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Does Trump Really Want to Be President Again?
American Greatness ^ | t Dec, 2022 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 12/08/2022 5:01:45 AM PST by MtnClimber

Given events since Trump’s departure, he should be in the driver’s seat. But he is not.

Team Trump has sometimes compared Donald Trump’s current quest for a nonsequential second term to two-term President Grover Cleveland’s similar three election bids.

Cleveland remains our only elected (1884) president to have lost a reelection bid (1888)—in a disputed vote—only to be reelected four years later (1892).

Yet Trump seems determined instead to follow a different, and bullheaded, Teddy Roosevelt model.

Roosevelt left the presidency (1908), sat out four years, and then lost a reelection bid in 1912, split and alienated the Republican Party, and ensured the election of the progressive Woodrow Wilson.

Joe Biden’s first “corrective” two years have been an utter disaster.

Biden birthed hyperinflation. He destroyed a secure border and Trump’s energy self-sufficiency. Crime is now out of control. The United States was humiliated abroad in Afghanistan. Rising interest rates will soon spark a recession.

After promising to unite the country, Biden smeared half the voting population as “un-American” and “semi-fascist.”

In addition, almost all of Trump’s prior complaints, predictions, and assertions that the media dismissed as conspiratorial, or crackpot have proven eerily prescient.

Hunter Biden’s laptop was all too authentic.

The FBI was compromised and acted as an agent of the Democratic Party. Anthony Fauci proved a partisan.

Russian collusion was an utter hoax. It was engineered by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and the FBI.

The Wuhan lab did likely birth the engineered COVID virus. That fact was covered up by the media and public health establishments.

Donald Trump did not take “nuclear codes” to Mar-a-Lago. He did not plan on hawking his presidential papers for profit.

Germany did weaken NATO. Berlin was foolish to mortgage its future with energy dependency on a hostile Vladimir Putin.

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: 2024; desantis; nevertrumper; trump; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 12/08/2022 5:01:45 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

I don’t think Trump could be elected again, but it sure would be great to see him extract revenge on the FIB and the deep state actors.


2 posted on 12/08/2022 5:01:57 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Alberta's Child; Alouette; BatGuano; beaversmom; Brian Griffin; Cathi; cgk; ClearCase_guy; ...
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

In the impending Trump-DeSantis collision, voters will be looking for resolution of two respective unknowns. 

One, will Donald Trump run on his stellar record, avoid controversy, and stick to the issues? And will he thereby win back independent, swing voters on assurances that they could get more MAGA successes, but this time around without the insults and spats? 

And two, could DeSantis assure Republicans of a fire-in-the belly, Trumpian zeal to take on the Left, while soberly promoting a MAGA agenda—and thus win over the hard-core Trump base? 

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

3 posted on 12/08/2022 5:06:52 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MtnClimber

No chance of Trump being President again, he has been so demonized, and people are so confused, deranged and wicked they would never vote for him, least not enough...


4 posted on 12/08/2022 5:07:01 AM PST by dpetty121263
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To: MtnClimber

It’ll be tough for Trump but nothing worth doing is ever easy. There are a lot of headwinds but I would rather go all in with Trump than take a “guaranteed” win with one of these phony pukes.


5 posted on 12/08/2022 5:07:51 AM PST by wiseprince (Me,)
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To: texas booster

VDH ping


6 posted on 12/08/2022 5:12:17 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
it sure would be great to see him extract revenge on the FIB and the deep state actors

It would have been great to see him do a lot of things when he had the power, at least in name.

But his entire government and "his" Republican Congress acted in concert to prevent him from doing anything, and based on his inability to shed his childish frustration at being beaten by a mob of inferior men in November 2000 (including may Republicans), he's not going to get another chance.

7 posted on 12/08/2022 5:18:21 AM PST by Jim Noble (I feel my heart beat faster any place in the neighborhood of the Astor)
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To: dpetty121263

Sadly, I am starting to agree with you on this point.


8 posted on 12/08/2022 5:19:55 AM PST by frogjerk (More people have died trusting the government than not trusting the government.)
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To: MtnClimber
VDH ping

3, 2, 1…. “VDH is an Establishment RINO!”

9 posted on 12/08/2022 5:21:15 AM PST by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Jim Noble

He HIRED Wray and Barr! I think that alone will doom any rebid but I’ll vote for him! Normally you don’t come back from mistakes that big!


10 posted on 12/08/2022 5:25:53 AM PST by gr8eman (Abortion! It's just a murderous ghoul thing!)
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To: MtnClimber
Great article. VDH knocks it out of the park.

Every “Trump or nothing!” FReeper owes it to themselves to read it.

11 posted on 12/08/2022 5:28:35 AM PST by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: MtnClimber
Trump seems determined instead to follow a different, and bullheaded, Teddy Roosevelt model. Roosevelt left the presidency (1908), sat out four years, and then lost a reelection bid in 1912, split and alienated the Republican Party, and ensured the election of the progressive Woodrow Wilson."

