You may believe that Trump spent hours discussing China, Russia, energy independence, persistent inflation, the fentanyl epidemic, border security, a minor financial crisis, and other topics if you paid attention to the news cycles and the top worries of the American people. Yet on Saturday night, none of that really seemed to be on Trump’s mind.
Instead, we heard the former president venting his complaints. His personal adversaries were the Justice Department, Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and others. Trump’s post-2020 rhetoric has long stressed that he is the victim, and the American people should support him in his misery. This rally elevated that message.
To be fair, there is a portion of the Republican base that will support Trump, and those who may have been supporters but weren’t sure if he should be the party’s nominee in 2024 have come to the conclusion that the persecution must end and that he must be the nominee to stop the criminal justice system from being used as a weapon against him. Although I’m not convinced it will help Trump as much as others are, it will undoubtedly play a role.
Trump didn’t focus only on himself in 2016, either, and that was part of his winning formula. It was about the people of America. Because Hillary Clinton represented more of the same suffering that they had experienced under Barack Obama, many Americans chose to support Donald Trump. Trump successfully argued that he was different from them because he wasn’t trying to be someone he wasn’t. He was a wealthy American who used the system to his advantage, thus he was aware that it was unfairly biased against the country’s citizens.
He was successful in winning over the Republican base because he addressed their current concerns. The GOP base responded favorably to issues like immigration, systemic corruption, and other issues. Nevertheless, it was not the message conveyed to his fans last night, and although they may be soaking it up, many throughout the nation who are learning about it post-facto may not find it to be a message that resonates with them.
After all, Trump is currently dealing with a lot of personal issues, such as the possibility of being indicted in New York (which suddenly may or may not be happening? ), and his biggest danger from the right is a governor who is arguably the most successful politician in the nation at the moment. Trump is frightened by the readiness of more conservatives in the government and punditry community to criticize him for his crude insults of a fellow Republican and his failure to concentrate on the pressing national problems.
Trump represented something entirely different in 2015 when he stepped onto the escalator, and despite all odds, enough people found it alluring (or at least less terrifying than the idea of Hillary Clinton becoming president) to support him. Trump took care to focus 2016 on the American people, though. People grew weary of Trump’s performance and chose someone else in 2020 because he was always criticizing his opponents, both actual and imagined.
I have a hunch that more individuals might follow suit in 2024 if Trump keeps up his personal vendetta tour. The focus of this campaign is Donald Trump rather than the hardship of the American people. That has a considerably smaller target market.