Infinite Crimes

It’s time to re-platform Trump.

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269
Former President Donald Trump talks to supporters during a campaign rally on January 17, 2024, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Good evening! We’re five days away from the most competitive presidential primary the Republican Party has seen in eight years.

Here is the frontrunner’s closing message:

“People do these elaborate takes about Trump’s authoritarian aspirations and then he just comes out and says the president should be allowed to do infinite crimes,” Matt Yglesias marveled.

Trump 2024: Infinite Crimes. It has a ring to it.

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  1. Cliffdwellers

    I think if the Democrats nominate someone other than Biden (especially someone perceived as a moderate, like Andy Beshear or Jared Polis) after Trump is locked in as the GOP nominee, they will win in a landslide. I have no idea why Democrats would stick with Biden who will obviously become more incapable as he continues to age.

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  2. Debra D

    Seems to me, if I were cynical, the media plan would be to start covering Trump more once the RNC officially names him the candidate. Once locked in and nowhere to go, the coverage shows him at his worst (easy enough) and Biden at his grandfatherly harmless best. Biden wins. The media rejoices and crowns itself kingmaker.

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  3. Bob smith

    The best thing that could have ever happened for THEDISPATCH was a live feed race with Nick (Mr. HOT AIR) and a daily diary trying to run in this current Republican primary.

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  4. Dnels

    I am not sure why we are still having this conversation during his THIRD primary, but casual Republican voters need to realize that Trump is not a normal candidate and the Republican party is not the same party it was in the pre-Trump era. Voting for the republican candidate over the dem because that is just what we do is not penalty free anymore. Listen to conservative media and they are sounding the same old alarms that the dems want to fundamentally alter the nation, but the GOP is the far greater threat. The hell of it all is that you know they know this but keep the charade going anyway because....eyeballs/clicks/revenue. This will go down as one of the most despicable and cynical eras of American politics, and we need everyone to wake up before we sleepwalk into the worst case scenario.

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      2sequoia

      I so agree.

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    Connie

    I am so glad to be 61 years of age. I really don't want to see what this all looks like in 50 years. Hopefully, I won't see what it looks like in 25 years.

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    1. Martin W Kraegel III

      My father recently passed away and I told him soon before he died that perhaps it was good to be leaving the mortal coil now. He agreed with me.

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        Angie

        Sorry to hear that Martin...heart out to you

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    Billy.Faires

    "It was clear the tide finally turned against Trump when MSNBC broadcast the former president's victory speech in Iowa. An estimated 12 million Republican viewers were watching MSNBC that night, aghast at what they heard, and determined that night they could never in good conscience vote for the man."

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  7. J. Everett Schubert

    Trump - and his family - are what we call, "white trash with money" where I come from. He's like the guy you went to high school with who goes around crowing about what a "self made small businessman" he is, how he got where he is by hard work and pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. And yet, everyone in this town knows that he's a successful businessman to the extent that his old man handed him an established, third generation construction business, along with a generous inheritance and a Rolodex full of connections. If it weren't for hitting the birth lottery by being born with the right last name, he'd be living in a singlewide outside of Gnat Shit, Arkansas, hooked on meth.

    Certain people are just predisposed to trashiness, and giving them money does nothing to change it.

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    1. Indisguise

      Trump's father, Frederich Christ Trump (his moms last name not, thankfully, religious mania) was a millionaire. His grandfather made his fortune and real estate. So, alas not the classical definition of white trash.

      I went searching in Wikipedia after reading your take. there was even a Johann Sebastian Trump. :)

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      Connie

      I've been calling Trump, "trailer trash," for years.

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  8. BPhillips

    There are still too many voters who do indeed know what Trump is, they've read newsletters like this, but will still insist on virtue signaling by voting 3rd party or writing in a random name - apparently because Biden tried to forgive student loan debt. Too many people don't seem to mind another Trump presidency.

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      Dborja

      Got to agree on that one. I voted libertarian last 3 elections, this time, it's Biden. Yes, he bootlicked the progressive simpletons in his party and infected the administration with hordes of wide-eyed young lefties. Still, Biden has the classical liberal bonafides and there will be elections in the future to shift policy back toward toward the center and maybe even toward a Reaganesque center-right.

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    Christine Parker

    The only people who subscribe to Truth Social are the media, the never Trumpers, and the minority of GOP voters who just love Trump awful much.

    I couldn't care less what he says on his social media. He'll contradict himself in two days.

    This is nuts. I am SO sick of Trump. Does anyone care about Adam Schiff's plans to end the filibuster and change the composition of SCOTUS from 9 to 13? Not here. Nope.

    Why am I paying for frustration and depression? For defeatism? For the same smug attitude I can find anywhere else for free?

