Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald won’t run … ever again

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

Against my better judgment, I am going to offer something that to some will resemble a political prediction, except that I have given up on predicting things political.

So, here goes. It is my considered opinion that Donald Trump will decide that he cannot win the presidency back from President Biden. Nor does he even have confidence in winning the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2024.

You see, The Donald is now in command of the nut job wing of the GOP. So help me I am beginning to hear the faint stirring of establishment Republicans who finally are finding the voices that left them during Trump’s two impeachment trials.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan — one of the chief GOP weenies — has said the party is doomed if it gloms onto following an individual rather than adhering to a philosophy. Rep. Liz Cheney continues to pound Trump for inciting the riot on Jan. 6. Sen. Mitt Romney and five other Republican senators voted to create a bipartisan commission to examine the cause of the Trump-inspired insurrection.

Is there a pattern developing? Oh, I certainly hope so.

Trump might find it more to his advantage to pull some strings behind the scenes rather than expose himself to the possibility of losing the GOP nomination, let alone the probability of losing another general election in just a little more than three years.

I have no way of knowing any of this will play out as I hope it does. So I am going to avoid predicting such an outcome.

Oh, and we also have the prospect of criminal indictments in New York City and in Fulton County, Ga., involving Trump, his company and perhaps even members of The Donald’s family. Are there truly enough whack jobs among Republicans to nominate and elect the former chief imbecile to the nation’s highest office?

If so, then we’re in a whole lot more trouble than any of us imagined.

Donald Trump

Trump is the GOP ‘curse’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Listening and reading Donald Trump’s response to real Republicans’ criticism of him makes me laugh out loud … even though nothing about the ex-president is hah-hah funny.

Former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan is the latest target of Trump’s vitriol. Ryan said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan library that the GOP is in deep trouble if it continues to adhere to the ruminations of Trump.

The former Insurrectionist in Chief calls Ryan “weak” a “Republican In Name Only,” and a pretender to what Trump says is actual GOP policy. Good fu**ing grief!

If anyone politician in memory has done more than Donald Trump to damage a major party’s brand, someone will have to present that individual to me. I ain’t seeing it! Trump has been a disaster not just to a party he purports to represent, but has posed an existential threat to the very government he took an oath to defend and protect.

Trump fires back at Paul Ryan: ‘Curse to the Republican Party’ | TheHill

Trump is the “curse.”

But don’t mistake this rant as an endorsement of Republican Party leadership. It has enabled this fraud to continue to foment the Big Lie about alleged “theft” of the 2020 presidential election. It has kowtowed to this idiot’s bluster and bellowing. And, yes, Paul Ryan is among the cowards who failed to call this imbecile down when they shared power with him while he was president of the U.S.A.

Man, oh man. Donald Trump is as infuriating as ever!

Donald Trump

Make me happy … Donald

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump said this today:

“I’m loving what I do and I’m loving the result that we’ve had and I think people will be very happy with my decision.”

The decision to which he refers is whether he runs for president in 2024.

I’ll concede that I will be happy only if he makes the correct decision.

That would include the following conclusions:

  • I cannot be nominated by a Republican Party that has been decimated by my backstabbing, Twitter-loving messages.
  • Prosecutors are going to indict me on allegations that I committed several crimes in at least two states.
  • I already have lost two presidential election popular votes and I have embarrassed myself by declaring that the 2020 election was stolen from me because of rampant voter fraud.
  • There was no rampant fraud.

Is he going to do any or all of that? Oh … probably not.

If he jumps into the 2024 campaign, which would surprise me to no end given the obstacles he must confront, then I won’t be “happy” with his decision.

If he stays out of the race, well, that would bring a smile to my face.

DC riot, Donald Trump

No, Sen. Hawley, they had no ‘right’ to do what they did

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will just speak from my gut.

Josh Hawley is a dangerous young man. The Republican U.S. senator from Missouri already had crafted his infamy by being among those senators to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, which chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

Then he said this just today about the mob of terrorists who were gathering at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: “They had every right to be there.” 

If their intent was to storm the Capitol, to interfere with Congress doing its constitutional duty to certify the results of the election, to injure police officers and kill one of them, to threaten bodily harm to the vice president and speaker of the House, to defecate on the floor of Congress … then they had no right to be there.

And yet the junior senator from Missouri continues to stand by that hideous raised-fist photo of him saluting the mob waiting to storm the place where our Congress writes laws to which we all must obey.

