Opinion: The Trump trap | Chattanooga Times Free Press

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For anyone who may have forgotten (or tried to forget), there was Donald Trump, the pied piper of the extreme right, again on full display for 70 minutes at a town hall/campaign rally thoughtfully put on by CNN for him. Any American who harbors illusions that man has changed, even the youngest, is not abused by that notion in the very first question.

Trump, with either false sincerity or genuine mental illness, is once again insisting that he won in 2020, which will only be done by massive fraud that will require hundreds if not thousands of conspirators to pull off , not one of them breathed a word about it. The people applauded.

For the rest of the event, Trump was, well, Trump, leaving all but his staunchest supporters wondering, once again, if he really believed his own fantasies or if he was just spewing the vitriol that the his fans.

But the real fallout was directed not at Trump but at CNN. The network was shamed by nearly every other media outlet, including MSNBC, which took the opportunity to mention how much better the night would be if Rachel Maddow were in the interviewer’s chair. (The idea that Maddow could ride Trump better than Collins, or anyone else for that matter, is about as delusional as Trump’s millions of bogus Biden votes.)

The most serious criticism, however, is that CNN allowed Trump to salt the crowd, that the so-called “independent voters” were just MAGAs in disguise, which, when combined with the announced MAGA attendees, turned the town hall into type. of the horrifying, laughing spectacle that people usually associate with Christians being fed to the lions.

CNN tried to retaliate, assigning Anderson Cooper to give a three-minute rebuttal in which he admitted, “I understand,” in response to the anger and outrage, adding that he could understand if there were those who would never watch the network again. But he also pointed out that Trump is ahead of any Republican challenger, could be their party’s nominee in 2024, and that “the audience that annoys you is a sampling of about half the country.”

From there, Cooper defended CNN for showing that “it can happen again it’s happening again,” and then he took a shot at his own audience by asking if they thought “staying in your trap and only listening to people you agree with will do [Trump] go away?”

As self-serving as Cooper’s recitation is, there is some truth to it. Putting aside that CNN missed out, not because they put him on the air, but did so in a format that may have made him appear more popular than he actually is, sad to say, Americans need to be reminded who Donald Si Trump is and is the morass into which he will happily throw the country in his tireless pursuit of personal aggrandizement.

They need to be reminded that the country means nothing to him, as well as those pathetic Americans who are convinced by a lowly salesman that he cares about their welfare or their futures. Trump can’t even be called a “master salesman” because before he landed in this reservoir of angry, delusional followers, his business ventures had a tendency to end in losses, lawsuits and unpaid bills .

But what Americans most need to be reminded of is how cheap Donald Trump is in everything he touches, ironically for a man who claims great wealth. That he despised the political process was obvious, but he did the same thing with his university, his business skills, his steaks, his relationships and his $99 collectible digital trading card.

All this is little except that now he has dragged everyone and his country down with him. Politics has always been a rather tawdry affair, but the current version has, like everything involving Trump, reached caricaturish lows.

However, it is also important not to overstate the threat. Trump’s ascension is possible but by no means imminent. Many on the left rue Joe Biden’s renomination because of his low approval rating, advancing age and the uncertainty about his current vice president’s ability to take the job, but Republicans have the same problems, only worse. yet.

Trump’s approval ratings are hardly stratospheric, he’s only a few years younger, and whoever agrees to be his vice president, says Kari Lake, is anything but a good bet to stir up the confidence. (Nikki Haley probably would have jumped ship if not for the damning verdict in Trump’s sexual assault trial. She could still be offered the position but would decline if she had even a scintilla of political moxie.) Republicans are there is the added burden of their candidate -in-waiting who is now officially recognized as a sexual predator who will almost certainly soon be accused in a series of trials carrying potential sentences of more than 20 years.

Ensuring that Donald Trump never again holds public office is important, of course, but equally important is that Republicans free themselves from the trap that Trump has led them into. Democrats, while not directly confronting Trump, still need to find a way to show strength without descending into the false chest-beating that Trump seems to have made a necessary part of campaigning.

Right now, both parties find themselves in the Trump trap. It will take a great deal of courage and foresight to pull themselves out of it.

Tribune Content Agency

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