There are conversations about the moment
What Has Happened to Donald Trump in Trump’s Post-Presidency? A Takeaway from the Aftermath of Jan. 6
It fades into the back of his mind when he says versions of this many times. But I just read the new book by Politico’s Meridith McGraw on Trump’s post-presidency, and one of the takeaways is just how much the aftermath of losing the 2020 election and Jan. 6 shaped the last few years for Trump. The book shows how he wants to make a point about his influence in the Republican party and how he wants them to emphasize his claims. And that aftermath shaped the people who have been around him and the way the party’s changed.
Yeah, so we ran — a lot of love in this room, you love me, I love you, and we love Sarah — we all ran in 2016 and it was amazing and we won. We then ran in 2020 and we did much better than 2016; people don’t like to hear it. We got million and million more votes, we did a better job, it was not even a contest. I was telling one of the papers; they said, “What was the difference?” I said that we did much better the second time. We had many things happen. We know what those things are, so what difference — because now, in like 48 days or whatever it might be, we’re going to do something that will be, I don’t think it’s going to shock the world actually, I think the world is going to be prepared already. In Europe, they want it to happen. Even though they would not prefer dealing with me in terms of the economics, they still want it to happen, because the whole world is blowing up, and they know it is not going to happen if I’m president here. If we didn’t do well in 2020, and I didn’t do well in 2020, I wouldn’t think about doing this, even though we did great.
But one small thing that also came up at Tuesday night’s event, albeit one that some people may have heard a thousand times before, was Trump’s response to a fairly anodyne question. After a discussion of the apparent second assassination attempt on him, he was told at the outset of the event that it was time for him to take the helm of the country. “I’d love for you to tell us why you want to be president and why do you keep fighting even after they keep attacking you every single day?”
The clip a lot of people saw was Sanders saying that her children reminded her of what’s important and also kept her humble, and that Kamala Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” (a curveball return to the implicit criticism of people who don’t have children). This was actually the second town hall to open with children as a topic: In Gabbard’s case, she spoke about her own desire and inability to have children and the importance of I.V.F.
A few weeks ago, the Trump campaign tried out a town-hall format in which a friend of the campaign asked Donald Trump questions, and then they turned to a couple voters for questions. The hosts have included Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas in the past. The format is easy to follow, and the voter questions have centered on the high cost of living.
