeed in forcing the sale (something Trump secretly wants) and Trump would get votes for loudly defending free speech rights of younger voters.
So it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest the GOP is courageously “breaking with Trump” over TikTok; they are doing precisely what he wants them to do. When Trump makes a public statement, there is only one criterion that determines it’s content—will it win him votes.
This Matt Yglesias tweet caught my eye:
The truth is, almost every single top Republican official privately opposes Trump. We only see these views surface in cases where people are free to speak their minds, as with former GOP presidential candidates, former Trump officials, former vice presidents, Congressmen who are retiring, etc. We also see it in people before they become involved in politics, as with JD Vance. Or in private email conversations, as with Tucker Carlson. The GOP elite virtually all hold Trump in total contempt. (I say virtually all, as there are a few nutcases like Marjorie (Jewish space laser) Greene and Peter (federal prison inmate) Navarro that are true believers.)
DeSantis has “endorsed” Trump. Does anyone seriously think DeSantis will go into the voting both and pull the lever for Trump? Would you, if Trump had accused you of “grooming” teenage girls? People need to use their common sense. Trump has almost no support in the GOP elite. The endorsements are merely a facade, lapped up by people who believe we should take political statements as if they reflect the actual beliefs of the politicians.
PS. People talk a lot about the “deep state”. This is silly. Almost every single person who has the career accomplishments required for a high level DC job privately hates Trump. So why would you expect anything different? It’s not a deep state—there’s no conspiracy. It’s merely that almost all highly qualified people see Trump for what he is.