Opinion: Biden is priming the pump for Trump Part Deux

On Sep 16, 2021

For many, Biden was elected for one thing and one thing only: to walk our nation — our democracy — back from the cliff edge where former President Donald Trump and his cronies had led it, and where below waited fascism, demagoguery and totalitarianism. Simply put, Biden’s mandate was to ensure that Trump would never, ever, occupy the White House again — and ideally leave the political stage for good.

Yet we’re not even a year into his first term and Biden’s approval rating has dipped to 42%, thanks to political fumbles that are also creating an opening for a 2024 Trump run. Indeed, GOP insiders have noted that Trump has been signaling that he is more likely than not to run again in the next election.

Last fall, the two of us breathed a huge sigh of relief alongside millions of other Americans when voters delivered a resounding 306 to 232 electoral vote victory for Biden over Trump. With record turnout and a margin of more than seven million votes, the Biden win was a decisive rebuke to Trump — personally and politically. Although Biden won a number of swing states by the narrowest of margins, he did so with a coalition that included not only some Republicans disaffected with Trump but more than half of independent voters, according to exit polls. When Biden delivered his victory speech on November 7, 2020, he spoke about being for “we the people,” and how he had run to “restore the soul” of the nation and unify the country.

But somehow since that moment, the Biden administration seems to have forgotten its mandate. Through a series of self-inflicted wounds, miscalculations and gaffes, the Biden administration is “priming the pump” for a Trump presidency, part deux.

How the GOP can confront Biden's left-wing presidency

Early on in Biden’s presidency, Trump’s omnipresence seemed to grow more distant by the day — thanks in part to his being kicked off Twitter and Facebook. But the former president nonetheless continues to be the most influential Republican in the country, with a recent CNN opinion poll showing that 63% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents still feel that Trump should be the leader of the GOP. Just over half believe that they have a better chance with Trump as the nominee than someone else. (This is a drop from the 78% who thought they had a better chance with Trump in 2019, but the recent number should still be a concern.)

Recently, Trump has increased his media appearances and is planning rallies in states like Georgia and Iowa — the latter of which is the first caucus state. Veteran Trump adviser Jason Miller estimates the chance of the former president running again in 2024 is “between 99 and 100 percent.” And don’t forget that Trump is building a war chest that already tops $100 million dollars.

President Biden, meanwhile, has blown a steady gust of wind into Trump’s sails. Let’s count the ways:

Unlike his predecessors Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and even Barack Obama, Biden failed to name a single person from across the aisle to his cabinet (at least not anyone with public political affiliations to the GOP) — an especially important signpost about rebuilding the country in a bipartisan manner.
He took way too long to wield all the tools at his disposal to…

Opinion: Biden is priming the pump for Trump Part Deux

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