Sad, but it appears that very well could be the course we're now on. Of course, this small piece of potentially relevant information will now magically transform VDH form a brilliant historian, into a fully "deranged NeverTrumper" to some.

As of today, all polls show Trump is still the leading candidate to become the Republican nominee in '24. However, if he and his supporters keep setting up purity tests that require the complete acceptance of his often self-destructive behavior, it won't end well.

12 posted on 12/08/2022 5:31:23 AM PST by Golden Eagle (The LGBTQ agenda is designed to outlaw the Bible, and anyone who follows it.)
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Trump could be a factor in the next presidential election in
two ways, imo.

1. He could run himself
2. He could endorse/support/campaign for a candidate

I’m not sure what the dems will do as Biden is aging to the
point of maybe not running again. We’ll see and their plans
will impact the GOP a lot, imo.


13 posted on 12/08/2022 5:34:20 AM PST by deport
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To: MtnClimber

Donald Trump lacks the will and most likely the ability and know how to fight the enemies that are intent on his destruction. The enemies are all still alive and working to destroy him

He does nothing


14 posted on 12/08/2022 5:36:33 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day)
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To: MtnClimber

Trump is the only one who can and will stand up to the deep state.

No one else is going come to the aid of the January 6th patriots who have been held as political criminals.

No one else is going to dismantle the FBI.

No one else is going to drain the swamp.


15 posted on 12/08/2022 5:37:51 AM PST by sipow
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To: bert

—> Donald Trump lacks the will and most likely the ability and know how to fight the enemies that are intent on his destruction.

Trump is the best fighter our country has. That you cannot see it is astounding.

Bert, you sound vaxxed. Did you just get a booster?


16 posted on 12/08/2022 5:40:29 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything. )
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To: MtnClimber

Before too long, Trump will be indicted, arrested and convicted in DC or NY or both.

The entirely corrupt apparatus of State will ensure he runs his next campaign from a jail cell.

The Dems own the Big Casino now, in partnership with Bush/GOPe.

Holder/Bootiejudge 2024!

Hail Hydra.


17 posted on 12/08/2022 5:41:57 AM PST by Quentin Quarantino
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To: frogjerk

I did not arrive at this opinion quickly...


18 posted on 12/08/2022 5:47:48 AM PST by dpetty121263
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To: MtnClimber

It’s not Democrats vs Republicans.

It’s not even GOPe vs Conservatives.

It’s the Globalist/Wall Street faction against the Nationalist/Main Street citizens.

And only ONE candidate represents the Main Streeters.


19 posted on 12/08/2022 5:47:59 AM PST by Bratch
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To: MtnClimber
In an otherwise sub-par VDH piece, how appropriate and apropos to name Trump alongside one of America's Greatest Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt.

Damn shame old VDH has actually forgotten history, and how the Election of 1912 actually transpired conspired:

In November 1911, a group of Ohio Republicans endorsed Roosevelt for the party's nomination for president; the endorsers included James R. Garfield and Dan Hanna. This endorsement was made by leaders of President Taft's home state. Roosevelt conspicuously declined to make a statement—requested by Garfield—that he would flatly refuse a nomination. Soon thereafter, Roosevelt said, "I am really sorry for Taft... I am sure he means well, but he means well feebly, and he does not know how! He is utterly unfit for leadership and this is a time when we need leadership." In January 1912, Roosevelt declared "if the people make a draft on me I shall not decline to serve". Later that year, Roosevelt spoke before the Constitutional Convention in Ohio, openly identifying as a progressive and endorsing progressive reforms—even endorsing popular review of state judicial decisions.

Roosevelt began to envision himself as the savior of the Republican Party from defeat in the upcoming presidential election. In February 1912, Roosevelt announced in Boston, "I will accept the nomination for president if it is tendered to me. I hope that so far as possible the people may be given the chance through direct primaries to express who shall be the nominee.

Elihu Root and Henry Cabot Lodge thought that division of the party would lead to its defeat in the next election, while Taft believed that he [Roosevelt] would be defeated either in the Republican primary or in the general election.

The 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, a reform achievement of the progressive movement...The greatest primary fight came in Ohio, Taft's base. Both the Taft and Roosevelt campaigns worked furiously, and La Follette joined in. Each team sent in big name speakers. Roosevelt's train went 1800 miles back and forth in the one state, where he made 75 speeches. Taft's train went 3000 miles criss-crossing Ohio and he made over 100 speeches.

Roosevelt swept the state, convincing Roosevelt that he should intensify his campaigning, and letting Taft know he should work from the White House not the stump. Only a third of the states held primaries; elsewhere the state organization chose the delegations to the national convention and they favored Taft. The final credentials of the state delegates at the national convention were determined by the national committee, which was controlled by Taft men. - wikipedia


20 posted on 12/08/2022 5:48:46 AM PST by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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