Thursday, April 18, 2024 | Shawwal 8, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

The emperor of chaos has no clothes

Republicans are blaming Trump for anointing wacky candidates and then using campaign rallies to promote his upcoming presidential announcement
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Ding-dong, the Don is dead. Or is he?


An election storm brought the house down on the Mar-a-Lago warlock and devastated Republican hopes for a rout.


Republicans are blaming Donald Trump for anointing wacky candidates and then using campaign rallies to promote his upcoming presidential announcement. Republican lawmakers privately say those self-indulgent rallies cost them Senate and House seats because many normal Republicans and independents have had their fill of Trump and his crazy train.


The third time should be the charm. Since winning in 2016, Trump helped Republicans lose the House in 2018 and lose the White House and the Senate after the 2020 elections. Now he seems to have rescued Democrats from the traditional midterm shellacking — Republicans are barely within reach of a House majority and are watching their chance of controlling the Senate slip away. Trump has been poison for his party.


Polls showed that even many people unhappy with Joe Biden voted Democratic, a sign that Trump fatigue has finally set in. It’s so bad, the Murdoch empire has turned on its former fair-haired boy.


Ivanka and Jared are moving on and are not interested in being part of a Trump restoration, according to Kate Bennett at CNN. Even die-hard Laura Ingraham seemed to sour on her former hero. “If the voters conclude that you’re putting your own ego or your own grudges ahead of what’s good for the country,” she told her viewers, “they’re going to look elsewhere, period.”


The New York Post ridiculed him on the cover as “Trumpty Dumpty,” with a gratuitous shot about how he not only had a great fall, but couldn’t build a wall.


Trump responded by calling the paper “the no longer great New York Post,” and he blamed his failure to complete the wall on former speaker Paul Ryan, a Fox Corp board member, and “Broken Old Crow” Mitch McConnell, saying they didn’t get him enough money from Congress.


The former president also had a “Heathers”-like hissy-fit against Ron DeSantis. First, he thuggishly threatened the Florida governor after his Ohio rally last Monday, warning him not to think about getting in the presidential race.


“If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering,” Trump said. “I know more about him than anyone other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”


After DeSantis had a crushing victory in the once swingy Sunshine State, declaring it the place “woke goes to die,” Trump’s puerile jealousy exploded. He posted that he had rescued DeSantis when he was “politically dead.”


“And now Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” said Trump, angry that DeSantis wouldn’t rule out running for president in 2024.


Some in the GOP say attacking a younger generation of Republican stars puts Trump in dangerous territory. But that’s how Trump got to the White House, belittling Little Marco Rubio and Lyin’ Ted Cruz.


The moment feels reminiscent of Jan 6 and its immediate aftermath. Republicans go crazy on Trump, say “enough is enough,” as Lindsey Graham did at that juncture, and act as if they’re ready to toss him aside. But it didn’t take long for “my Kevin,” as Trump called McCarthy, to make a groveling pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.


Republicans refused to convict Trump on impeachment charges and ban him from running for public office. Now they’re living with the consequences. It’s not hard to imagine that this revolt against the revolting Trump will die down in a few days and they’ll all be back behind this person that they blame for their current convulsions. -- The New York Times


Maureen Dowd


(The writer is a columnist and an author)


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