No one should be surprised by what happened.
asserted
what → happen → ?
Travelling through a clutch of Midwestern states last month, I could feel the coming tsunami in the mild autumn air and was astonished that local pundits were still hedging and hanging back.
uncertain
pundits → travel → air
The anti-Trump feeling was especially pronounced in the Great Lakes states where I found myself; states that depended heavily on cross-border trade with Canada, importing and exporting component parts; states that had been plunged into chaos by Trump’s constant, petulant trade wars.
asserted
that → find → wars
Driving out of Milwaukee airport in Wisconsin, I passed a large roadside billboard.
asserted
I → drive → billboard
‘What’s worse than Chicago?’ it asked, a reference to the city that Milwaukeeans love to hate.
asserted
Milwaukeeans → ’ → that
The rejection of the central pillar of Trumpism, the only policy that the President and his sycophants have consistently favoured, will have a big bearing on what happens next.
asserted
what → favour → bearing
Donald Trump has flip-flopped on almost everything.
asserted
Trump → flip → everything
He decried Obama’s national debt – yet since 2016 US national debt has doubled.
asserted
debt → decry → 2016
He wanted America to be strong and respected, but he whined and cringed before autocrats.
asserted
he → want → autocrats
He promised to stop ‘forever wars’, and is now stuck in one in Iran.
asserted
He → promise → Iran
Indeed, it is hard to find any ruling principle behind MAGA beyond the convenience, at any given time, of Trump.
asserted
it → find → Trump
The rejection of the central pillar of Trumpism, writes Daniel Hannan, will have a big bearing on what happens next
Except one.
asserted
what → write → one
‘I am a tariff man,’ as he likes to say.
asserted
he → like → ?
Well, all the other tariff men, which is to say everyone in his administration, are now tainted by that association.
asserted
which → say → association
They must have known that Trump’s trade policy would fail, for they are not fools.
asserted
they → know → ?
They must have grasped that it would not re-shore jobs or raise revenue.
asserted
it → grasp → revenue
They must have understood that tariffs would fall on American consumers, not foreign governments – which is why no foreign governments are queuing to get their money back following the Supreme Court’s decision that the tariffs were illegal.
asserted
tariffs → understand → decision
Above all, they must have realised that trade deficits, which so obsess Trump, don’t matter.
asserted
which → realise → Trump
The United States has been running them solidly since 1975 and has outperformed the rest of us.
asserted
States → run → us
But ambitious, obsequious or frightened of the MAGA voting bloc in Republican primaries, his acolytes never objected.
asserted
acolytes → object → primaries
Instead, they flattered and amplified Trump, like so many eunuchs around a vicious child emperor.
asserted
they → flatter → emperor
They will surely pay a political price.
asserted
They → pay → price
JD Vance, who had previously been the bookies’ choice to succeed Trump, has seen his stock plummet.
asserted
stock → succeed → Trump
Newt Gingrich, 83, the veteran tactician who led the Republicans to their greatest congressional victory of the late 20th century, saw immediately what it meant.
asserted
it → lead → what
‘If the administration had won a big victory, Vice President JD Vance would have had an enormous argument to be the inevitable nominee,’ he pronounced.
asserted
he → win → argument
Instead, he observed, the race was wide open.
asserted
race → observe → ?
He listed half a dozen possible candidates: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Ron DeSantis, Pete Hegseth, Glenn Youngkin.
asserted
He → list → candidates
In fact, proximity to the regime will do for some of them, too.
asserted
proximity → do → them
The Democrats have already moved articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, the gormless Secretary of War, whom they blame for launching unconstitutional conflicts without congressional approval.
asserted
they → move → approval
The clever thing for Democrats would be to leave Trump alone and impeach some of the more grotesque figures around him; but, under pressure from their own base, I am not sure its congressmen and women will be able to resist.
asserted
congressmen → leave → base
In any event, the Republicans who stood aside from this circus-show of an administration deserve more credit than they have had.
asserted
they → stand → credit
‘If the administration had won a big victory, Vice President JD Vance would have had an enormous argument to be the inevitable nominee,’ said veteran tactician Newt Gingrich
Glenn Youngkin, the former Governor of Virginia, kept his distance from MAGA and governed his state in a recognisably conservative way, cutting taxes while running surpluses.
Ron DeSantis, who has just finished his term as Governor of Florida, was the man Trump beat in the last set of primaries, and has never had anything like the recognition he deserves for the success of that sun-drenched state.
asserted
he → win → state
Indeed, Florida is a living rebuke to Trumpery: patriotic but cosmopolitan, full of high-skilled legal immigrants, booming and open to the world – it even signed its own separate trade deal with Britain.
asserted
it → boom → Britain
While Trump was musing about whether drinking bleach might kill the coronavirus, DeSantis resisted the massive pressure for lockdown and was as thoroughly vindicated as a man can be in politics.
uncertain
man → muse → politics
Not only did Florida avoid the economic hit suffered by others; it also had a lower excess mortality rate.
asserted
it → avoid → rate
More interesting is the case of Marco Rubio, whom many Reaganites and free marketeers have until now backed as the most obvious alternative to Vance.
asserted
Reaganites → back → Vance
The Secretary of State, they say, has moderated Trump’s excesses, tempering the worst of his behaviour.
asserted
they → say → behaviour
Still, it was on his watch that the US embraced the most revolting foreign policy in its 250-year history, turning on long- standing allies while cosying up to autocrats.
asserted
US → embrace → autocrats
It was with Rubio’s hand on the tiller at the State Department that the US preposterously demanded the annexation of Canada and launched a trade war against that loyal friend.
asserted
US → demand → friend
It was during his time in office that it threatened to seize Danish territory.
asserted
it → threaten → territory
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
