One troubling thing about the “just call Trump a loser” theory is that it fundamentally misunderstands his appeal. Republican voters aren’t besotted with Trump because he gets things done or even because they think that he’s a winner. They like him because he fights back, he doesn’t surrender, and—paradoxically, because he’s a total con artist and a phony—he doesn’t bullshit about politics. Trump’s attacks often have an air of authenticity, even if he doesn’t believe them himself. Voters care that he’s a fighter and that he, like them, calls out Democrats and the political establishment as the enemy and treats them as such. “Winning” is entirely secondary: The fact that Trump doesn’t always win doesn’t matter because he comes up punching. The only time his base came close to wavering was when Trump publicly supported getting vaccinated—it was the right thing to do, but to his base it looked like he was knuckling under…
What’s truly disturbing about the notion that this is a good way to attack Trump is that it suggests that a sizable portion of the Republican establishment is still convinced that the genie can be stuffed back in his bottle—that voters will finally, after seven years, realize that the guy they love is a huckster and go back to voting for Republican candidates who’ll do normal Republican stuff without all the intemperate bluster and contempt for norms. Voters know who Donald Trump is! His voters like him just fine. Candidates who might have been those “normal” Republicans a few years ago—Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance come to mind—have drunk the Kool-Aid and recast themselves as Trumps-in-waiting. There isn’t some new generation of sober-minded, constitutional conservatives waiting in the wings. That ship has sailed.
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