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The embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan left the US “humiliated for all to see” and it now finds itself embroiled in a conflict in Ukraine that “would never have happened if I were president.”
And by 2024, Trump says, things will have become “much worse” – which is why “our country cannot take four more years of Joe Biden.”
Trump places the blame for America’s decline entirely on the Biden administration. It is no coincidence that the deterioration commenced in late 2020. During Trump’s presidency “the world was at peace and America was a great and glorious nation.”
This is self-serving claptrap, but the appeal of such a stance to the Republican base cannot be denied, and there is no one better than Trump at rewriting history.
Trump describes Joe Biden as “the face of left-wing failure and Washington corruption,” and claims that the Democrats’ program is one that has resulted in “national ruin.”
Under the Democrats, inflation and gas prices have risen; America has “surrendered its energy independence” ; the southern border has been “erased” and the US has been “poisoned by illegal alien criminals”; cities have become “cesspools of violent crimes” ; a “total breakdown of law and order” has occurred; industry has been crippled by the “socialist green new deal”; and drug addiction has increased.
Meanwhile, Biden “falls asleep at global conferences” and “is leading us to the brink of nuclear war.”
Trump’s cure for America’s decline is very simple.
Only he and “his movement” – which “is not about politics, it is about our love for this great country ” – can restore “American glory,” “the spirit of the nation,” and “America’s golden age.”
Trump can achieve this because he is “a politician who is not a politician.”
Trump promises to “fight like no one has ever fought before” and asserts that only he can “defeat the radical-left Democrats.”
Trump pledges that he “will keep America out of foolish and unnecessary wars” and bring about “peace through strength” – because he is “not a warmonger.”
Trump promises to “unify people ” and protect the interests of “workers and the middle class” – while opposing “the establishment, the media, special interests, Marxists, woke corporations, the deep state, the weaponized power of the federal government, the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
With Trump in charge, “America’s comeback starts right now” and “America’s golden age is just ahead.”
Trump has dealt himself back into the political game with this week’s powerful speech and, in my opinion, he will win the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
Why do I think that?
First, just cast a glance at those Republicans who have recently written Trump off as ‘electoral poison’ – they include Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, and Mike Pence. What a cabal of political losers – all of whom are seriously lacking in political judgment.
The judgment of most of the media is no better.
Second, Trump – whatever you may think of him – is a genuinely charismatic politician and an extremely effective campaigner.
Max Weber, at the beginning of the collapse of the Weimar Republic, noted that at times of economic, political, and cultural turbulence, voters seek charismatic leaders. Weber also pointed out that charisma, by definition, cannot be transferred. That, by the way, is the real lesson to be learned from the midterm elections.
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DeSantis may be a competent politician, but he is not a charismatic leader.
In the 2024 primaries, I believe that Trump will wipe the floor with DeSantis and anyone else who runs – just as he did with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and others in the primaries in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Third, DeSantis’ policies are exactly the same as Trump’s. Why would the Republican base vote for a Trump clone when they can have the real thing?
Whether Trump will become president in 2024 is another matter.
Trump’s election loss in 2020 suggests that winning in 2024 will not be an easy task.
Even so, it is not difficult to envisage circumstances in which a Trump victory in 2024 appears possible.
Assume, for example, that America is in the throes of a serious economic recession; that inflation and energy prices have continued to rise; that the immigration crisis has intensified; that serious crime in American cities is out of control; that the conflict in Ukraine is continuing; that conflict with China over Taiwan appears likely; and that Joe Biden is too frail to run.
In such circumstances, can any intelligent observer of American politics deny that Trump would have a good chance of being elected president?
In fact, Trump’s ‘America First’ isolationism – which compels him to adopt a form of realpolitik foreign policy – may well be the key to his future political success.
Whatever happens in 2024, however, one thing is perfectly clear – with Trump now back firmly in the saddle thanks to this week’s speech, the endemic divisiveness that has plagued American politics for decades can only intensify over the next two years.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
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