Donald Trump is not known as an introspective person, and at this point, no one expects him to start adopting the habit. Still, sometimes the former president of the U.S. says things that are so obtuse, you have to wonder whether he has been plugging his eyes and ears for the last seven years of his life (not to mention the 69 other years before it).
Look, there is no doubt that the current political landscape can be divided into a pre-Trump and post-Trump era, most especially when referring to the slate of Republicans currently in office. Trump blew the Republican party wide open when he launched his presidential campaign in 2016. This is common knowledge. What is so ironic is that he is now claiming Ron DeSantis, the current governor of Florida, is who will “divide the Republican Party” should he run for president in 2024.
On his beloved Truth Social account, Trump began by undermining DeSantis’ qualifications with insults to his age, calling him a “young man” and claiming DeSantis will do more harm to the Republican Party than good. Unfortunately, Trump has the vocabulary of a toddler, so it came off a little less polished than that and more like: “Ron DeSantis is a young man who is not doing so well against me in the polls.” Burn…
Trump then went on to claim that DeSantis will “hurt and somewhat divide the Republican Party, he will lose the cherished and massive MAGA vote, and never be able to successfully run for office again.”
Strange, that sounds an awful lot like Trump is describing his own political pulse at the moment, given he was just indicted of 34 charges of criminal tax fraud, not to mention he’s been impeached twice, accused of inciting an insurrection, accused of overturning a fair and democratic election, and even refused to participate in the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election. But sure, it’s DeSantis who will divide Republicans.
Honestly, at this point, “dividing the Republican Party” should become Trump’s new campaign slogan. Forget MAGA, how about DTRP? (It sounds close to AARP, too, which is fitting.)