this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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One of the amazing political achievements of Republicans in this election cycle has been their ability, at least so far, to send Donald Trump’s last year in office down the memory hole. Voters are supposed to remember the good economy of January 2020, with its combination of low unemployment and low inflation, while forgetting about the plague year that followed.

Since Trump’s romp in the Super Tuesday primaries, however, the ex-president and his surrogates have begun trying to pull off an even more impressive act of revisionism: portraying his entire presidency — even 2020, that awful first pandemic year — as pure magnificence. On Wednesday, Representative Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference, tried echoing Ronald Reagan: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

And Trump himself, in his Tuesday night victory speech, reflected wistfully on his time in office as one in which “our country was coming together.”

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 8 months ago (7 children)

I am not in the slightest bit complaining but:

If he had just been able to even pretend to give a shit about covid, he would have won. He would have been a war time president for all intents and purposes.

republicans gonna fasc, but it still just boggles my mind that they are rallying behind such a complete and utter loser of a candidate.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The thing is: the guy doesn’t want to do the job. He doesn’t read security briefings, doesn’t pay attention in meetings. He had a unified congress in the first two years and barely got anything done. No long-term planning, just sugar-high tax cuts. He just enjoys the title and authority that comes with it. To him, it’s just a competition to beat the Democrats.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago

I don't think it is even The Democrats

It is Obama for ribbing him (after all the accusations of being an illegal immigrant...). Hilary for being a woman. And Biden for clearly and definitively beating the shit out of him in every single interaction (watching trump "back down" during their debate when Biden thought he heard an attack on Beau is beautiful).

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Actually, he's trying to stay out of prison now.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Every new case is a new case, it has no effect on the timeline for decided cases. Of course, I don't expect Trump to understand that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (2 children)

That was the weirdest part to me... it would have been SO EASY for him to monetize... red facemasks with "Make America Great Again". How hard would that have been?

Instead? 1,000,000 dead Americans.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

But but but look how many people died while Biden was president. It's not like Trump told everyone the mask mandates don't work and then told people about bleach and hydro blah blah blah. Also how own constituents booed him when he told them about the vaccine he actually helped get funded but the damage was done at that point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

He was expecting COVID to be worse in cities than rural areas, and therefore hurt (kill) more Democrats than Republicans.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

Yeah. Been saying this since 2020 as well. His choice to go with the worst option in nearly every situation that year, and purposefully further the country's political divide over a national crisis was so, so stupid, though so very on brand for him. He could've easily swept up a second term by even just pretending to care about the nation as a whole, but it's him, so of course he didn't.

Probably the most indicative moment of the whole thing was at a press conference:

Following questions about Trump's promotion of chloroquine

Alexander: So, what do you say Americans who are scared, I guess? Nearly 200 dead and 14,000 who are sick and millions as you witness who are scared right now, what do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?

Trump: I say that you are a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question. I think it’s a very bad signal that you are putting out to the American people. They’re looking for answers and they’re looking for hope. And you’re doing sensationalism and the same with NBC and Concast – I don’t call it Comcast I call it Concast. Let me just, who do you work, let me just say something.

That’s really bad reporting. And you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows? I’ve been right a lot.

Asked to reassure the nation and just resorts to lashing out and name calling. What a dumbass.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

My pet theory is he knew he was losing the Romney Republicans hard. So he knew he had to juice his support amongst his actual base: the crazies. COVID was therefore the perfect wedge issue for Trump and Trump alone. Any other candidate would listen to the doctors, put them on TV, and win. Yes, think Bush in 2004.

But he was in a bind because his rabid supporters hated being told what to do.

So he tried to play both sides like always. He invented the vaccine, but you didn't have to take it. COVID is fake, but I'm blocking people from China (weeks too late). Etc.

So how did his vote count increase from 2016? I think a bunch of alcoholics and people who don't know how to have fun except taking their kids to Applebee's voted for him. They desperately wanted the rules and the closures to be done so they could leave the house. That simple. He juiced a little more of the rabidly selfish people who rarely vote, whereas a lot of his "hold your nose" voters voted for Biden or stayed at home.

He'd really painted himself into a corner on listening to experts.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

People say he's a good conman, but he couldn't be farther from it. The dude is a total loser, a complete buffoon, and he only got as far as he has by having the stupidest marks in human history.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I mean, rolling back 40 or 50 years and he/His People very quickly keyed in on the idea that it was more important to be a brand than to actually have money. And considering that most of his support base haven't had an original thought in 30 or 40 years, it makes sense. They were "taught" that "donald trump is good business man" and just stick with that regardless of the vast amounts of evidence to the contrary.

We STILL see similar in pro wrestling where people insist that (rapist piece of shit) vince mcmahon was a savvy business man rather than someone who more or less just got real lucky that WCW killed itself. The TV told them so it must be true.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He's the only one that can appeal to their core audience of morons. None of the other fuckers has that talent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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