I voted for Trump twice. He shouldn't run again.
Trump had some major successes in his presidency, but if he runs again, he'll hurt the Republican Party.
Sometimes telling the truth hurts even more than hearing it. That is why writing this column is so difficult.
I voted for President Donald Trump twice. I’m a big fan, in part because I helped Lou Dobbs write “The Trump Century,” which builds a convincing, fact-based case for how immensely successful was the first three years of his presidency.
Trump helped produce stronger economic growth than everyone said was possible. Unemployment for Black, Hispanic and female workers plummeted, wages rose higher than they had in years, and businesses got their groove back, buoyed by tax cuts and a president who loved them.
That gives Trump the best wage gains since the Great Recession, easily topping any during former President Barack Obama’s entire term.
Trump had a successful presidency. But he can't return to the Oval Office.
He ran against both parties, Washington insiders, and the fake news media – and they opposed him viciously, and, often, unfairly. I’ve always been drawn to outcasts and those everyone else demonizes, and Trump is a paragon of both.
We met in person twice, long before he ran for president. Once in the green room at NBC’s “Today” show, when I was at Forbes, and again at a small dinner at Nobu in midtown Manhattan when I was a cable news anchor.
He was exceedingly nice to me both times, and even detestable people can be forgiven if they are nice to us, personally. So, it pains me to say this: Trump should avoid running for president. Ever again.
Trump dialing down the rhetoric?: LOL! The mountebank of Mar-a-Lago is worse than ever.
He should give up trying to be king and exercise more unbridled power as a kingmaker, whose policies, passions and endorsements can deliver the White House and majorities in the House and Senate. A trifecta, if only Trump will stay on the sidelines and campaign for candidates who hew to his policies on trade, the economy, our borders and our defense.
Even some of the people closest to Trump probably wish they could tell him this, and no one dares, because he still is too angry and too hurt, more than a year after his election loss. A lot of us can empathize with that.
Holding on to that pain is bad for his health, and it’s bad for the country he clearly loves. Trump must let it go, and sing that Disney song, if it helps.
This advice follows his ill-timed, stubbornly provocative comments praising Russian President Vladimir “The Invader” Putin. Two days before the invasion of Ukraine, he called Putin’s moves "savvy," and “genius,” and afterward, Trump called him a man that is “just driven,” and played up his relationship with the Russian despot.
Who does that? Trump’s “relationship” with Putin helped prompt a bogus, slanted Russiagate investigation that consumed more than two years of his presidency, and it helped cost him re-election.
Yet he just can’t let it go. Trump has to provoke, he has to show us he doesn’t give a fig what anybody says or thinks. We admire it at the same time that we find it exhausting.
The Big Lie Continues: Ginni Thomas' texts show the Big Lie has metastasized into a Big Delusion. Enough already.
The problem is that Trump’s candidacy is a double-edged sword. It will motivate millions of MAGA Americans, but it also will rouse millions of Democrats, Big Tech and the fake news media to save the world from the horrors of Trump.
If anyone else runs against the Dems – Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, Sen. Mitt Romney, Sen. Marco Rubio, or some draft choice to be named later – millions of Democrats may stay home rather than come out to re-elect President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump will only unite the Democratic Party
A longtime Democrat consultant in Washington told me the other night that every single Dem he talks to says they want Trump to run. “They’re terrified he could win, but they want him to run because it’ll bring out the Democratic base.”
That might result in a loss for Trump in November 2024 – and four more years of the disarray, strategic blunders, lost credibility, stupidly woke politics and bad economic policies that have descended on us since Biden took office.
Four more years of mayhem, all because Trump wouldn’t let it go. He should save the nation by deciding against running for president in 2024, and serve his country in an even better way. Help us elect a younger, sound conservative who will stand up for America First-principles and resume the job Trump started five years ago.
Dennis Kneale, @denniskneale on Twitter, is a writer and media strategist in New York.