Quip us no quips
Dictators should not make jokes about doing dictatorial things.
President Trump on Friday said he would blame Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he lost the potentially pivotal battleground state in the presidential election and quipped about firing him – a statement that raised eyebrows due to Trump’s history of accusing Democratic governors of working to tilt the election against him.
Yeah quip shmip – it’s not a “quip” when it’s exactly the kind of thing you do in fact do whenever you feel like it and have the ability. He doesn’t have the ability to fire Santis, of course, but if he did? He would if he decided he wanted to.
“Hey Ron, are we gonna win the state please?” Trump asked DeSantis, a Republican and close ally, at a rally in Ocala, Florida, adding that if he doesn’t win “I’m blaming the governor.”
Trump said he would “find a way” to “fire him somehow. I’m going to fire him.”
Hur hur. Look at what he’s implying – that the governor should steal the election for him. So hilarious.
Trump made several other shocking statements at his rally, including encouraging supporters to chant “12 more years” instead of “four more years,” and calling on the Justice Department to investigate Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a common foil of his.
Trump often makes similar statements of questionable legality at his rallies, including saying in September he would negotiate for a third term in office because he’s “entitled” to it. He also spoke about issuing an executive order to prevent Biden from becoming president at a rally in September, exclaiming, “You can’t have this guy as your president.”
I cannot wait for his return to private life.
I’m aware that I’m not fully conversant with American politics but aren’t governors supposed to try to help improve their own party’s election chances? Or is this just Trump thinking that anything done that isn’t done on his behalf is somehow against the rules?
AoS, I suspect this is mostly Trump wanting to shout “You’re Fired!”, his trademark phrase that got him press and adulation during his Apprentice years.
I can see how he’d want to fire a Republican governor for losing a state, but it was Trump accusing Democratic governors of working to tilt the election against him that confused me. That ‘accusing’ is doing a lot of work in that sentence, suggesting that governors working for the good of their own party are somehow in breach of election rules and that Trump has a case to make. He can hardly be said to be ‘accusing’ them of working against him if they’re merely doing the job they’re supposed to be doing.
If he’s expecting to be alive twelve years from now he’s *really* delusional.