Political Irony

Last week, Joe Biden laid a trap for Donald Trump, as well as the entire Republican Party, and TFG fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

As has been noted repeatedly, Republicans desperately wanted the upcoming midterm elections to be a referendum on Biden: the withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation, gas prices, the border, race, and anything else they could blame on the current president, even if (like the withdrawal from Afghanistan) it was something that Trump caused. And even though Biden isn’t actually on the ballot. The GOP needed to make sure the election wasn’t about Trump.

So Biden baited Trump, attacking him. Even worse, he gave a speech that was more like one of Trump’s rallies than a typical Democratic speech. That must have really gotten under Trump’s skin.

48 hours later, Biden’s goading worked. Trump was scheduled to give one of his trademark rallies in Pennsylvania, in support of two Republican candidates who Trump had endorsed. What followed was ugly, strident, narcissistic, and completely and totally about Trump. Instead of promoting the two candidates who were actually running for office, Trump denounced the state’s largest city (where Biden had given his speech), saying “I think Philadelphia was a great choice to make this speech of hatred and anger.” Trump complained that “Last year, the city set an all-time murder record with 560 homicides and it’s on track to shatter that record again in 2022.”

But Trump mainly complained about the FBI, calling them and the DOJ “vicious monsters.” He called Biden an “enemy of the state”. He even attacked the Republican leader of the Senate, saying he “should be ashamed”. And of course, Trump also spread his typical lies, claiming that in 2020 he won the popular vote in Pennsylvania, when he actually lost it by more than 80,000 votes.

Of course, Republicans had to support Trump, in order to appease his base. So now, the midterm election is all about Trump. It is almost like every Republican name on every midterm ballot has been changed to Trump’s name. And remember that Trump lost the popular vote in 2016, control of the House in 2018, the Senate in 2021, and the presidency in 2020. The only thing he didn’t lose was the Supreme Court, but that was done using dirty tricks, and led to overturning Roe v. Wade, which is wildly unpopular, even in red states.

Let’s hope Trump just lost the midterms.