Has the key to defeating Donald Trump been found?
For eight years, people have been searching for the issue that could bring Donald Trump down. We have wondered what is the one thing he could do that would finally loosen his grip on the Republican base. Two recent articles indicate that the answer may be coming into focus. In Politico, Jonathan Martin notes that Nikki Haley has the college-educated wing of the Republican Party nailed down, but doubts that she can win over the non-college-educated Republicans who make up Trump’s base.[1] However, in a New York Times focus group, Iowa voters of various backgrounds speak of their impatience with Trump’s focus on himself. The Times article notes that “many voters on the right support what he stands for and like much of what he did as President, but they’re growing tired of his increasing focus since Jan. 6, 2021, on complaining about being unfairly treated. ‘I feel like right now all I’m hearing is just everything that’s going against him. It’s just all the legal troubles. I really haven’t heard much about what he’s planning to do,’ said Brittney, a 38-year-old writer.”[2]
If you are trying to persuade voters who didn’t go to college to vote against a candidate, then a good place to start is the issue of loyalty. If working class voters perceive that Trump is out for himself and not thinking of them, their infatuation with him will vanish quickly. Voters in the Times article commented on Trump’s lack of engagement in Iowa, and his failure to attend an important political dinner for the candidates in Iowa.[3] Trump’s lack of focus is unsurprising given all the time he is forced to spend responding to his legal troubles, which he brought upon himself.
Donald Trump is running for his life. He is being vague about his second term agenda because he doesn’t have one. His only agenda is to keep himself out of prison. He knows full well that the Federal criminal cases against him aren’t going away unless he can become President again and order the Justice Department to drop the charges. He knows that he can’t avoid the state charges in Georgia unless he becomes President and can claim Presidential immunity- which his lawyer now says includes immunity for assassinating political opponents.[4] When a person says he is trying to help you, but he has this many powerful reasons to help himself, you should not trust him.
Another potent issue among working-class voters could be Trump’s lack of personal responsibility. Real men and women take responsibility for their actions. They do not whine that accountability for them is unfair because someone else got away with other misconduct. We all know that Trump asked Mike Pence to tamper with the results of the 2020 election, and a child in elementary school would know that the Vice President does not have the authority to call the election for himself and his boss. By saying that he should get away with this because the Justice Department didn’t indict Hunter Biden quickly enough, Trump is making the argument of a coward, not a leader. If other people have been allowed to get away with things that is an argument for holding them accountable, not an argument for allowing you to evade accountability for your own actions.
Through his actions, Trump has rendered himself unable to focus on the needs of the American people. In the 2016 campaign, evangelical voters spoke of Trump as their “bodyguard.”[5] If your bodyguard keeps getting arrested and is not there to protect you, then what good is he? The four years of incompetent leadership by Joe Biden have been brought to us by the chaos and lack of discipline of Donald Trump, who managed to do something no politician has ever done before- lose a Presidential election to Joe Biden. We all know that if Trump had simply conceded the election in 2020, he would be a lock to win this year. Instead he gave the Democrats yet another issue on January 6 by proving that their description of him as a threat to democracy was true.
It was one thing to tolerate Trump’s excesses in the 2016 general election, when the alternative was Hillary Clinton. But if you vote for Trump when the alternative is Nikki Haley, you are committing a sin against America. Let us hope that Republicans who support Haley can remind their fellow Republicans of Trump’s devotion to himself alone and his unwillingness to take responsibility for his actions. I am not saying that these arguments will convince all of Trump’s supporters; that is unnecessary. All we have to do is convince enough of Trump’s supporters for Nikki Haley to win one primary. Then Trump’s aura of invincibility will be punctured and his campaign can unravel very quickly.
[1] Jonathan Martin, “Why Haley Won’t Break Through,” Politico, January 10, 2024 at 5:00 a.m., accessed January 11, 2024 at 1:21 p.m.
[2] Patrick Healy, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Adrian J. Rivera, “Why Would Trump Win This Election When He Lost the Last One,” New York Times, January 10, 2024, accessed January 11, 2024 at 1:27 p.m.
[3] See above.
[4] Rebecca Beitch, “Trump team argues assassination of rivals is covered by Presidential immunity,” The Hill, January 9, 2024 at 2:38 p.m., accessed January 11, 2024 at 1:31 p.m.
[5] Shane Goldmacher and Chris Cameron, “Facing Off in Washington, DeSantis Tries to Shake Trump’s Hold on Christian Right,” New York Times, September 15, 2023, accessed January 11, 2024 at 1:39 p.m.