Well, here’s a fresh, if utterly predictable, pickle. Donald Trump gets indicted by a federal grand jury over his handling of classified materials, and now Big Media figures it’s up to every prominent Republican — especially those seeking the White House — to have an opinion.
Because it’s prickly, of course, and Big Media adores seeing Republicans squirm. Especially when it’s the result of friendly fire, as it is here. For reasons beyond explanation, millions of Americans still provide and demand absolute fealty to the former president; utter anything failing to meet their standard and they’ll come at you like hornets from a nest.
So it was Thursday, a couple of hours after Trump himself broke news of his indictment, GOP presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted with care, “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation. Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?”
The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society.
We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.
Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?
The DeSantis…
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) June 9, 2023
Politico described it as “a remarkable statement,” a clear indication of the high-wire act Trump’s closest pursuer must pursue “to challenge the ex-president without alienating his most fervent supporters.”
And it showed in clear terms the limits of how much DeSantis will take Trump on. While he eagerly highlights their differences over handling Covid-19 and takes constant, oft-veiled jabs at Trump’s electability, DeSantis is making a calculated effort not to anger the political base that appears to grow emboldened in its support of Trump with each passing legal trouble.
Such is life under the big top when Donald Trump is the main event.
Let’s not for a moment pretend Trump didn’t invite these latest unpleasantries. Without rehearsing the details here, you don’t have to be a committed Never-Trumper to concede he sort of had this coming. (Just — as Ed meticulously explained — as Hillary Clinton did. Not to mention Joe “Corvette Garage” Biden.)
Trump is an inexhaustible vexation, an inexorable vulgarian, a bottomless well of self-interest and self-pity who, for reasons inexplicable to rational minds, has become the personified prism of persecution through which some millions of Americans view their own put-upon situations.
Stipulated: Substitute Hillary for Trump, and you wouldn’t feel obligated to change a single word in the above paragraph. The pair are matching vessels fashioned by the same glass-blowing artisan, overflowing with blame-deflecting grievances scented of marzipan.
But Hillary is the Democrats’ (unacknowledged) problem. Trump’s egoistic innocent-man rancor belongs exclusively to the GOP, the management of which is both increasingly problematic and, with the 2024 presidential election looming, impossibly urgent.
Inexplicably, given the baggage chained to Trump like Marley’s ghost — every link forged by the former president himself — the road to the Republican presidential nomination runs through Mar-a-Lago. Which leaves DeSantis and the rest of the GOP field railing at overzealous trappers (not incorrectly) while giving Trump wide berth.
One wonders, as one is wont to do, whether DeSantis knows enough Shakespeare to (in thoughts known only to his closest intimates) paraphrase Henry II in despair over his former friend and ally, Thomas Beckett. Will no one rid me of this tumultuous rival?
Writing for The Atlantic, David Frum suggests the moment will help those who help themselves:
It’s as sincere as the grief at a Mafia funeral.
Who believes that Governor Ron DeSantis—so badly trailing in the polls behind former President Donald Trump—is genuinely upset by his rival’s federal indictment? Or that Speaker Kevin McCarthy—so disgusted by Trump in private—does not inwardly rejoice to see Trump meet justice?
The Fox News talkers have been trying for months to sideline Trump and promote DeSantis. Now they have a turn of events that promises both to help their corporate political agenda and to stoke controversy and ratings. They must be positively ecstatic at the network’s New York headquarters today.
Republicans get more easy-to-give advice from USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques:
DeSantis doesn’t want to tick off Trump’s hardcore fans, but he can’t shy away from taking the fight directly to Trump. Rather than dabble in juvenile back and forths with Trump over AI generated images, he should take the opportunity to highlight how if he were president, he’d never put himself in these vulnerable situations. …
Regardless, in the short-term, Trump and Biden each benefit from Trump being in the spotlight. If the GOP really wants to move on from Trump, his opponents need to do a much better job of turning the heat on the former president.
These indictments are the perfect opportunity.
Yeah, no. Even as Team Trump continues to play the juvenile game of Animal House nicknaming — today, DeSantis is Tiny D (*wink*) — Republican hopefuls, led by the accomplished governor of the third largest state, find themselves once more navigating treacherous waters using suspect paddles, stuck in the same boat as the self-absorbed windbag who churned them up in the first place.
There is no going around Trump. The only way out is through.
