The 'delusion' that Trump will 'magically disappear' doesn't make him any less dangerous: analysis
In a November 2022 interview with The Guardian, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson — a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist — predicted that the Republican Party would ultimately "bend the knee" to Donald Trump in their 2024 presidential primary. Wilson has been extremely skeptical over claims that the GOP wants to "move on from Trump," warning that the opposite is true and that the former president is more dangerous than ever.
Wilson's warning that Trump maintains a stranglehold on his party was evident on Monday, January 15, when Trump won more votes in the Iowa Caucuses than GOP rivals Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy combined. Ramaswamy has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
In an article published by Vanity Fair on January 16, journalist Molly Jong-Fast calls out fellow Trump detractors who continue to embrace "the delusion that Donald Trump will simply go away" or "magically disappear."
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Jong-Fast recalls that back in 2016, she herself was "lulled" into believing that Trump would either drop out of the race or lose to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. But Trump's victory in the 2024 Iowa Caucuses, the journalist warns, is a reminder that Trump is showing no signs of disappearing.
"Non-MAGA Republicans could've killed off any chance of a Trump political comeback by impeaching him for inciting the insurrection, but of course, they let him off the hook, perhaps thinking he'd vanish in Mar-a-Lago," Jong-Fast explains. "They could've coalesced around a single non-Trump candidate, but that never happened either. And so, Trump trounced Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley Monday night in the Iowa Caucuses, where nearly two thirds of Iowa GOP caucusgoers on Monday night believed the lie that Biden's indisputable victory was illegitimate."
Jong-Fast adds, "Despite two impeachments, 91 criminal counts, and numerous civil cases, Republicans are once again falling in line behind Trump."
The journalist points to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) as among the many prominent Republicans who are "once again falling in line behind Trump" despite "two impeachments, 91 criminal counts, and numerous civil cases."
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Jong-Fast observes, "Even Fox News, which had once appeared all in on DeSantis, pathetically surrendered to Trump with last week's town hall in Iowa…. So there is no wishing Trump away. Joe Biden must beat him again, like he did in 2020. And even then, we have to pray that Trump will finally abstain from political life and slink quietly off to golf in Palm Beach for the rest of his days."
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Molly Jong-Fast's full article for Vanity Fair is available at this link.
