10,621 views Mar 16, 2023
Conservative writer Rich Lowery, the editor-in-chief of The National Review, has a new column explaining the bizarre behavior of Donald Trump when it comes to rival Ron DeSantis. Trump is obviously the clear front-runner in the GOP race, but instead of focusing on his ideas or his plans, he's hyper-focused on trashing the Florida governor, which could allow his other rivals to swoop in and steal support. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Conservative writer, rich Lauer, the editor-in-chief of the Conservative paper, the National Review, came out with a piece this week talking about how Donald Trump is clearly panicked over the threat of Ron DeSantis, dethroning him as the possible 2024 Republican nominee, which as Lowry points out, is a very weird thing to be panicked about. Like Donald Trump is basically wetting his pants because he's so afraid of Ron DeSantis over whom he has a 20 plus point lead. Let me read some of what Lowry had to say. Trump is like no front runner we've ever seen. Not necessarily in his strength or in his weakness, but in his manifest insecurity. Front runners usually try to glide above the rest of the field seeking to reinforce their dominant status by their lack of engagement with mere also rans. This usually doesn't work, but still they don't show desperation unless they've been seriously wounded. Following Trump's truth, social account, you'd think Ron DeSantis was running away with it and an envious and obsessed Trump was trying to figure out some way anyway, to begin to close a 20 point gap. Certainly, it's better for a front running candidate to be vigilant about potential threats rather than complacent. But being on guard is one thing, being in a near panic and advertising ill will pettiness and extreme divi, uh, defensiveness is another. There are signs that Trump is in a strong position in the nomination fight. His fixation with Ron DeSantis is not one of them. So let me go a little bit deeper, offer a little bit more analysis than uh, Mr. Lowry was able to provide. Yes, it is weird that Trump is so obsessed with DeSantis, but there's more problems than just his. I'm not acting like a front runner thing. When you spend all your time hyper-focused on attacking a man who hasn't even said he is running for president yet, we know he is, but he hasn't officially declared it. What you're not doing is talking about policy. What you're not doing is trying to attract new voters. What you're not doing is showing how you will fix all the problems that you constantly rant about are destroying our country. But another more important thing you're doing, aside from not talking about the actual issues, is you're hyper-focused on this guy over here, which opens up your flank to be overtaken by one of these people you aren't paying enough attention to. You are so distracted by Ron DeSantis that somebody like Nikki Haley could swoop in and start taking some of your support and then by the time you're finished with DeSantis, you're dusting off your hands. Ha ha ha. I gotcha. You turn around and suddenly Nikki Haley's nipping at your heels cuz you've lost support because voters got tired of it. Either way, you slice it, whether you go With Lowry's argument, whether you listen to what I have to say about it, Donald Trump has put himself in a very bad position and he deserves every bit of it. I would love to see him go down in flames in that Republican primary. That would be hilarious and it would be what he deserves. But if he continues to run this campaign as poorly as he has since he announced in mid-November, I think that's what's going to happen because the more he focuses on Ron DeSantis, the less he focuses on the other rivals and on the issues. And to be honest, Republicans want to hear about issues. That's what a poll this week showed. They want candidates who they agree with on issues. And right now Trump's only issue is that he seems to hate Rhon DeSantis.
