Trump just got a major endorsement for his presidential run
I used to listen a lot to Scott Adams’s podcast, stopping only when he bounced to a different forum, which made it too difficult for me. Adams is an out-of-the-box thinker and, often, a prescient one. One of the things he said in 2019 was that the social media companies, having slipped up in 2016, would ensure that Trump could not win a second term. Another thing he said was that, as a general matter, we should never look at events in a vacuum or see them as one-off victories or failures. Instead, we must pay attention to the trajectory we see in multiple events. He was talking about the domino effect of Trump’s Abraham Accords but could just as easily have been talking about Trump’s presidential campaign and political endorsements.
It’s not just that voters are consistently choosing Trump at rates far greater than the other candidates. I mean, it matters a great deal that, in the latest poll tracking where the Republican primary candidates stand, Trump’s average is 44.5 points ahead of the next nearest candidate. That is an absolutely staggering lead. Yes, there’s still almost a year to go before the election but, with that kind of lead, it’s hard to understand why the other candidates are even in the race.
Sadly, though, we voters have learned that, just because we like a candidate, that doesn’t mean that the establishment…the part of the party with money and power…will back that candidate. The political class needs to embrace the candidate, too, not just for victory but for a successful presidency. Otherwise, when bad things happen in an election, as happened in 2020, the political class will be feckless, useless, and complicit. That group of people needs to have skin in the game, too.
So, polls are great, but what’s interesting now is a different trajectory: Trump is starting to rack up endorsements, with the heftiest endorsement coming in recently.
Last week, popular Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorsed Trump:
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorses Trump! pic.twitter.com/92zAHhIHqN
— DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) November 13, 2023
Of course, the naysayers will say, “So, what? She was his press secretary. What else is she going to do?” That’s sort of true but, as we’ve seen with other people who have turned on political allies, it’s not always true. Jenna Ellis, for example, instead of standing up for a lawyer’s obligation to represent his or her client as zealously as possible, collapsed under the pressure of a possible prison sentence. (I don’t blame her as I have no idea what I would do were I in her position as a lawyer being criminally prosecuted for representing a client.)
But Sanders isn’t the only popular governor to endorse Trump. So have Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, Jim Justice of West Virginia, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Tate Reeves of Mississippi. Every one of these endorsements from people with skin in the political game is a sign that they think Trump’s momentum is real.
Just the other day, Mike Johnson, who has already shown himself to be an astute House Speaker and who earned great respect by releasing the 41,000 hours of January 6 footage, also endorsed Trump:
JUST IN: House Speaker Mike Johnson endorses Donald Trump for 2024 Presidential Election..
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) November 14, 2023
“I’m all in for Trump”pic.twitter.com/6BcqERw7o0
And today, Trump got the biggest gubernatorial endorsement of all. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is not only popular in his state but has been earning huge props for finally finding his spine on illegal immigration, has also announced that he supports Trump:
Texas Governor @GregAbbott_TX endorses Donald J. Trump for President! pic.twitter.com/YB0d0UpNW4
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 19, 2023
What you’re seeing here is a trend. With each endorsement, more and more people are hastening to get on the Trump bandwagon. Despite the Democrats’ grossly illegal, unethical, and very dangerous political persecution of Donald Trump, more and more politicians are smelling a winner. They see that the people are loyal to Trump, and that’s good enough for them. (Here is a comprehensive list of Trump endorsements.)
Image: X screen grab.