Thiessen on Trump’s ‘Mistakes’

My fellow Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen (also a fellow fellow at AEI) writes that Trump has in recent years made five mistakes that undercut his 2024 chances. I think Thiessen is wrong about three and possibly even four of them.

The common factor is that Thiessen radically underrates the political advantage Trump has gained by continuing to pretend that he won the 2020 election in a landslide. He persuaded a lot of Republicans to believe that myth and persuaded others that it was somehow rude to question it. He has thus avoided being seen as a loser and also avoided the usual party-wide debate about the reasons for his loss — a debate that would have focused on his missteps and unpopularity. He has also retained his position as the leader of the party in a way that a recognized loser would not have done, thus allowing him to run in the primaries as a quasi-incumbent who can fling charges of disloyalty at anyone who does not support him once more.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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My fellow Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen (also a fellow fellow at AEI) writes that Trump has in recent years made five mistakes that undercut his 2024 chances. I think Thiessen is wrong about three and possibly even four of them.

The common factor is that Thiessen radically underrates the political advantage Trump has gained by continuing to pretend that he won the 2020 election in a landslide. He persuaded a lot of Republicans to believe that myth and persuaded others that it was somehow rude to question it. He has thus avoided being seen as a loser and also avoided the usual party-wide debate about the reasons for his loss — a debate that would have focused on his missteps and unpopularity. He has also retained his position as the leader of the party in a way that a recognized loser would not have done, thus allowing him to run in the primaries as a quasi-incumbent who can fling charges of disloyalty at anyone who does not support him once more.