Death of a Salesman

Is Trump 2024 just another grift?

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President Donald Trump speaks during an event at Mar-a-Lago. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.)

Where were you when Trump made his second “major announcement” of 2022?

I can’t remember where I was when he made his first. Chances are you can’t either. “Low energy” events seldom stick in the mind.

His second “major announcement” may linger, though.

Wednesday on Truth Social he touted something big in the works: “AMERICA NEEDS A SUPERHERO! I will be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow. Thank you!” That came accompanied by a brief, cryptic video featuring a drawing of Trump revealing a Superman-style costume underneath his suit.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    This was one of my all-time favorite installments of Boiling Frogs.

    “ I don’t think the campaign began as a grift. But it may be, to borrow a term, “transitioning.”

    Remember that Trump’s first run for president was also cracked up to be a scam, perhaps correctly. His narcissism is all but boundless, yet even he must have doubted his odds of beating a huge field of practiced Republican politicians in the primary and then Hillary Clinton in the general election. The smart read at the time was that he was running as a form of—what else?—self-promotion. He’d spend six months on TV every day, restore some luster to his stale celebrity, eventually find a pretext to withdraw from the primary after his polls finally went south, and parlay the exposure into a new primetime television gig.

    The Republican base, in its infinite wisdom, had other plans. To everyone’s surprise, and probably his too, Trump floated to the top of the polls and never came down. Like Pinocchio turning into a real boy, at some point the grift became a bona fide election-winning presidential campaign.

    What if his third and last run for office sees that metamorphosis in reverse? “I think we might be underrating the odds that the 2024 Trump campaign will be what everyone initially assumed the 2016 Trump campaign would be,” McKay Coppins tweeted after this morning’s “major announcement.” He has a point.”

    This. 1000%.

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    Dsypul

    I'm beginning to wonder if Trump and Giuliani are preparing for an insanity plea...

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    Theirnscott

    "Merry Griftmas", now that's funny.

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    Napalaska

    Thank you, Mr. Catoggio; this evening marks the end of a long, long week, and your column made me laugh long and loud. Particularly funny was the image conjured up reading this:

    "If they’re not going to get a second term in the White House out of this, they need to get something out of it. And that something, obviously, is to turn the MAGA base upside down and shake it until the loose change has fallen out of its pockets."

    Good medicine.

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  5. DTruitt

    It is no secret why DeSantis and his team are remaining mum about Trump’s uhh … rollout.

    Napoleon Bonaparte:

    “Never interfere when your enemy is busy destroying himself.”

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  6. Avatar photo
    CP

    Of course, Jonah would be away on vacation when Trump releases his trading cards. I think this might make his year just a little happier.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Anne W (Raw5254)

      This made me laugh, approvingly. I’d just enjoy listening to Jonah’s take on the entire thing! I don’t know how he doesn’t bring this up, and I’m smiling thinking about it.

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      1. Avatar photo
        CP

        The trading cards are the ultimate Christmas present to all of Trump’s critics.

        They also made Trump a lot of money.

        Win-win.

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  7. Kaybmorrow

    Is this true about the cards? I had not heard. Is this column a satire?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Stephanie

      Not only is it true, but within 24 hours of 45,000 of them sold out at a cost of $99 each.

      Go figure.

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    2. Hikingguy

      It's true. The column is not a satire. You should check out Trump as astronaut. It's a hoot.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Bono Vox

    Can Idiocracy still be voted BEST PICTURE for being way ahead of his time, and should there not be a life size statue of Mike Judge in front of Universal Stuios! After all, K.D.W. just penned an article for the Dispatch titled “Living under Camacho Law”. As I am laughing, and crying, at the same time as I am reading the Catmans take on farcical history, in real time, as he is not making this bat shitte Craz Ye stuff up about President Camacho, I cannot help but wonder how history will [long live Mike] Judge U.S. Not since Nero has an unholy rotten wannabe emperor made such a clown show of himself. And yet The Orangeman still has fanatics, while all The Don does is lose every game he plays in, not counting anymore how he won the big game, because the Democrats made like the Buffalo Bills and fumbled in their own end zone, when all they had to do was kneel down on the last play of the game. How’s it even possible that my pillow guy charlatans still have buyers like Majorie Taylor Greene, who will still even get down on her knees and preform grotesque public displays of affection on the megalomaniac …and she is still a Congresswoman. W.T.F. And who are these unnamed, so called”Trump advisors”…are Rudy Ghoulliani and Sidney Powell movement going off the record, or is Milo unavailable because he is still in search of his long lost boy…friend. And who is this crank yanker Robby Starbucks, professing that he still “loves Trump”, not in spite of all the criminally stupid shenanigans The Don has performed in just the last month, but because of the marvel comic strip Trump just exposed himself as for all the world to see, and saps to pay for…But not to one up you Catman, or my beloved revolutionary libertarians [ah, respectfully, not really] sweetheart Frenchie, I don’t mind writing, as much as I wish I could say it to all their ugly faces in the rabid crowd, you all still wearing MAKE AMERICA GRATING AGAIN made in chiiii an hats, Trump 2024 Ford F 350 bumber sticker tool men…The quandary of democracy is stupid white trash can vote, and I am living in an Idiocracy because of you all. As I would happily say to formally the world’s biggest Twitter troll and America’s Now Biggest Sore Loser Donald J Trump, lest you repent, atone and pay for the atrocity of January 6th, do the world a favor and get the fa off my planet. Ashli Babbitt still cannot be reached for comment. For the love of God,country and justice, not to mention peace on earth, I mean mind, Merrick Garland INDICT TRUMP. STOP THE MADDNESS. Thanks for taking my rant Boiling Frogs. Long live the Dispatch. Praise Allah Pundit. Peace through superior mental firepowerExpand full commentExpand full commentShow lessShow lessShow less

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  9. J. Everett Schubert

    Y'all. I can't even.

    I burst out in loud laughter this morning at my desk as I read about Trump NFT's, and I don't think that's ever happened from a Dispatch article.

    The jokes just write themselves. Martin Luther once said something to the effect of, the best way to resist the Devil is to mock him, for he cannot bear being made an object of ridicule. Perhaps the same strategy applies with Trump.

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  10. Gerald Cuesta

    The man is what clear thinking people always knew he was. I’m not sorry for laughing at the people who ‘love the guy’ but are suddenly surprised he would do such a thing. Tried not to, tried to respect their opinion; but they are ultimately as pathetic and sadly toxic as he is.

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