    Oddly I just read an article in the WSJ analyzing "earned media" this cycle and Trump has received billions worth of free air time. Deplatforming is one of the reasons he's winning again, but he still gets more coverage than anyone else. Now here's an article saying he isn't covered enough.

    If the apocalypse is due and we can't stop it, might as well pop some champagne and enjoy life while it lasts.

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    1. AJLiberty

      The uncomfortable reality is that +50% of the GOP does not appear movable in their support of Trump. They've been exposed to Christie's hard truths and, in his words, they just don't care. They've been exposed to the soft truths of Haley saying he's too old and that chaos follows him, DeSantis saying he was just too ineffective, and Trump still wins in Iowa by 30pts...and leads comfortably in national polls. NH may just be an outlier.

      I agree that conservatives should stand and fight, but with what strategy exactly? Social media and partisan media is financially driven by drama and outrage....which generates clicks and eyeballs. The Dispatch could call for Fox News to stop covering Trump in such glowing terms, but what would be the response? Go pound sand, sorry but Trump is news and our watchers demand a Trump-positive spin.....or we lose them to OAN or to podcasts.

      Does calling out Tucker make him any less influential with his populist fans? The entire right-wing media sphere is broken and our cultural incentives are out of whack. I agree that as a collective we should battle as hard for Haley as possible and criticize those enablers that support Trump. I think AllahNick does this in a backhand way. He frequently takes the long way, but I think he gets to the same point as many of us. Ignoring Trump does not change the challenges here. Neither does wallowing in despair I acknowledge. It would be wonderful if rational discourse mattered but we're battling a psychology that has been conditioned and is deeply engrained. The GOP is self-destructing. Let's not otherwise delude ourselves.

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      1. Indisguise

        Trump appeals to working people without degrees and apparently not much hope. Trailer Trash if you will. It seems people will do anything to stop Trump but find out what needs are not being met and at least talking about them. I suspect not all of them are racist hillbillies. Maybe they are hit harder by things that don't affect us noble people as much.

        I mean. at this point. I really don't want to see another attempted coup if there were some tangible real issues we could meet on.

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        Christine Parker

        MSNBC is just as bad as Fox and I'm tired of hearing about Fox. I don't watch it and we aren't on a Fox comment thread.

        A low-turnout caucus isn't representative of the party as a whole, and I am also done with all the prognostication. Let the voters have their say.

        It's human nature to dig in your heels when challenged, and if people are sticking with Trump, it may be because people keep yelling at them about how stupid they are instead of seeking to understand their actual real world concerns. They are human beings, too, all with their own joys and challenges and worries.

        Finally - and probably most important - I just cannot get on board with the conclusion that a second Trump term would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. I'm exhausted by the constant drumbeat of doom. And I think the prognosticating becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; at some point the polls drive the voters, not the other way around.

        I'm not a member of the GOP. If it self-destructs, it self-destructs. I will not vote for Biden. Not a chance. It's time to just cancel my subscription. The more time I spend here, the more miserable I am. Life is short, and there is much more to life than Donald Trump.

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        2. Kay Bee

          Hi Christine.

          I constantly see you write (at length!) that you're unhappy with the authors/content/commentators here.

          As you say, there's no need to make yourself miserable.

          All the best to you.

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            Christine Parker

            You'll be pleased to know I have cancelled my subscription.

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        3. AJLiberty

          Polling in the digital age is pretty darn scientific. Where we can have potential 3 to 5 pt swings, 20pt swings would be highly unlikely. Hey, I'm hopeful that Haley can generate momentum but the road gets hard after NH even with SC lurking. The DC trial is still too far off to have much impact and there is little optimism in the projections. Simply saying "I don't like the numbers" is not a measured and rational response. Hot takes and punditry isn't demonstrating any movement in support. I can hope and pray...but Trump's own unhinged words remains the best strategy....hopefully some influential right-wing voices could become exhausted and have enough. There's no magic discussion to be had in our own bubble.

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            Christine Parker

            Maybe polls are scientific and I expect they are more accurate than they once were. The problem is we have 10 more months of this and who knows what might happen? Same with the primary - we don't know if someone will drop out, drop dead, etc. We could see a contested convention or a nominee convicted.

            My point is not simply that I don't like the numbers. I'm sure you are familiar with Chaos Theory, and in an election this big, it absolutely applies. What I object to is spending SO much time trying to game the whole thing out and putting so much emphasis on polling. I understand the impulse, believe me. We want to know and we want to know NOW! The problem is that we can't, but we think we can.

            I know I'm exhausted and have had enough. Sick of being in the middle of this fight.

