Arotrios , 11 months ago

Boosted and upvoted for reprinting the text on the Fediverse.

I don't see this as being a winning tactic for Trump. He simply doesn't have the support from the power-brokers he did in 2016 - he's pissed off his wealthy donors and cost them too much money and power, both through grift and his glaring ineptitude in office. He will likely win the primary, but his chances in the general election are slim. He won't win the popular vote (again), and the electoral college landscape is less welcoming than it was seven years ago.

That being said, it's pretty clear that Trump realizes this. When you have both the institutions of the state and the financial backers in your party turn against you, no amount of populism can save you. He probably figures that he might as well go down "fighting the man", as it's unlikely at this point that surrender would provide him a better set of consequences than going out in a blaze of narcissistic glory.

This is where the real danger lies - after the election, when he's lost and has that brief moment as the dust settles before he's sent to jail, that's when he'll go nuclear, and you'll see him call not to "stand back and stand by", but to go to war.