and years leading up to 2024? Kirby Wilbur, longtime talk show
host on KVI-AM Radio in Seattle, Washington, and a conservative since his teenaged days in the Young Americans for Freedom, believes Trump’s base of support is shrink- ing and will continue to do so. “He has a loyal following, but I
believe it is shrinking over time as every Trump speech seems to be the same,” Wilbur told Newsmax. “And the constant predictions by
some of the Trump supporters of his somehow coming back and replac- ing Biden or the election being over- turned that don’t come true, also contribute to that shrinkage.” Wilbur also cited Trump’s ban
from Twitter and resulting lack of a social media platform — something critical to his nomination and elec- tion in ’16 — in diminishing his sup- port.
That said, Wilbur still thinks
“Trump will run in ’24, unless he develops any serious health issues.” “I think today he beats the field
and owns the party,” said former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, a past chairman of the National Repub- lican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and master Republican statistician and strategist. “But every day that he loses mar-
ket share and the Republicans yearn for a winner could change the equa- tion.
“He has had a chance to be a
statesman and enhance his image, but he has proved to be the same old Trump — and while he has a high floor, his ceiling remains low. “He is no longer the new thing
and change he represented in his first run. However, he could still be a kingmaker or kingbreaker.” Some Republican leaders yearn
68 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2021
He is no longer the new thing and change he represented in
his first run. However, he could still be a kingmaker or kingbreaker.” — Former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia
for a fresh face to run for president. At the recent RNC meeting in Nash- ville, national party committeeman Oscar Brock of Tennessee voiced that sentiment. “I really like Sen. Tim Scott of
South Carolina and am anxious to learn more about him,” said Brock, son of the late Tennessee Sen. Bill Brock, a former RNC chairman. Another RNC member told
Newsmax that while he supported Trump in the past, he was bothered by some of the former president’s brass-knuckled comments and tweets about people with whom he disagreed, and that his language made selling his policies “very dif- ficult” to suburban mothers. “I’d like to have a ‘Trump without the tweets,’” he added.
Trump As TR? As it was when he decided to run for president, Donald Trump pres- ents a dilemma for any political scientist or historian who studies him or any reporter who covers him.
There is just no precedent for
Trump, and no one in U.S. history like him. From the notorious Access Hol-
lywood tape in the fall of October 2016 to his two impeachments (one during and one after his presi- dency), the man in Mar-a-Lago has experienced what would have fin-
ished off the career of most politi- cians. He has survived it all and today
thrives — a political force of nature who, in contrast to most defeated candidates for president, has not by any stretch of the imagination faded away. Democrat Grover Cleveland
was the only president to serve two bifurcated terms — winning the office in 1884, losing to Republi- can Benjamin Harrison in ’88, and turning the tables to recapture the White House in ’92. Theodore Roosevelt comes quite
close to Cleveland. Abandoning the Republican Party to seek the presi- dency as an insurgent third-party candidate in 1912, he came back to the GOP in 1916 and was soon con- sidered an odds-on favorite for its nomination for president in 1920. Had fate not intervened and TR
died unexpectedly in his sleep at age 60 in 1919, he almost certainly would have made history a year later. Roosevelt’s fellow New Yorker
Trump is now in the same position. Barring anything unforeseen, he stands in a strong position to be- come the second ex-president to be nominated for his old job. Whether this happens or not
depends almost solely on the lean- ings and decision of one person — Donald Trump.
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