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        4. AJLiberty

          First, is Trump an existential threat? I reserve "existential" for meteors and a zombie apocalypse, so probably "no". But let's look at what reasonably could happen. Though Congress now requires super majority approval to take us out of NATO officially, Trump could still start to redeploy our forces out of Europe as commander in chief and/or say that he does not plan to honor Article 5 of collective defense. He could initiate a similar pull out of S. Korea as his past advisers have noted. Given he has promised to end the Ukraine War in a day, I could imagine that he would end all logistic support and work with Congress to stop any future support for Ukraine.

          This could precipitate a rapid decimation of Ukraine forces and likely a negotiated settlement where Ukraine loses control over a large portion the country. This then signals to China that US has no stomach for opposition, perhaps accelerating its timetable for Taiwan. In my opinion, it would heighten the possibility of armed conflict with a nuclear superpower in their backyard. We're getting existential-ist...and a big reason why I support Haley. She actually knows what she is doing.

          I also see Trump getting extreme at the southern border creating a refugee crisis. We may see military at the border and extreme measures in sanctuary cities, creating federalism problems and growing opposition demonstrations. Violence and martial law are not out of the question. Declaring that he only wants to be a dictator on the first day does not instill confidence of what he plans for that day. He is mum on those details. There is a difference between firm and rash. I have zero confidence that Trump will not push his constitutional authority to impose Steven Miller solutions.

          My biggest fear is how Trump 2.0 will impact the justice system. Trump will likely be convicted on disrupting a Congressional proceeding. He will have to propose a self pardon....which if declared illegal.....will force him to take 25th amendment leave and have his VP then pardon him as acting President. This is an insane proposition. If that is coupled with him firing Jack Smith and going after state attorney generals will throw DoJ into chaos. People will quit on principle. Loyalists will be installed behind them. Retribution. It's what he's promised.

          Finally, Trump will only put yes-men into his cabinet. He found with Pence the problem with weakness. True believers. Loyalty oaths. I expect Kristi Noem as VP because she drinks the koolaid and knows her lines. The attorney general will need to agree with the retribution. Chaos will reign. Once justice is weaponized, expect violence in the streets. Faith in the US will evaporate which will have a negative impacts on markets.

          Russia on the march, military confrontation in the south china sea, refugee crisis, and economic turmoil....maybe we could indeed head off of the existential ledge. Why would we wait and see?

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          Will Bates

          The U.S. is a wonderful country, and The Dispatch is a great contribution to the journalism and punditry community, but to be sure it isn’t for everyone.

          Its your choice to stay or leave. Do whats best for you. But in as much as you are right to hold an opinion, so is everyone else here. And considering Nick’s readership, they don’t agree with you.

          So, stay or go. But if you stay, perhaps just stop reading Nick if you hate it so.

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        6. Martin W Kraegel III

          In the immortal words of Rhett Butler: "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn." Seriously, you keep threatening to leave, so leave. Nobody's preventing you from living your life. Wanna pop some bubbly, pop some bubbly.

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            Christine Parker

            I'm well aware that I'm the least popular commenter in these threads. You can pop some bubbly yourself - I cancelled my subscription.

            You're welcome.

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      3. Martin W Kraegel III

        How do we know the GOP is self-destructing? It maybe be hopelessly corrupt, rotten to the core, but self-destructing? As it now stands they have good odds of sweeping the White House, the Senate and the House in the 2024 and many Democrats are in outer space about this fact.

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          2sequoia

          I just don’t know if I can agree the Republicans have good odds to sweep the WH, the Senate, and the House. Do you really not think that the American people aren’t watching the disfunction in the House right now? God help us.

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        2. AJLiberty

          MAGA and NeverTrump are pulling in opposite directions. MAGA wants to keep its populist agenda and its cult of personality. Tucker and Don Jr are being groomed in the background. NeverTrump has no interest in more chaos. There will be a mighty tug to consider another option, especially for the upcoming general. If Trump loses, NeverTrump becomes the scapegoat. More purging commences. The losses are unsustainable. Something gives.

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          1. Martin W Kraegel III

            MAGA has the whip hand in this relationship. You have not had enough Trump skeptical conservatives saying they're out, and they won't vote GOP anymore it impact the fundamental trajectory we're on.

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          2. Martin W Kraegel III

            IF a viable third party arises you might be talking.

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  10. Chucky Bob

    So...Trump's argument is that you can't remove immunity just because you don't want a rogue cop to abuse the system. He does realize that he's the rogue cop in this analogy, right? No one wants to wipe out qualified immunity because of a good cop doing his job well. You want to change the rules because you see someone finding loopholes and doing evil within the rules as they currently stand. Bold move making the argument that the rules shouldn't be thrown out because even though you're the bad apple, good people later may be harmed by throwing out the rules...

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