It was nothing more than a segue to a commercial, Fox News anchor Martha Miller summed up her network’s official position on the candidacy of Donald Trump. Miller said, and I’m paraphrasing, “If only they [the media’s Trump detractors and Soros-inspired legal community] had just ignored him, who knows how things might have gone?” Then, with a pained expression on her face, she said, “Ron DeSantis might have had a real chance.”
The segment she was transitioning from was a discussion about the unintended consequences resulting from the various indictments and prosecutions of Trump—how they hadn’t led to his downfall, but to improving poll numbers and aura of inevitability.
Therein lies the truth about how Trump’s adversaries have given a vast majority of Republicans no choice but to dig in and unequivocally support a man the hateful left has so indefatigably persecuted. It would’ve been easier for the right to consider alternatives had Trump been treated fairly. I believe that even if Trump’s opposition had eschewed the overreaching lawfare waged against Trump, he still would’ve won the nomination.
But DeSantis, probably the worst campaigner since Jeb Bush, and even neocon globalist Nikki Haley, might’ve given Trump a legitimate run. If Trump was merely rebuked for his record and his personality, and not prosecuted in a way that any fair-minded citizen can see amounts to election interference, some of the millions who plan to vote for him might’ve considered a change of course.
With the indictments came a sense that to abandon Trump would be contrary to the tenets of fairness and morality. A concomitant fear of a politized justice system in the United States loomed large. Motivated by morality and fear, Trump supporters will vote for him even if the Democrat machine convicts him of a crime.
The other truth revealed by Miller’s segue is how many on the right had wished we’d seen the last of Trump. Miller’s one of the highest-profile water carriers for the Fox News move away from Trump. It’s clear now how disappointed the top echelon at the formerly pro-Trump network is that DeSantis flamed out, and Trump has prevailed so resoundingly among the Republican rank and file.
The Republican also-rans could’ve saved millions of dollars and set their sights on 2028. The various anti-Trump legal entities, including the January 6th Committee, could’ve saved the taxpayers millions by standing down and allowing the election to play out without a smorgasbord of weaponized prosecutions.
The former are casualties of an ethic that counsels not to desert a fellow warrior, or any unfairly persecuted individual, when obviously corrupt forces conspire against them. If Trump is victorious, the latter, people like Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith, Letitia James, and Fani Willis, will be seen as people who helped bring the whirlwind down upon themselves and their cause.