Trump Violates the Eleventh Commandment

You probably recall, wistfully, that Ronald Reagan once counseled Republicans against speaking ill of other Republicans. He called it the Eleventh Commandment and clearly he designed it to promote Republican electoral fortunes. Didn't Benjamin Franklin say that his fellow revolutionaries should hang together, lest they hang separately?

 But now, we live in a different time and we have a different species of politician. Consider the case of Donald Trump. In truth, the former president seems these days to be doing nothing but speaking ill of his fellow Republicans. Perhaps he has a better idea. Perhaps he is rejecting Reagan’s commandment. 

 If he has a better idea I am confident that my readers will enlighten us all. Tearing the Republican Party apart does not feel like a winning strategy. Then again, perhaps Trump knows that he is going to lose the nomination, but that he wants to destroy the Republican Party by running as a third party candidate. Perhaps he feels underappreciated.

Then again, perhaps he is simply a sore loser, and cannot accept that the party might have moved beyond him, thus, that the presidential nomination is not just his for the asking.

 Anyway, Powerline elicited these thoughts with the following post (via Maggie’s Farm):

 Former President Trump has railed against the New York Post, one of the nation’s top tabloid newspapers, after it published an extensive profile of possible 2024 White House candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the weekend.

***

“In writer Salena Zito’s Fake News “puff piece” about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post, which is way down in readership just like FoxNews is way down in Ratings, why doesn’t she mention that he wants to cut Social Security & Medicare, loves losers like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, and is getting CLOBBERED in the polls by me,” Trump wrote on Sunday on Truth Social. “DeSantis is a RINO who is trying to hide his past. I don’t read the New York Post anymore. It has become Fake News, just like Fox & WSJ!”

 Now, Trump has a new enemies list. Powerline tells us who has made the list:

 Former President Trump has railed against the New York Post, one of the nation’s top tabloid newspapers, after it published an extensive profile of possible 2024 White House candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the weekend.

***

“In writer Salena Zito’s Fake News “puff piece” about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post, which is way down in readership just like FoxNews is way down in Ratings, why doesn’t she mention that he wants to cut Social Security & Medicare, loves losers like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, and is getting CLOBBERED in the polls by me,” Trump wrote on Sunday on Truth Social. “DeSantis is a RINO who is trying to hide his past. I don’t read the New York Post anymore. It has become Fake News, just like Fox & WSJ!”

So, let’s add it up. Trump now hates:

* The New York Post, increasingly a top outlet for conservatives, having been vindicated in its coverage of Joe Biden’s corruption.

 * Salena Zito, who more than any other journalist has covered Trump’s voters intelligently and sympathetically.

 * Ron DeSantis, America’s most outstanding governor and a top presidential contender.

* Fox News.

 * The Wall Street Journal.

 And of course, these are not the only bridges Trump has burned. One has to wonder what is left for Trump. How much more selective can he afford to make his appeal?

 Burning bridges-- that seems to summarize it. But, clearly, Trump is not presenting himself as a confident winner. He is presenting himself as someone who is getting ready to lose. 

 I trust that I have missed the genius of this approach, and I anxiously await those of you who will set me straight.