National Review: Donald Trump really & truly believes he’ll be ‘reinstated’

Earlier this week, Maggie Haberman at the NY Times broke a story on her Twitter feed: according to her Trump-insider sources, Donald Trump was telling multiple people that he believes he will be reinstated to the White House by August. I guess people were dunking on Haberman for her scoop, but I took her tweets seriously and so did other people. The basic gist of this lunatic delusion is that Trump believes that his unhinged lawsuits in various states (Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia) will somehow magically reverse the election results, he’ll be declared “winner” of the 2020 presidential election and he’ll get to move back into the White House. Now, according to Charles C. W. Cooke at the g–damn National Review (a right-wing publication for intellectual fascists), Haberman’s reporting was completely true. Cooke has sources inside the Trump camp and it’s even worse than Haberman let on:

Two days ago, the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman reported that Donald Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.” In response, many figures on the right inserted their fingers into their ears and started screaming about fake news.

Instead, they should have listened — because Haberman’s reporting was correct. I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be “reinstated” to office this summer after “audits” of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed. I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief — not as a fundraising tool or an infantile bit of trolling or a trial balloon, but as a fact.

It will be tempting for weary conservatives to dismiss this information as “old news” or as “an irrelevance.” It will be tempting, too, to downplay the enormity of what is being claimed, or to change the subject, or to attack the messengers by implying that they must “hate” Trump and his voters. But such temptations should be assiduously avoided. We are not talking here about a fringe figure within the Republican tent, but about a man who hopes to make support for his outlandish claims “a litmus test of sorts as he decides whom to endorse for state and federal contests in 2022 and 2024.”

The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling. This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government. There is no Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. Hell, there is nothing even approximating a Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. The election has been certified, Joe Biden is the president, and, until 2024, that is all there is to it. It does not matter what one’s view of Trump is. It does not matter whether one voted for or against Trump. It does not matter whether one views Trump’s role within the Republican Party favorably or unfavorably. We are talking here about cold, hard, neutral facts that obtain irrespective of one’s preferences; it is not too much to ask that the former head of the executive branch should understand them.

[From National Review]

Pleasure to see all of the cancel-culture-promoting woke warriors over at *checks notes* the National Review showing a real sense of terror that Donald Trump is still out in the world, spreading his delusions like a highly contagious virus. The rest of Cooke’s piece is just a red, pulsating siren for the Republican Party and conservatives writ large: do not cozy up to Donald Trump. Trump’s delusions, according to Cooke, are “otherworldly and obscene” and “There is nothing to be gained for conservatism by pretending otherwise.” As in, dear GOP, you don’t have to play along with this one. You don’t have to go on Fox News and pretend that you also believe that Donald Trump will be reinstated in August. Now, do I still expect Republicans to do just that? I’m sure Matt Gaetz is already organizing his talking points for why Trump will be allowed to retake the oath of office at Mar-a-Lago.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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