The Second Coming of Trump

Does Trump still have the same appeal as he did in 2016?

By
27

Robert Costa, chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News, joins Jamie to discuss what a second Trump administration would look like.

The Agenda:
—GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s previous Dispatch Podcast appearance and Costa’s response
—How Trump pressured different Republican leaders leading up to January 6
—Steve Bannon’s motivation and role
—Trump’s ongoing legal cases and how they affect his campaign
—Trump’s possible VP picks

Show Notes:

—NYT “Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too”

By
Comments (27)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Scarlette Tarte

    The easiest way to keep Trump safe in prison is to put him in solitary confinement. For his "own safety" of course. Heck, give him a real posh room, lots of books, plenty of writing paper, or rather, coloring books. But no TV, it is prison, so it should be punishment. Trump loves TV, so it would be an appropriate punishment to not let him have one.

    But I am fine with him having even a bigger cell and a nicer bed that most inmates, as long as we don't have to see, or hear from him ever again. Solitary confinement would be best for him, and us.

    😎

    Collapse
  2. Bobby D

    Great interview. I agree with Costa that Trump is merely an avatar of a movement that already existed.

    One leg of the three-legged stool of fusionism has a.ways been social/cultural conservatism. This group has mainly consisted of religious conservatives. But it also includes a number of non-religious cultural conservatives. But most of these latter folks were low-propensity voters, and tended to be wary of religious appeals. So, they tended not to come out for someone like Santorum, who tended to lead with religious conservatism.

    Trump rallied this tribe from the other direction. He activated the non-religious cultural conservatives, and the religious conservatives made their peace with Trump’s immorality and joined the movement. It turned out that this movement was much larger than people supposed because the non-religious cultural conservatives were so disengaged politically. I don’t think they’re going away, though. And most religious conservatives have largely been converted to Trumpism at this point.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Scarlette Tarte

      Conservatism, true Burkean conservatism, has a tiny following.

      And many of these have left the Republican party.

      The people in the party today are largely populists, not cultural conservatives. Populists and Christian Nationalists.

      There is nothing conservative about them whatsoever. Not even as "cultural conservatives". Conservatives believe in the rule of law...these people don't.

      Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    George.Skinner

    A lot of the comments here seem to be along the lines of "Do I have to hear all of this stuff AGAIN?!!"

    Trump's currently the Republican nominee and could be elected president again in November. Clearly his supporters didn't properly absorb all of this earlier, so apparently it needs to be repeated so they can't simply brush it off or downplay it.

    Collapse
  4. Johnmarrs1216

    While I respect many members of The Dispatch this episode is simply pathetic. You interview a Dan Ratheresque CBS Reporter that buddies up with the known author of made-up quotes Bob Woodward. To call his narrative anything but liberal hyperbole and present it as truth just fits the norms of the typical media today. Not a Trump supporter but not of fan of broadcasting agenda based reporting as “insight”. You can’t continue to NOT state the truth about these people. His co-author is a known deep state insider that gets to make up quotes from the dead and dying. Not helping The Dispatch look any different than the rest and certainly puts credibility of the whole sight into question.

    Collapse
  5. Viki

    Jamie , thank you for bringing Costas on for a different perspective. I am not a Trumper but the guy lost me when he said he’s a journalist with he is “just the facts” , then through out he mentions it was what he heard. At one point from his tone I thought I was listening to a Fox News reporter- which is of course ironic since his background is CBS.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      MRS

      His was at National Review before CBS...

      Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Addicus

    Interesting insight that we've heard before. Republican politicians don't fear Trump. They fear Trump's base.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      BaltoJohn

      What difference does that make? Either way, these politicians are shamelessly whoring after public office as Trump supporters, happy to indulge his psycho nonsense of a stolen election, eager to implement the platform of retribution. Tim Scott's non-denial denial that Biden won and Noem's non-admission admission that she lied about meeting Kim are sickeningly familiar word salads of the sort we've come to expect of candidates.

      Collapse
  7. Russell J

    Costa is a pretty good reporter in my experience. Proximity to Bob Woodward might start to have a bad effect though. He seemed to strain really hard to explain the current "movement" and his theory doesn't really hold up that well in my opinion. The common through line connecting various people, some who would still sign up for the same Bush/Romney Republican platform is that the "Democrats are evil personified" message is a powerful argument. If you start there it makes much more sense why so many people who would seem to recoil at Trump behavior would circle back to vote for him. The tribal incentives more than some bottom up movement that Trump is reacting to.

    Collapse
    1. Bobby D

      We’re all in a tribe. But I’d suggest that the tribes are not strictly defined by party affiliation. Certainly the progressive tribe and the nationalist tribes are aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. But, if you’re a classical liberal, it’s unclear which political party will champion liberalism moving forward. If I had to place my bet, I’d bet on the Democrats. But it’s going to take some time to sort things out, I have no confidence that the GOP can be anything but a rump party comprised of Christian fundamentalists and downscale whites.

      Collapse
      1. Russell J

        A definite portion resisted the pull of the tribe. It’s a matter of where the tribe fits on the priority list. If it is high enough to harm the nation, the church or friends and family in interest of tribe loyalty, that is what has been demonstrated and it would be demonstrated by both teams. One team just decided to make it super obvious.

        Collapse
  8. Hargiscd

    THANK YOU for this timely and insightful interview!

    I for one had no idea that ORANGE MAN BAD until listening to this podcast.
    Guys, did you know January 6th was a very bad thing? Did you have any idea that Trump had developed a legally shaky and desperately stupid plan to (checks notes) STAY IN POWER?

    Up until now, I hadn't ever heard that Donald Trump and his team of haphazard idiots had in a premeditated manner engaged in untoward hijinks! I'd been under the impression the people who brought me the Four Seasons Landscaping Press Conference were excellent planners and were only doing it because egalitarianism.

    Collapse
  9. R. Rice

    Robert Costa speaks with complete confidence. And I learned very little. Trumps manic messages with Bannon, Meadows and Gulliani are not news nor should be surprising. Ginny Thomas is not on the Supreme Court - not a good look at all but still she's not in power. In short, for all the bluster from Costa there wasn't any insights that Trump had any officials colluding for a "coup" or that he or anyone else in his team coordinated the march on the Capitol. Don't get me wrong, I think it was all abhorrent. But if Costa was supposed to sharpen my understanding of the extent of the "insurrection", then it wasn't there for me.

    Collapse
  10. EireExpat

    Thanks Jamie - really enjoy the breadth of guests you have on and diverse subjects. Rep Crenshaw is repeating the “mean tweets” line I thought the GOP abandoned which is basically I know you all watched live on TV but you didn’t see what you saw. Me or your lying eyes.

    Mr Acosta isn’t a neutral observer as he’s written a book he wants us all to buy but it doesn’t make the reporting wrong. All the players want you to know what they tried to do they are proud of it not hiding from it. And hey it was an attempted coup but they missed so no harm no foul right?

    Collapse
Load More