Why did the rioters do what they did? Because the man who was soon to leave the presidency, Donald J. Trump, exhorted them to “take back” the government from forces he alleged had “stolen” the election and given it to President Biden. He continues to foment The Big Lie and members of Congress — such as Sen. Hawley — cheer on the disgraced ex-president.

Josh Hawley now is widely believed to aspire to a presidential run in 2024. How does that make you feel? Warm and fuzzy? Do you want to place the nuclear codes in the hands of an insurrectionist? Do you trust this guy to “defend and protect” the very Constitution he sought to destroy by challenging the result of a free, fair and duly certified presidential election?

What’s more, he now is defending the terrorists who committed the single greatest assault on our government since, oh let’s see, the Civil War.

The danger that Sen. Josh Hawley presents to this country cannot be overstated.

Donald Trump

Trump policies? What are they?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Not in a million, a billion, a gazillion years will I ever accept the dubious notion that Donald J. Trump’s followers are enamored of his policies … such as they are.

As a social media acquaintance of mine said this weekend, they were in love with his lies, his hatred of certain ethnic groups, with the manner in which he led them down some garden path.

They are waiting for some signal from their guy, the ex-president, that he’ll be back in the arena. The 2024 presidential election might beckon him.

Wait a second, though. Trump told Fox News that he cannot yet divulge what he intends to do in the future because of “legal issues.” Legal issues? What are they? He said he will decide in due course whether he’ll run for president again.

The legal issues hanging over his noggin likely have to do with the possible criminal indictments that might come from Manhattan (N.Y.) District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., or from Fulton County (Ga.) DA Fani Willis, both of whom are investigating separate but serious criminal complaints leveled against Trump.

As for the Trumpkins awaiting the possible return of their guy, well, they have been snookered into the cult that Trump developed from the moment he declared his 2016 presidential candidacy by declaring that Mexican immigrants were “rapists, murderers and drug dealers” coming to the United States to poison us.

Policies? He cannot speak to any of it.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, media news, medical news, national news

Polling data: What does it say?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Public opinion polling has been vilified over the course of recent election cycles, frankly for reasons that astound me.

Major public opinion polls actually had the 2016 presidential election called correctly when they had Hillary Clinton edging Donald Trump; they didn’t foresee the so-called “inside straight” that propelled Trump into the presidency on the basis of his narrow Electoral College victory.

They also called the 2020 presidential election correctly, giving Joe Biden a victory in both the ballot count and the Electoral College.

Still, the critics keep lambasting those polls.

Here we are today. President Biden pitched a massive COVID-19 relief bill that had significant public support. He got it enacted over the objection of every single Republican member of Congress … in both chambers!

Biden is back at it. He now has an even larger package on the table, a $2.25 trillion infrastructure reform package. The public response? Even greater than it was with the COVID relief package. The congressional Republican reaction? Precisely the same as the GOP resistance to lending a hand to those suffering from the economic wreckage brought by the pandemic.

Who, again, is on the right side?

It is looking to me as though the Republican congressional leadership and rank-and-file are not listening to the individuals they represent. They are ignoring the wishes of those who put them into office. The public favors rebuilding our roads, highways, bridges, ports (sea and air) and in buttressing our Internet broadband capability.

What’s going on here? Is the GOP political class listening exclusively to a narrow portion of its constituency? I am left to wonder if congressional Republicans will pay a political price when the midterm election rolls around next year.

They damn near should pay it!

Public opinion polling isn’t a perfect barometer of the national mood. However, it is far more accurate than its critics are wiling to admit. The GOP needs to pay attention.

Donald Trump

GOP fighting among its members

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This isn’t a scoop, but it is clear that today’s Republican Party is locked in an internecine battle over the path it should take toward its future.

Yes, it causes me plenty of grief. Not because I am a card-carrying Republican — although I have voted in plenty of GOP primary elections over the years — but because it forces me to align with my  Republican friends who I consider to be on the “good side” of that intraparty battle.

I lived and worked in the heart and soul of the Texas Republican Party for nearly 23 years, nearly 18 of them as editorial page editor of the I know many fine elected officials all of whom are Republica Amarillo Globe-News. I resigned from that post nearly nine years ago, but I have retained many personal friendships with those individuals.

They are being whipsawed by competing factors: the beliefs of those who they represent in public office and their own view of what constitutes a “real Republican.” OK, you know that I am talking about the cult of personality that has evolved since the emergence of Donald John Trump on the political landscape. He ran for president of the United States as a Republican while campaigning as a so-called “populist” who by definition abhors concentrating power in the hands of the “elite.” Is that how he governed? Hah!

