There is nothing worse than a bad sequel.
Yet that’s exactly what we are watching right now – it’s Trump’s version of Jaws 2.
Just like the movie, Trump has completely lost the plot.
He’s forgotten what made him a success the first time he ran for president.
Now he’s – sadly – stuck between playing the big orange gorilla of 2016 and the tame politician of 2024. And it just doesn’t work.
In fact, it is becoming more and more apparent every single day that Trump’s once iron grip on the GOP is slipping away.
The Trump reboot hit the theaters about two weeks ago with a completely lackluster, low-energy 2024 announcement.
He attempted to show Republican Party that he could control himself this time, like a big boy.
He tried to make the argument that he is the party’s only hope if they want to jolt America out of the malaise of the Biden years.
He read off the teleprompter and – mostly – avoided talk of deranged stolen election conspiracies.
But of course, that didn’t last.
When his handpicked candidate for Arizona governor, Kari ‘Loser’ Lake lost her race, Trump fell back on his well-worn claims of voter fraud.
The Trump reboot hit the theaters about two weeks ago with a completely lackluster, low-energy 2024 announcement.
But somehow, his howls didn’t have the same ring to them.
Then one week ago, in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, Trump hosted noted antisemite Kanye West, white supremacist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and pedophilia advocate Milo Yiannopolous for dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
It sounds like a dinner party in hell. But as they say, you are the company you keep.
If you’re not familiar with Yiannopolous, he’s an alt-right provocateur, who got himself fired by Breitbart, dropped by his book publisher, and banned from CPAC for making light of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, among other vulgar remarks.
The backlash was immediate. And Trump has been embroiled in the fallout ever since.
The head of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, which honored Trump a few weeks ago, said the former president, ‘legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters.’
The dinner was denounced by everyone from Vice President Mike Pence to Senator Marco Rubio, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Governors Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson and even Trump’s former Ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, who demanded an apology.
On Tuesday, the next likely House Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy was clear in his condemnation saying no one should meet with a white supremacist.
Predictably Trump hasn’t apologized (so much for acting like a big boy) and he has blamed everyone else.
Trump called Kanye a ‘seriously troubled man,’ and claimed that he had no idea who Fuentes is – and that’s where it gets interesting.
Kanye and Fuentes fired back.
Fuentes told whatever cretins listen to him to ‘dream bigger’ than Trump.
In a podcast last night, Kanye called Trump a liar, before throwing a hissy fit and storming off the set when the host confronted him over his antisemitism.
But none of these people are afraid of Trump anymore.
The big bad Trump of 2016 would have gone ‘death con 3’ on all of these guys – from Pence and McCarthy to Kanye and Fuentes.
But the tame Trump of 2024 can’t say a peep.
And that’s not all – Trump is reportedly sitting out the upcoming, runoff in Georgia which could bolster Democratic control of the Senate.
Instead, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp – a man who Trump has trashed for refusing to echo his stolen election lies – will be leading the charge.
Trump will reportedly be relegated to manning the phone banks and sending out fundraising appeals.
But how could the ‘kingmaker’ be on the sidelines? No massive Trump rally?
Trump hosted noted antisemite Kanye West, white supremacist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes (above), and pedophilia advocate Milo Yiannopolous for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. It sounds like a dinner party in hell.
In a podcast last night, Kanye called Trump a liar, before throwing a hissy fit and storming off the set when the host confronted him over his antisemitism.
Maybe because apart from losing his swagger, it’s also now clear that Trump’s lost his electoral influence.
Remember when Trump promised in 2016, ‘I will be so presidential you will be so bored. You’ll say, “Can’t he have a little more energy?”’
He was right. But no one wants the old Trump either.
It’s painfully clear that the Republican party should heap a large portion of the blame for the red ripple midterm embarrassment on Trump’s shoulders. And in the ultimate irony, President Joe Biden may be making more public appearances in the run-up to the vote in Georgia than Trump will.
Even his daughter, Ivanka, has better things to do then help dad get back into the Oval Office.
I know, I know.
Every time Trump has been counted out, he has come roaring back. But this time – this time – it feels different.
There’s no appetite for the raging, anti-establishment showman of 2016 and his new act isn’t playing well either.
The plain truth is that Trump decided to host a bunch of bigots and weirdos at Mar-a-Lago.
If you’re not familiar with Yiannopolous (above), he’s an alt-right provocateur, who got himself fired by Breitbart, dropped by his book publisher, and banned from CPAC for making light of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, among other vulgar remarks.
If Trump doesn’t have enough common sense and self-control to cancel a meeting with a sycophantic Kanye, after the rapper spent weeks projecting antisemitic bile, hate and conspiracy theories — and if Trump doesn’t have the campaign infrastructure to inform him that he’s about to break bread with a well-known white supremacist – then he was no business running for president.
Trump has contributed to the legitimizing and normalizing bigotry in America, at a time when hate crimes against Jewish Americans are at a historic high.
He also looks sloppy and delusional after voters sent a direct and powerful message that they’re looking for serious people to solve very serious problems.
So long Donald – I hope this is our last goodbye.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk