New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Donald Trump on trumped up charges last Thursday sent shockwaves throughout America. Already the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, speculation ahead of the indictment had driven Trump’s poll numbers into the stratosphere. A Fox News poll released last week showed him up 30 points over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his nearest competitor.
If – and this is a big if considering the first votes in the Republican primary are still ten months away – Trump clinches the GOP nomination, nearly every conservative pundit is quick to tell us he would ultimately lose the general election to President Joe Biden.
But what if the pundits are wrong?
Trump’s shocking victory in 2016 confounded even the most seasoned political thinkers among us. Hillary Clinton’s coronation was thought to be inevitable until election night, when strangely, one critical battleground state after another fell to the brash, uncouth real estate developer and reality TV star from Manhattan, the ultimate Washington outsider.
Biden is the single worst U.S. commander-in-chief in modern memory, eclipsing even former President Jimmy Carter for this unwanted distinction. Carter is a good man, but he was a terrible president whose missteps caused great harm to the country.
Let me preface my comments about Biden’s presidency by saying that he’s not in charge. His cognitive issues, apparent from the moment he launched his campaign in April 2019, have deteriorated significantly over the past four years to the point where virtually every public appearance is choreographed and still manages to end with a gaffe. That said, he is happy to go along with the radical agenda set by those who are actually calling the shots.
His administration has declared war on the Constitution and has advanced the “fundamental transformation of the U.S.” begun during the Obama administration. The cumulative effect of two years of deliberately destructive, anti-American decisions has brought us to a perilous moment in history. On all fronts, both domestic and foreign, Democrats are pushing this country into a downward spiral. If this continues, we won’t need to worry about Russia or China taking us down — we’ll have done that all by ourselves.
Donald Trump, in contrast, was a great president. Despite the relentless pursuit by members of a deep state determined to remove him from office, he accomplished a great deal in four years. To name just a few of those achievements: His tax cuts and focus on deregulation triggered an economic boom. He reshaped the judiciary, made America energy independent, strengthened our military, secured our border, and stood up to China. There’s no question America is worse off as a result of his loss.
If not for the pandemic which enabled universal mail-in voting and Democrats’ collusion with Big Tech and the legacy media to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, Trump likely would have prevailed in 2020.
And yes, Trump is facing multiple legal battles, but they are all based on politically contrived charges. On the other hand, Biden and members of his family are facing far more substantive allegations that cut right to the heart of America’s national security which House Republicans are just starting to bring to light.
It may be improbable, but now that Trump’s nomination appears (at this point in time) to be almost inevitable, a Trump-DeSantis ticket would give Republicans their best shot to take back the White House. Imagine Biden and our hapless Vice President Kamala Harris up against Trump and DeSantis.
Trump’s incessant and childish attacks on DeSantis are turning off even some of his supporters. He is not helping himself by calling the popular Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious,” “Meatball Ron,” or “Tiny D.” He’s making himself look immature and decidedly unpresidential. The insults are only reminding people of the reasons why so many independents and even some Republicans turned against him in 2020.
But if the two could join forces, they would make a formidable combination.
And win or lose, it would give DeSantis the edge in the 2028 race for the Republican presidential nomination.
While it’s said that every election is the most consequential in history, 2024 will determine America’s very form of government going forward. Will the U.S. remain a democratic republic or become a socialist nation?
While the current threat to America posed by the Biden administration is far more subtle than the rolling of German tanks over Europe during World War II, it is every bit as dangerous.
It was foolish to underestimate Trump in 2016 and it would be foolish to underestimate him now.
Note: A previous version of this article appeared in The Washington Examiner.
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