Hanging up the MAGA hat

I’d like to state for the record that I’m officially sick of Donald Trump.

Last Wednesday, Corey Lewandowski took to the airwaves with a bizarre announcement: Donald Trump is looking for someone to primary New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu.

Lewandowski, who briefly ran Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was speaking to Boston radio host Howie Carr. “The president is very unhappy with the chief executive of the state of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu,” said Mr. Lewandowski. “And Sununu, in the president’s estimation, is someone who’s never been loyal to him. And the president said it would be really great if somebody would run against him.”

First of all, Sununu has always been fiercely loyal to Trump — much to the Eastern Establishment’s dismay. He declined to endorse his old friend, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, in the 2020 election. During an appearance on the Howie Carr Show (of all places), Sununu remembered taking a call from Weld and saying, “Hey Bill, you know I love you, brother. But I’m a Trump guy through and through. And he’s going to crush you.”

That’s just one of many occasions on which Sununu declared his support for Trump. If Lewandowski has been telling Trump otherwise, he’s lying through his teeth.

Secondly, Trump’s past forays into New Hampshire politics have been disastrous. During the 2020 Senate race, he endorsed Bryant “Corky” Messner in the Republican primary. Messner is an alleged wife-beater who only moved to the Granite State from Colorado to run for office. In fact, despite having an “office” in New Hampshire, Messner still hasn’t been admitted to the bar anywhere in New England.

Messer’s main opponent in the primary was Brigadier General Don Bolduc, a New Hampshire native who was both more charismatic and more conservative than Messner. It’s fair to say that Trump lost us that Senate seat.

Thirdly, while Sununu isn’t exactly a culture warrior, he’s still one of the five most popular governors in the country. He won re-election by a whopping thirty-two-point margin in the same year Trump lost the state to Joe Biden by seven points. Sure, a Trump-backed candidate might beat Sununu in the primary. But he’d lose to the Democrat in a landslide.

If that happens, our new liberal governor will restrict our Second Amendment rights, implement sales and income taxes and roll out a vaccine mandate — all of which Sununu has fought against tooth and nail. Whatever score Trump has to settle, I don’t care. I’m not throwing away my freedoms to soothe his ego. Especially considering that score doesn’t exist.

Look: this isn’t just about New Hampshire, though anyone concerned about 2024 should be paying close attention to these developments. This is about Trump’s spectacularly poor judgment, which is currently the Democratic Party’s best (and only) asset.

Since he left office, Trump has been single-handedly wrecking the GOP. Sometimes he endorses unsavory and unelectable figures, including alleged wife-beaters like Messner and Sean Parnell. Other times, he throws a tantrum and urges Republicans to sit out whole elections as punishment for some alleged slight. In his spare time, he’s helped to drag the party to the left on social issues. For instance, he helped to launch the Republicans’ first LGBT pride coalition.

Anyone who checks my record will know that I’m a Trump guy, too. I supported him in the 2016 primary. But I was only for Trump because I thought Trump was for me. If he’s going to use his influence to sweep the Democrats into power, he’s lost my support.

And, from what I’m hearing, lots of longtime Trumpkins feel the same way. Because it’s not just his endorsements. When Trump decided to cast himself as Vaxxer-in-Chief, we started to get déjà vu. There were distinct notes of 2017, when the president enraged his base by ordering airstrikes on Syria.

Then, as now, Trump was blindly following the advice of an unqualified aide. (Back then it was Ivanka, not Lewandowski.) Even if he’s being lied to, it shows that he’s putting his trust in the wrong people. That makes him a liability — especially as a kingmaker. And then, as now, Trump was spectacularly out of touch with his core supporters. That’s not a good look for a politician who casts himself as a tribune of the plebs.

Speaking of plebs, I don’t appreciate the suggestion that Republicans are obligated to vote only for candidates who are “loyal” to Trump. I don’t give a damn whether a candidate is loyal to Donald Trump. I only care if he’s loyal to me. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.

It’s amazing how quickly the anti-establishment movement turned into a little establishment of its own. These days, Mar-a-Lago is just as swampy as the Beltway. And I want no part in it.

I’m done. I’m hanging up the MAGA hat — and the MAGA flag, book of Trump poetry, the Trumpisms calendar, and the Trump troll doll with the fluffy yellow hair. I will Trump no more forever.