June 7, 2023

When Trump burst on the political scene, his smashmouth style was, shall we say, off-putting. Dan Bongino, also from Queens, told us this was just the normal style of speech in that area. And many of us voted for the Donald, knowing that the alternative was simply intolerable. We weren’t sure what he would do, but his opponent was guaranteed to do bad things.

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For four years, in the face of relentless false attacks, Donald Trump got things done. Lots of things. But he didn’t drain the swamp. He fired FBI Director James Comey, installing in his place Chris Wray, who has been dramatically worse. There can be no whitewashing his investigations of concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.” He nominated Bill Barr to be Attorney General. Barr famously said he had seen “no evidence” of vote fraud in the 2020 election, but screamed at Colonel Tony Shaffer that Shaffer should stop investigating Pennsylvania vote fraud.

The list of failed appointees is long and distinguished, and Trump only seemed to discover the “Schedule F” option too late to implement it. He went along with “I AM the Science” Tony Fauci even when Dr. Scott Atlas told him Fauci was undercutting him. By all indications, Trump seems to believe in the bluster and bombast method of governing. He got some things right. Strategic ambiguity worked to keep Putin from crossing the Dnipro River. China wasn’t rattling so many sabers at Taiwan. But all the while, election fraud machinery had been running overtime, and the staff who actually implement policy blissfully ignored the President.

Image: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by Andrea Widburg

Any who have followed my posts will note that I have vacillated between support for Trump and for DeSantis. The reasons have varied from post to post, but one thing remains certain. If The Donald wins the nomination, he’ll have my vote because no Democrat is acceptable.

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But I wonder… Is Trump actually capable of Draining the Swamp? Or is it just his standard Queens overstatement, amplified by anger at still being attacked for merely existing? This week Trump amplified my puzzlement by blatantly attacking two of his most loyal former employees, Kayleigh McEnany and Jenna Ellis.

Let’s get one thing clear. Trump saw something in each of these women that led to him retaining their services. But it wasn’t the fact that Trump hired them that made them successful. Two of his other hires make this clear. Omarosa Manigault was a Trump assistant in the White House, but performed badly, leading to her summary dismissal. Anthony Scaramucci became White House Communications Director, but only lasted about ten days. Each of these failed because of their own actions.

Kayleigh McEnany may have been a relative unknown when she was appointed by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, but she rapidly proved to be the best Presidential Press Secretary in recent history. She left with Trump as Joe Biden assumed office. Since then, her skills have landed her a high paid job as a political analyst on Fox News. For those of us on the spectator’s side of the television, she was even better than the stellar Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

McEnany received Donald Trump’s by (mis?)quoting the results of an opinion poll:

While we can argue over whether the poll was quoted correctly, Trump’s response is beyond petty and churlish. It’s just a schoolyard bully acting out. Because someone who worked for him said something less than glowing about Saint Donald, he went off on an unhinged rant. We can argue about mean tweets, but if you want to see a master at work, look no further than Ron DeSantis. He does not suffer fools gladly but still avoids acting like a bully.