He’s out of office — thank Almighty God in Heaven! Trump’s legacy lives on in the minds of those who continue to believe in the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The Big Lie taints everything about Trump and the party he purportedly represented while campaigning for the presidency and then serving as president for the past four years.

Meanwhile, we see actual GOP officeholders and contenders for public office trying to sell their ideas to a constituency that has swilled the snake oil sold to them by the presidential imposter known as Donald Trump.

How do these actual Rs compete with that? Thus, we see how this conflict is playing out.

I pity those friends I consider to be actual Republicans. They are caught in a struggle exacerbated by the lies — led by the Big Lie — told by the individual who grabbed their party by the throat. He is throttling the life out of it.

Donald Trump, national news

C’mon back, Donald!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump’s expected return to Republican Party political involvement just might be a good tonic for the nation, if not the GOP.

Why? Because the ex-president will be able to expose himself even more to the kind of self-centered narcissism that became one of the hallmarks of his time as president.

Trump reportedly is planning to get more involved in GOP primary activities, siding with candidates who oppose incumbents who weren’t sufficiently loyal to him.

As The Hill reports, though, many mainstream Republicans are none too happy to see The Donald step back into the arena after being beaten soundly by President Biden. They blame Trump for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats flipping from Republican to Democrat in the January runoff election. They are angry that Trump keeps repeating The Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen from him.

Trump ramps up activities, asserts power within GOP | TheHill

As an ardent critic of Donald Trump, I am going to stop worrying about whether he plans to launch a return to political life. I see many hideous storm clouds on the horizon awaiting Trump. Prosecutors in New York and Georgia are looking for potential criminal culpability involving Trump. His once-fabled business “empire” is looking shakier all the time. Trump is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that are coming due. All of that will become fodder for whoever wants to challenge The Donald.

To be sure, my sincerest hope of all is for Trump to vanish. I want him gone. His 15 minutes of political fame are up. He had his time on center stage … and blew it all apart.

I will watch with somewhat muted interest in this individual’s attempt at trying to cling to the power he possesses over a political party he grabbed by the throat and turned it into a cult of personality.

Donald Trump

What? Trump does the right thing?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, did hell just freeze over or what?

Donald J. Trump, the one-time pandemic denier in chief, has issued a statement that urges Americans to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. I know what some of you are thinking. This can’t be true. Can it? I thought the same thing when I first heard it.

However, the ex-president has gone on the record in a Fox News interview that the vaccines out there are safe and are effective against the pandemic. Trump and his wife got vaccinated in the final days of the Trump presidency, only they didn’t tell anyone about it.

Trump’s suggestion for Americans to get vaccinated comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci — who needs no introduction — urged him to do what he did. “I think it would make all the difference in the world,” Fauci said on Fox News Sunday. “He’s a very widely popular person among Republicans. If he came out and said, ‘Go and get vaccinated; it’s really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country,’ it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him.”

Well, the former president did it.

Trump encourages Americans to get the Covid vaccine (msn.com)

It remains to be seen if his followers, many of whom remain skeptical about the vaccine and its efficacy, will follow suit. If they don’t and get sick, well … you know.

I am going to do something I didn’t think I would do, which is to thank Donald Trump for doing what, admittedly, he should have done a long time ago.

Donald Trump

When will GOP wake up?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of all that is holy is it going to take to get the Republican members of Congress to realize that they took an oath to defend the nation, not to defend the reputation of a disgraced former GOP president?

Some of the GOP congressional honchos traipse down to Mar-a-Lago to tee it up with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, back at their place of employment — Washington, D.C. — the man who succeeded Trump, President Joe Biden, is trying to craft a legislative agenda that works for the nation he was elected to govern.

Biden took office wanting to unify the country gripped in the throes of a killer pandemic. Drug companies have developed vaccines and now are flooding pharmacies and government mega-vaccination centers with tens of millions of doses of vaccine to inoculate Americans.

Democrats are on board with President Biden. Republicans aren’t. They continue to spew the crap that comes from Donald Trump’s pie hole, speaking for the disgraced ex-president as if whatever he says is actually relevant. It isn’t. He isn’t relevant.

It frustrates me to no end to watch the president cobble together alliances within his own party but falling short in his efforts to bridge the still-gaping divide between the Democratic and Republican parties. All the while there is that chatter about Trump wanting to retain some position of power and influence within the Republican Party.

Let me be among those who hold a contrary view of Donald Trump’s future. He is toast. I am getting that nagging feeling in my gut that there might be an indictment or three in Donald Trump’s future. The men and women who continue to march to No. 45’s cadence will have to look elsewhere for actual political leadership.

They won’t have to look far. It resides in the White House.