Trump's Waterloo?

Two days ago Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh, one of the brightest liberal columnists around, opined, though not quite in those words, that Trump was leading DeSantis in the polls because his supporters were not looking for executive competence, but were looking to join a cult.

In truth, Trump himself made the same point years ago when he declared that he could shoot someone in public on Fifth Avenue and would not lose any votes.

A piece of Trumpian grandioso braggadoccio, but Ganesh was obviously tuning into something, not nothing.

And yet, strangely enough, and by the vagaries of politics, just as Ganesh was making his salient point Trump ignited a firestorm of criticism, against him. This time, largely from supporters or from people who had even supported him in the past. Apparently, the sheepish Trump cult followers were in open defiance of the caricature that Ganesh and Trump had pinned on them.

The name of Trump’s Waterloo moment was Kayleigh McEnany, formerly Trump’s press secretary. In fairness, and by general consensus, she had done an outstanding job in that role. Now, for having reported something that might not have been quite right, Trump turned on her.

Nothing very new about that. What was new was the outpouring of support that she received from Trump supporters, Republicans and assorted conservatives. It felt like a shift in election tectonics.

One remarks that Trump called her “milktoast,” thereby exposing the fact that he did not know how to spell milquetoast. Everyone has pointed this out, so we will not belabor the point.

Douglas Murray wrote a column where he defended, not just McEnany, but the number of other former Trump loyalists who had discovered that with Trump, loyalty is a one-way street.

Naming Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon, Chris Christie and John Kelly, Murray wrote:

He attacks those who have been loyal to him because it is his nature. He can’t help himself. 

He demands 100% loyalty from everyone around him, but is incapable of loyalty in return.

We knew this from the start of his time in office, if we hadn’t seen it before. Almost everybody who ever took heat for Trump has been rewarded with insults and disloyalty.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade:

For example, attacking Kayleigh McEnany is insane. She was one of the best press secretaries ever. Dana Perino, as Ari Fleischer watching to say she was fantastic, but she’s an analyst now. She doesn’t work for any campaign.

Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV offered this from host Brian Prather:

This is pathetic. I don’t care who you are. This is unacceptable and unhinged…. [McEnany] took bullets for this man. We have a guy in the White House destroying the country and you go after her?!?!? It’s becoming an absolute joke.

Former legal advisor Jenna Ellis said this:

I will simply leave this here for when people ask why I and *many* others didn’t return for 2024.

Brit Hume said this:

Imagine being so immature as to attack your former press secretary, who was nothing if not loyal, for allegedly misquoting a poll number….”

Over at Pajamas Media, Trump supporter Stephen Kruiser remarked that Trump’s ramblings are approaching Kamala Harris levels of incoherence. Call it the most unkindest cut of all.

Rambling about the pronunciation of DeSantis’s name makes it seem like he went to the Kamala Harris Academy of Public Speaking. The “DeSanctimonious” thing is really pathetic. That’s a joke that only the open mic-er’s friends are laughing at. When he first started saying it, I said it didn’t have any of the sharpness of the kinds of derogatory nicknames he came up with off the cuff in 2016 and 2020. It sounds more like something that branding executives workshopped for focus groups for six months and whiffed on anyway, like “The Cleveland Guardians.”

After noting that he will still vote for Trump, Kruiser adds:

And to all of the “Thou Shalt Not Criticize Trump!” people out there, I’ll just say this: at some point you have to admit that, while the emperor may still be wearing some of his new clothes, he’s begun to disrobe during the procession.

Funnily enough, the only conservative who has not responded to the Trump slander is Kayleigh McEnany-- looks like she was intimidated. It feels like good news that many conservative pundits have shown themselves to be more thoughtful and more ethical than your average cult follower.