Writing for The Bulwark on Friday, Will Saletan outlined how former President Donald Trump — who fanatically expects loyalty from everyone underneath him — refuses to afford the same to the political party he relied on to take power in the first place.
"Donald Trump has strong views about loyalty. He’s offended that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who benefited from Trump’s endorsement in that state’s 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary, is now thinking of competing against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. 'I believe in loyalty,' Trump protested on the Full Send podcast two weeks ago. 'You just don’t do what he did,'" wrote Saletan. "Trump’s indignation is nakedly hypocritical. He feels no reciprocal loyalty to the Republican party or its candidates. He’s already sabotaging the party’s chances in 2024. And he’s making it clear that if he doesn’t get the GOP’s presidential nomination, he’ll betray whoever does."
For example, Saletan noted, Trump refused to pledge to back the GOP winner in 2016 if it wasn't him — the only major candidate to do so. And there's little reason to think he'll be more receptive to such a pledge this time around.
"Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, wants to require the party’s 2024 presidential candidates, as a condition of participating in primary debates, to pledge that they’ll support the nominee in the general election," wrote Saletan. "But Trump doesn’t care. He doesn’t need the debates — in polls, he has a huge lead over other Republican hopefuls — and he has no sense of obligation to share the stage or subject himself to difficult questions. 'When you’re way up, what’s the purpose of doing the debate?' he asked in his WABC interview. He has reportedly urged McDaniel to cancel the debates because he already dominates the field."
Trump is also trying to clear the field by threatening DeSantis, the only candidate who is even consistently polling in double digits against him, with career death, writing on his Truth Social platform, "if he decides to run for President, which will only hurt and somewhat divide the Republican Party, he will lose the cherished and massive MAGA vote, and never be able to successfully run for office again."
"When Republicans embraced Trump as their nominee in 2016, they knew they were tying their party to a narcissist," concluded Saletan. "As the song goes, they knew damn well he was a snake. In every election since then, he has bitten them. And he’s going to do it again."
