About a month ago, I was working at Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign headquarters, finetuning our short-term PR strategy, when campaign manager Susie Wiles burst through the doors. She was VERY upset. But I’d be lying if I said I was surprised: She liked to do things one way; I preferred another.
Eventually, something — or, more specifically, someone — had to cede to the other.
Before she could even say a word, I rolled the dice and spoke first: “I know what you’re thinking, Susie, so let’s just lay all our cards out on the table. You’re gonna try to replace me as Donald Trump’s official PR expert, aren’t you?”
Her answer surprised me:
“Scott, you never were our PR expert. You keep climbing through the window and breaking into our offices, and then you eat everyone’s snacks. Please go away and leave us alone.”
Still, there was an unmistakable glint in her eye that told me we’d be working together again — that yes, this chapter might have come to an unfortunate close, but thrilling stories are yet to be written. (And once my restraining order expires, I’ll ask Susie all about it.)
Until such a time, conservatives have been surveying the bounty of last week’s MAGA victory, feeling triumphant. There’s been a sense of unabashed optimism.
But not TOO MUCH optimism.
If you’re a conservative, it also feels a little bit like Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown: Yeah, we won the election, but now we kinda-sorta expect something to go wrong. It’s the political version of battered-wife syndrome: We’re conditioned to expect abuse, neglect, dishonesty, and disappointment from our “leaders” on Capitol Hill.
This time, however, our political opportunity is multigenerational: The Republicans will have control of the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Court — plus most governor's’mansions! Such an alignment is rarer than Haley’s comet — and thus, the cost of squandering it would be incalculable.
It would be akin to finally winning the Mega Millions lottery after decades of trying… and then torching your ticket before you can cash it in.
Which is why, despite the euphoria from Election Day, pessimism abounds — and deservedly so! Conservatives have been burned so many times that we instinctively flinch at the TV news crawl: “Oh, no! What went wrong this time?”
So, without any further ado, here are the top three ways the GOP might somehow, someway screw this up:
One: The Democrats successfully pry away enough RINOs to render our legislative majority null and void.
It’s a play from their opposition handbook that they’ve previously used to short-circuit GOP control. As we noted:
Historically, the Democrats and/or media have been very successful at seducing spineless, insecure Republicans. We’ve seen it happen before: Rush Limbaugh renamed him “Jumpin’ Jim,” but when Sen. James Jeffords left the GOP in 2001, it gave the Democrats control of the Senate.
If and/or when the Democrats find themselves within striking distance of a majority, a similar play is coming.
But even without a clear-cut party defection, all the Democrats need are a few GOP congressmen or senators that they can intimidate, bribe, strongarm or cajole into voting “no” enough times to bottle up legislation. And it won’t take much: Two or three traitorous RINOs are more than enough to stall legislation, preventing it from ever escaping its various committees.
That’s their gameplan: Slow everything down until the midterms.
Two: Misplaced Republican priorities.
Yes, Trump and the GOP won a mandate. And yes, that means something. As President Obama so famously noted, “Elections have consequences.”
But a mandate to do… what?
The voters are suffering from sky-high inflation, economic hardships, the rising cost(s) of housing, and the ripple effect of a broken immigration system. If Trump and the GOP focuses like a laser beam on these issues, the American people will be ecstatic. And they’ll reward the Republicans electorally.
Now’s the time to give the people what they want!
But if GOP lobbyists subvert the agenda to pursue other interests, the American people will revolt. They’ll feel cheated and deceived. It’s critical for the Trump administration to set the tone early, lest the Democrats and/or media define our agenda for us.
Three: Unforced errors.
This is the big one. We’re driving down the field. We have the ball. Our team is better than their team. As long as we maintain ball control and move methodically and intelligently, we should be able to put the ball in the endzone. Over and over again, too!
But we can’t afford any turnovers.
With a (very ambitious) MAGA platform to fulfill, we can’t waste ammo arguing about mean Tweets or embarrassing conduct. We don’t want to lose a news cycle bickering about silly, inconsequential nonsense.
Our time is too precious.
The Democrats and the media will do everything possible to magnify our missteps. And then, of course, they’ll pivot from the scandal du jour, using the blunder as an opportunity to run stories about Trump’s age (“OMG, he’s so senile!”) — or anything else that might reset the narrative.
We win when the focus is on MAGA. The Democrats and/or media know this, which is why they’re so desperate to flip the script and talk about something different.
But if Team Trump keeps running between the tackles and pounding away, they won’t have the chance. We have the ball, not them. We just can’t be careless and turn the ball over: No interceptions, no turnovers, no boneheaded plays!
A methodical, ball-control offense will light up the scoreboard.
And just might be enough for Susie Wiles to forgive me for eating those snacks.
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