I want to be clear, I think Donald Trump has been the greatest President of my lifetime in terms of getting things done and many Americans will continue to support him and his ‘never give up’ persona, no matter what. I get it. But, I also know that the vast majority of Americans will not.
Jay Weber Show transcript 1-7-21
The theme of today’s show is: everything that comes next for America now depends on how Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump act.
These two men-will almost single-handedly decide where their parties-and this country-goes from here.
And we’re going to spend some time on this today.
Yesterday’s rioting by overzealous Trump supporters was very disturbing. We’ll get to that.
But I want to start where I left off yesterday-because it didn’t take long for president trump to answer the question: what’s he going to do now?
I did a segment yesterday about how ‘what comes next’ for the Republican Party now depends-entirely-on how Donald Trump plays his hand and leaves office.
I talked about how- I didn’t like how president trump has been acting over the last few days- specifically ratcheting up the claims that Mike pence could overturn the election results if he wanted to.That was a turd move...and a terrible disloyalty by Trump...against pence.
I said yesterday-this is a disturbing and crummy move-by Trump.
Everyone who i have ever known who has dealt with trump directly says he is incredibly loyal to you-until or unless you are disloyal to him- and then he turns on you.
And we have seen that play out over the course of his administration: Trump being loyal to his appointees and to his people, until or unless they are discovered being disloyal or leaking to the press or badmouthing him to the media...and then ‘they are out’ Gone. You disappointed me.
Well-mike pence has done nothing -in four years- to be disloyal to trump. At least not in any way that we know. He has been a great VP and has had Donald Trump’s back- myriad times- during some trump controversy. Pence has always defended the president and the administration and it’s often unorthodox moves.
Mike pence should get a medal of freedom for how loyal he has been to this president and to this country over the last four years.
And this week-trump turned on him-in one final desperate attempt to insist that these election results can be overturned and it was pathetic.
But as part of that segment yesterday- i laid out for the audience how- ‘what comes next’ for the republican party- depends entirely on Donald Trump now. How he wants to play this.
I understand he wanted to ‘fight until the bitter end’...but yesterday was the bitter end. And so, the question posed was: does he want to be part of this party and want to continue to control it once he’s out of office?
After all-Trump wasn’t a politician, nor a republican. He stepped out of private life and ran virtually as an independent...but he did—very quickly-embrace most of the tenets of the conservative ideology and work closely with republican leaders to get things done.
And so-he was-and still is-the head of this party.
But i was asking-what is his intent?
Will he back off and say....okay we fought hard and it got ugly but now we have to regroup and focus our energies as a party and a MAGA movement-at making Biden a one-termer...so we can continue our work?
Would trump play it that way-because he wants to remain a major influence in the party?
Or will he burn down the GOP tent as he leaves-as he’s been suggesting for weeks-he was going to do.
I just set the table. Yesterday- for this journey to come with Trump...
And I’ll be darned if he didn’t answer it, immediately. A few hours after I set up the predicate.
By midday- the president had given a speech to tens of thousands of his supporters near the white house...and amped them all up with false claims that Pence can still overturn this-
And he sent them off to storm the capitol.
What a dope.
And of the hundreds of thousands of conservatives and republicans and MAGA fans there-only a few thousand broke away from what -was- peaceful protesting....
And those few thousand stormed the capitol. Overwhelmed police and broke in and marauded around the place...like they were antifa animals.
Very disappointing.
On Monday I mocked the dc mayor for claiming that trump supporters were going to be thugs as they protested. Because republicans and conservatives don’t engage in political violence and thugging. That has been exclusively a feature of the American left...in this modern era.
Until yesterday.
And again-it was only a small number of the people protesting but that doesn’t make it any less disturbing.
And trump incited it.
He did.
You can still try to defend him if you’d like-but Trump lied about what mike pence could do- made him a villain- whipped up a crowd-and then let them loose on dc.
Was it any surprise that some percentage of them were going to then ‘storm the Congress’?
No.
And so-we got our answer: Trump is opting for ‘burn it down’ mode. He has decided that he’d rather go out-and go back to private life-in a blaze of glory....or-
Or- buy OLN and monetize the MAGA movement and actually make money off of his following by building some alternative MAGA party ...and some alternative reality....
He’d rather do that then be a constructive force in the party: a party which he leaves in- honestly?-very good shape.
This party was very unified in November and had a shockingly strong and unexpected election, down ballot.
So trump could either choose to build on all of his good work and build on the populist and forceful new attitude that he instilled into republicans around the country...
Or he could burn it all down and leave the party in chaos.
And he’s made his choice.
This is-supremely-disappointing to me.
Let me bottom line it for you-when it comes to Donald Trump and his influence in this party...moving forward.
This is just- the simple truth, even if you don’t want to hear it:Donald Trump ended any lasting power or control that he had in the republican party, yesterday...and he ended any future political ambitions that he might have.
And as of today? How trump acts between now and the 19th?Could end any future political ambition that-any trump family member- has. Period.
Forget Don Junior, or Ivanka, or Jared getting any level of real support for a run for anything...if their dad creates a constitutional crisis and burns down the party tent as he leaves.
I want to be clear about what I mean here: I think Donald Trump has been the greatest president of my lifetime in terms of getting things done...moving the conservative agenda...saving the country at the moment it needed saving...
And many Americans will continue to support him and his ‘never give up’ persona...no matter what. I get it.
But- I also know that the vast majority of Americans will not.
After yesterday’s drama? Folks? You’ll never find 50 percent of the country willing to elect Donald Trump to a second term in 2024. Period.
Trump’s actions this week and a sliver of his supporters’ ugly actions yesterday will cause 70 percent of the country to say ‘never again’.
A large chunk of people who voted for Trump -twice- will say.. ‘Okay...we’re done’.
And this is just the truth. Bottom line. Americans -especially on the right- will not stand for political violence...or efforts to undo the constitution. Period.
So Trump’s attitude now and yesterday’s ugly drama means a large chunk of republicans and conservatives will never consider him for president...or as any moral voice in the party...again.
They might be quiet about it, but Donald Trump’s actions of the last few weeks have caused all sorts of his supporters to say....’okay, let’s move on’...
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