I’m not going to say “Donald Trump just needs to shut up.”

Because it’s not that simple.

Trump’s unhinged social media posts have always been a double-edged sword, serving to rally and entertain a large portion of the Republican base while driving incorrigible Democrats bat-crap mad.

But they also motivate his enemies and offer them precisely the type of material they need to drive down his overall popularity.

This is serious.

You might recall that a top concern of anti-Trumpers during the 2016 Republican primary was that embracing The Don risked damaging the Conservative brand. Trump was a bruiser with some important political instincts, but he was hardly a polished and proven champion of limited government. Conservative intelligentsia, particularly the National Review, were sounding the alarms.

This concern resurfaces after the latest confirmation of Twitter’s 2020 election interference, and Trump’s reaction to it on TruthSocial:

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

If there’s a better example of an anti-Trumper turned pro-MAGA than myself, I have yet to meet him — mostly due to the Left’s hysterical treatment of the 45th president, but also because of the results Trump was able to deliver (even though I still maintain that Trump was obviously learning limited government on the fly, and that much of the credit is owed to the career Republicans who guided his policy preferences – much in the same way that President Biden is being encouraged by his radical handlers to inject terms like “trans rights” and “racial equity” into his speeches. Oh, and to amend his email signature to include his preferred pronouns).

Anyway, digressing here …

The concern over Trump’s overall value to the conservative agenda is back. Legitimate political analysis suggests that, while Republican operatives should admit that they learned a lot from Trump’s political style, the former president has simply worn out his welcome.

And, in fairness, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the Left has worn out Trump’s welcome. After all, that’s what Democrats do to people who truly threaten their power base.

Either way, this whole “take Trump seriously but not literally” crap is getting old.

Maybe just let DeSantis take the reins.

Maybe Trump should just go away, and shut up.

(Crap, I just said it.)

When it comes to providing fodder to the enemies of the conservative movement, it’s too consequential to ignore or forgive. Yes, Joe Biden gives weapons to the Taliban. But Donald Trump constantly gives political ammunition to the immoral statists who also seek to bring America to its knees. I’m not sure which one is more annoying.

Trump’s latest social media post was enough to substantiate all the Democrats’ projection regarding where the true “fascist” threat emanates from in this country.

Trump’s remark was on par with the [relatively few] violent offenders who assaulted the Capitol on January 6th (whether egged on by FBI moles or not … you morons!). All that Democratic pap about looming right-wing violence was always missing one crucial element: An actual example of it.

The genuine rioters of January 6th gave Democrats all they needed to fulfill their charge and establish a false equivalence between mainstream conservatives and the lunatic base of the Democratic Party – the ability to exploit one isolated incident for years to come.

Within this political context that requires near-perfection from Republicans, Donald Trump can’t control an impulse to recommend a suspension of the Constitution in order to personally benefit himself.

Social media posts aren’t slips of the tongue. You actually have to think, type, proofread, and then press Post Now.

Trump’s reckless spontaneity limits his ability to earn a nomination or win a second term. Moreover, it serves to validate the Democrats’ ongoing charge of fascism, and to tarnish conservative Republicanism that a wicked press corps has no interest in differentiating from Trumpism.

TJR