He's just pushing the buttons of people to see what the reactions are. Mainly, he wants to see how many of his supporters would be willing to start a revolution over the 2020 election, which is data he would need to decide what he wants to do, or ask people to do, next. Who's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, as that very well could be what a revolution results in. So he's measuring up his support, in the form of a potentially fatalistic rallying cry.
Second, he's also pushing the buttons of his opponents, to measure them up as well, in size and scope. He's forcing the issue, and making people choose a side, so that even people like me, who once supported him greatly, but had settled on being more on the fence and not supporting him for President unless he won the nomination, are starting to wonder if he should ever be President again, at all.
Why is he forcing the issue? Especially two years after the 2020 election, and even after the 2022 midterms? Likely because he is starting to see his chances in 2024 are starting to go down the tubes. Whether that is because, as his supporters would claim, we can't make it 2024 with the Democrats in control, or as his detractors would claim, he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning the general election. Either way, his recent actions appear to indicate that he himself has possibly realized that 2024 will not be the way he becomes President again, so a rehash of 2020 is his only hope. Which could require a literal scorched Earth approach, but before embarking on that, he needs to measure everything up.
Excellent analysis but I don’t understand how you end up a “fence” sitter. Trump is going to destroy our enemies with that “scorched earth approach” you mentioned and easily coast into the Presidency. Nothing is going to stop him and many weak freepers are going to fold.
I agree Trump was trying to up rile folks — on both sides. He was probably jealous of Musk and Kanye for stealing all the attention and trying to get the spotlight back on himself. Stupidly, I think. The Kanye thing was fading away and Musk’s Twitter revelations were a great gift to Trump.
But wanting “to see how many of his supporters would be willing to start a revolution over the 2020 election” and “willing to make the ultimate sacrifice”? I’m not ready to go there. Perhaps you are right, and he’s gone bonkers and looking at political Samsonic suicide* “in a fatalistic rallying cry” — but I can’t quite believe that. Not yet.
If some deranged fool goes out and shoots some place up because of this, the Dems will have a field day: “See, didn’t we warn you? MAGAnuts are violent fascists bent on insurrection, a danger to democracy?!?!” — and claim Biden’s creepy red-lit Nuremberg speech was “prophetic”. Trump will be accused of “incitement to violence” just as he was falsely accused of it over Jan6. Only this time, it would be far, far tougher to defend him.
Let us pray hard no such thing comes to pass.
*Of course, in the strict sense, Samsonic suicide means destroying one’s enemies along with one’s self. In the scenario you posed, Trump would severely damage his MAGA movement along with himself.