I think of the two wings of Trump’s core base as “Trumpists” and “nationalists,” people who trust his judgment and will stick with him through thick and thin versus people who have a specific set of policy goals on trade and immigration which they insist that he implement. The first group is whom he had in mind when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes. The second group is the border hawks and economic populists who view him as their best chance in decades to move the ball forward legislatively and will defend him towards that end, but aren’t truly part of the Trump personality cult.
If you don’t like my labels for those two wings, here — enjoy Ann’s:
Trump voters have fallen into 2 factions: The Tell the Truth faction and the Kiss the Emperor’s Ass camp. Newt and I have picked different camps.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
In time the most notable thing about Friday’s surrender may be how it bred distrust of each wing in the other. Here’s Newt Gingrich, very much a Trumpist, on Fox today dropping a truthbomb on Coulter: There are many more people in his wing of the right than there are in hers, which is why all the hype this weekend about Trump “losing his base” is garbage. The Trumpists and even most nationalists will come home to him. He’ll pay no meaningful price for ignoring Coulter.
Gingrich: Trump "should not pay any attention to Ann Coulter." pic.twitter.com/dP1xr2PQ8z
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 28, 2019
Coulter saw that and lobbed a truthbomb of her own back at him on Twitter: He’s a toady, and like many of Trump’s media-friendly toadies, he’s thinking about his bottom line at least as much as she is.
Newt Gingrich claims I'm in "fantasyland" for criticizing the president for breaking his central campaign promise. It has now come to my attention that Trump HAS built the full border wall & it's working BEAUTIFULLY. That is why Trump is sailing to re-election!
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
Newt’s right — I’m just selling books. But at least I don’t have to kiss Trump’s ass to do so.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
RIDDLE OF THE DAY: How do you break Newt Gingrich’s nose? (ANSWER: Kick Donald Trump in the ass.)
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
Poor Newt. At least Rudy got a job.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
Newt seems to believe that you have to run for office to comment on public affairs. The constitution doesn’t just give free speech to disgraced politicians. It also affords speech rights to another category called “citizens.”
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
To those who would attack Newt, please remember that just as collusion is not a crime, kissing the emperor’s ass violates no federal law.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
LITTLE-KNOWN LITERARY FACT: "The Emperor’s New Clothes" had to be edited for space. Lost was the scene where court haberdasher Newt Gingrich said, “Sir, you look splendid!"
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 28, 2019
We have, it seems, arrived at the hour at which the author of “In Trump We Trust” lectures others about kissing ass to sell books. Still, you can understand her frustration. She’s had rank-and-file Trumpists sniping at her for days on social media for the sin of demanding that Trump actually follow through on the one thing more than any other that he promised to deliver while on the stump in 2016. She’s sticking her neck out, knowing how grassroots righties dislike seeing him attacked, to try to hold him accountable on his most basic populist pledge and her reward is getting slammed on Fox News and online by Trump fans who claim to want a wall. She tweeted at Newt half out of annoyance, I’d guess, and half out of disillusionment after coming face-to-face with just how thin the commitment is even among many populists to bold gestures on border security. It’s a weird echo of what conservatives went through in 2016. We attacked him every day during the primaries: “This guy doesn’t care about small government. He doesn’t care about ‘constitutionalism’ and he certainly doesn’t care about making the executive branch less powerful. He’s opposed to all the things tea partiers said they cared about.”
To which the reply came: We want Trump. Now here’s Coulter experiencing the nationalist version of it. “This guy doesn’t care about building the wall.” We want Trump.
The president himself is watching the “Trumpists versus nationalists” squabble play out and trying to steer wayward members of the flock back into the first group:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1089691564283183105
How many big names in right-wing media have turned sharply on him over Friday’s surrender? Coulter, of course, plus Tomi Lahren had some chilly things to say. Anyone else? Rush, Hannity, talk radio, Fox primetime all seem to be sticking with him, although we’ll see what Tucker Carlson’s and Laura Ingraham’s moods are like tonight. Without quantifying it, my sense is that right now there are many more influencers saying, ahem, “in Trump we trust” than following Coulter’s lead by clubbing him. And since the pointless three-week negotiation period we’re about to embark on is destined to lead to a face-saving national emergency declaration in the end, it’s hard to imagine them turning on him as this plays out to its conclusion. Via the Right Scoop, I’ll leave you with Jeanine Pirro’s commentary on Coulter that aired on Fox on Saturday night. Which wing of the base do you suppose she belongs to?
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