As our Brad Slager noted on March 20, the selfsame media that once cried nonstop for Donald Trump’s banishment from social media for endangering democracy (their claim, not mine) cannot get enough of Trump’s social media fusillades. Lately, given the volume and content of Trump’s attacks via Truth Social against Ron DeSantis, perhaps his supporters should consider suggesting he step away from the online world, as he is now running neck and neck with the San Jose Sharks for most egregious overkill while trying to make a point.
Trump’s March 20 post reads like fatherly advice … when your father has ratcheted up the sarcasm beyond even the usual level of dad jokes.
Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are “underage” (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!
Trump’s post embarrassingly screenshots the virulent progressive (and Lincoln Project favorite) MeidasTouch’s Twitter account, it referencing this as reported by Newsweek in February 2023:
The photo Trump responded to traces back to an October 2021 report from HillReporter.com, a blog founded by a Democratic super PAC, that accused DeSantis of partying with students when he was a history teacher at Darlington School, a boarding and day school for grades pre-K through 12 in Georgia.
The report noted that the photo, provided by an anonymous source, was taken before graduation, “meaning the young girls would still have been DeSantis’ responsibility at the time.” (NOTE: As opposed to, say, their parents?)
DeSantis’ time at Darlington has been reported on before. During the 2001-2002 school year, when DeSantis was 23 years old, he taught at Darlington between his graduation from Yale University and his enrollment at Harvard Law School.
According to a New York Times report, “Several students recalled that Mr. DeSantis was a frequent presence at parties with the seniors who lived in town.”
Oh dear Lord, a teacher barely older than his or her students associating with them outside the classroom. Have we grown so inundated with illicit teacher-student dalliance stories we now must automatically assume the worst in every such situation? Also, please note DeSantis was quite single at the time; he first met his future wife Casey in 2006.
When the allegations first reared their ugly head in February 2023, DeSantis replied in typical DeSantis fashion.
DeSantis responds to Trump accusing him of being a groomer:
"I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden…I don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans."
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 8, 2023
Extended version: ”I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That’s how I spent my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.” Short version: “I’m busy.”
Not that Donald Trump is reading this, or if so, taking the advice of a columnist who’s far more comfortable talking about music, faith, and sports than politics. That notwithstanding, what is Trump trying to accomplish? Retweeting (or retruthing, if you prefer) hardcore progressive garbage solely because, this time around, they align with your objective? Be far better than that.
Furthermore, you have far better than that on which to run. Look at your record when you were in the White House. A booming economy. Minimal military action overseas. Russia, China, and North Korea behaving themselves. An America-first overarching agenda that directly led to increased peace, as I noted in March 2023:
Trump’s central theme when President was nationalism. Nationalism puts into action the belief that one’s country warrants top priority over others. It believes competition sparks the best in people seeking to reap a reward available strictly through being earned, not doled out to all regardless of merit courtesy of a fuzzy, fatally flawed belief in mandated fairness that works solely within lollipop dreams under cotton candy skies realm. Nationalism prescribes taking care of one’s own first, suggesting to others that while no one objects to lending a hand where needed, the other hand will be holding mandatory reading on how to become more self-sufficient.
One of nationalism‘s benefits, something its evil pale cousin isolationism cannot claim, is in addition to promoting self-interest, it also promotes the concept of leaving other people alone. This very much ties into the theme of Washington’s farewell address. That said, avoiding entanglement in foreign affairs is not an open license to ignore the world around you. America’s interaction with other nations through economics, i.e., trade, and shared goals of confronting enemy powers plus other areas of mutual concern, is inexorable. Taking care of yourself first never precludes caring for others.
Taking this from the philosophical to putting it into practice, one of Trump’s greatest strengths was his willingness to work with potential adversaries respectfully, thus defusing their baseless yet believed fears of the evil American empire seeking their destruction. Remember how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un considerably calmed down after Trump treated him as his nation’s leader instead of a madman? Biden takes over the White House, and the missiles resume flying. Not a coincidence.
Putin could and did respect Trump because Trump made it clear America had no aggressive interests toward Russia, instead preferring peaceful and mutually beneficial economic measures.
Trump should run on that and attack those who attack that. Enough of the personal garbage. Joe Biden is the enemy. Attack him and the Democrats. Ron DeSantis hasn’t even announced yet. As Gary Cooper, playing the late Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, said in “The Pride of The Yankees” when he came across two teammates fighting, “Save it for the other team, boys.”
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