While legal decisions that will determine former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign schedule are pending, suffice it to say the Democrat left and the bureaucratic uni-Party state have done their utmost to keep him off the trail and inside courtrooms facing scores of charges ranging from porn-star payoffs to fomenting insurrection against the United States government.
Trump often rails against the lawfare that’s keeping him from untrammeled campaign mode. His barnstorm rallies draw thousands, and serve as heartening refreshers for the millions who support him. While chronicling his accomplishments while in office and airing enough grievances to fill a Festivus weekend, 2024’s leading contender for the White House invites fans to revel in past victory and resent in full measure the kitchen-sink onslaught deployed against him.
Analysts both pro-and anti-Trump have delved into the socio-political phenomenon of his poll numbers rising as each indictment comes down. This apparent contradiction (Trump delivers a side-narrative at rallies about how most politicians bow out of races after one indictment) is good for the brand, suggesting that everything being done to squelch his chances—especially constitutionally questionable attempts to keep him off the ballot—is backfiring.
There’s legitimacy to the theory that the relentless assault on Trump is creating a sense among voters who may not want a second Trump administration that leftist and establishment anti-MAGA stratagems are manifestly unfair, desperation plays against a candidate who’s shaping up as the battleground choice of the electorate. A feature of this angle is that if anti-Trump forces had simply tried to defeat him the old-fashioned way, with superior messaging and some beneficial kitchen-table accomplishments, Trump’s numbers would be less stellar.
It’s plausible, given the dearth of meaningful accomplishment that characterizes Joe Biden’s term in office, that Trump’s numbers would’ve incrementally risen over the course of the campaign anyway. In any event, bestowing Trump with an aura of martyrdom has apparently improved his chances.
Of late, absent any objective successes to tout, the stop-Trump forces have devolved into full-fledged fear-mongering. January 6’s regrettable Capitol breach has been placed rhetorically on par with 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War. The demonization of the millions who supported Trump in 2020 will carry forth in 2024’s cycle with a vengeance. This plan to turn American against American in in character for the contemporary left and Washington establishment.
Trump’s effective framing of a campaign that will move from regional arenas to courtrooms provides the rhetorical counterpunch, and internalize the stakes for millions: “They’re trying to stop me because they want to stop you. I’m just standing in the way.” and, “I wear each indictment like a badge of honor.”