Monday, 11 January 2021

Trump's supporters are never going to go away

The violence and deaths and vandalism inside the Capitol appear not to have had any affect whatsoever on the views and wishes and aims of Donald Trump's mighty band of supporters. In fact the opposite. There is no guarantee that they won't do the same thing all over again, not necessarily in the Capitol but anywhere where they can raise temperatures on behalf of their president. Never mind that he will be leaving the White House in nine days. They will clearly continue with their fanatical support for Trump once Joe Biden takes over to keep Trumpism alive until he makes up his mind about whether to stand again in 2024. And if he decides against it, his fans will cry and shout and demonstrate until he changes his mind and announces that he WILL stand. What is it about Trump that makes politics today so different from previous eras? Ronald Reagan was loved too but of course he served two terms in office and was able to retire and ride off into the sunset, his legendary status confirmed for ever. In the mind of his fans, Trump was unjustly/unlawfully removed from office after one term and should have been allowed to have a second term, whatever the Electoral College says. It's as simple as that. These are men and women of all ages who get up in the morning and put their red Trump caps on to demonstrate their unfailing devotion to the man with the candy-floss hair. This is not going to change. It's like a cult following and one that is so huge that Biden is going to have to deal with it somehow. Trump will be out of the White House but Trumpism and all that it stands for is here to stay for the foreseeable future. That is seriously worrying both for the United States as a country in general and for the Biden administration post-January 20 in particular. Because he knows that, Trump will continue to harbour dreams of standing again in 2024. However many close allies advise against it, Trump is going to wake up every morning in Florida and play president in front of the mirror. "I WILL be president again," he will say to himself. Right now I can't see his millions of fans ever transferring their devotion to someone else in the Republican Party, however Trumpian they might try to be. Which is why the Republican Party and those members who want to stand for president in 2024 are doomed.

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