President Donald Trump is confident he’ll sail to victory with ease in 2020, he told a crowd of supporters at a Florida rally, and with his Democratic opponents looking increasingly unhinged, he could be right.
“They want to do investigations instead of investments,” Trump told a crowd in Panama City, Florida, ever the optimist even as his congressional detractors tear their hair out over his refusal to allow them unfettered access to the special counsel report to continue those investigations. The probes are a feature, not a bug, the president told the crowd: “I think it drives us on to victory in 2020.”
To hear the cries for impeachment issuing from the House, one would be forgiven for thinking they had smoking-gun evidence of some heinous crime. Instead, Trump’s complaints about being the victim of a “witch hunt” have never been more relatable – and voters love relatable.
At the Florida rally, Trump joked he might stay on at the White House a few extra years, eliciting laughs as he predicted how the media would take his comment and run headlines calling him a despot. He didn’t even have to make a joke, because they were already doing it – CNN’s Chris Cillizza, raging that the president’s popularity was on an upswing, envisioned Trump, desperate after losing the 2020 election, refusing to leave, instead contesting the vote as fraudulent for years – a scenario that sounds suspiciously like another candidate Trump beat in 2016.
With every political and media tantrum thrown, Trump appears more sympathetic, his flaws – and there are many, from his failure to end a single ruinous war to his threats to start a few new ones – shrink in comparison to the sheer quantity of delusion marshaled against him.
The mere quantity of Democratic challengers may be Trump’s greatest advantage, in the end. After 20 candidates, the flavors all start to blend together, particularly those – like Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and even Joe Biden – whose platforms seem to consist of little more than “I’m not Trump, love me.” Others are driven to take suicidal policy positions – Eric “nuke the gun owners” Swalwell, for example – in the hope of distinguishing themselves, only to realize such positions are unpopular for a reason.
The #Resistance would be wise to cease hunting for collusion, obstruction and witches and start putting together a Trump-free vision for the future – that is, unless they hope to spend four more years assigning blame for their 2020 loss.