At Least Some Are Moving Away From Trump's Instinctual Anti-Semitism
None of these Republicans are Jewish: Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Tom Cotton, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Kristi Noem, Nikki Haley, Larry Hogan, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz and Señor Trumpanzee. I can imagine if there were a pogram several would be in the forefront, particularly Pompeo, Pence, Noem and, if it looked like it was going well, DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Cotton and Trumpanzee. But all of them decided to attend the annual powwow of Jewish-American fascists in Las Vegas. Trump didn’t plan to but he panicked and rushed to announce he would be there is person, causing… not much of a stir.
This morning, the Times of Israel reported from Vegas that though Señor T had changed his mind and would address the Republican Jewish Coalition, it wasn’t as clear “how ready Jewish Republicans are to hear from him… The star of the conference appears to be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has a prime speaking slot, as opposed to Trump’s less auspicious placement.”
Why should Trump even care? Trump is losing the biggest GOP donors in the country and this conference “is an opportunity for candidates to meet with donors who could make or break their campaigns. As it got underway this week, delegates wandered the halls among the slot machines and crap games reconnecting and checking in… Organizers said they expected at least 850 delegates throughout the event, a greater number than last year, when travel was still depressed because of the pandemic and there were still three years before the next presidential election. RJC conferences are often the first stop for likely GOP contenders ahead of presidential election years, which is why Trump made personal appearances in 2015 and again in 2019.”
They gave Trump a crappy Saturday morning speaking slot squeezed among 12 other random speakers. And they put DeSantis in prime time tonight. “DeSantis is already making inroads among Jewish conservatives, and from the start of his governorship sought to prove his pro-Israel credentials, leading one early Cabinet meeting from Jerusalem.”
Also attending, AP’s Steve Peoples reported that “The Republican Party’s nascent 2024 class, emboldened as ever, openly cast Donald Trump as ‘a loser’ over and over on Friday as they courted donors and activists fretting about the GOP’s future under the former president’s leadership. Trump’s vocal critics included current and former Republican governors, members of his own Cabinet and major donors who gathered along the Las Vegas strip for what organizers described as the unofficial beginning of the next presidential primary season. It was a remarkable display of defiance for a party defined almost wholly by its allegiance to Trump for the past six years.”
Ahead of his Friday night address, Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State under Trump, mocked one of his former boss’ slogans: “We were told we’d get tired of winning. But I’m tired of losing.”
“Personality, celebrity just aren’t going to get it done,” he said later from the ballroom stage.
…There seemed to be little sympathy for Trump’s latest legal challenges.
Hours before Friday’s opening dinner, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.
Sununu, the New Hampshire governor who easily won reelection last week, said there was no sign that his party would rally to Trump’s defense this time.
“Those are his issues to sort out,” Sununu said. “Everyone’s gonna sit back and watch the show. And that’s not just his supporters— that’s his money, that’s donors, that’s fundraisers,” said the Republican governor, who easily won reelection last week. “We’re just moving on.”
With a loyal base of support among rank-and-file voters and a sprawling fundraising operation featuring small-dollar contributions, Trump does not need major donors or party leaders to reach for the GOP nomination a third time. But unwillingness by big-money Republicans to commit to him— at least, for now— could make his path back to the White House more difficult.
There was little sign of enthusiasm for Trump’s 2024 presidential aspirations in the hallways and conference rooms of the weekend gathering. At Friday night’s dinner, organizers offered attendees yarmulkes bearing Trump’s name, but there were few takers.
…New Jersey [former] Gov. Chris Christie leaned into Trump’s political failures during a private dinner with the group’s leading donors on Thursday. In a subsequent interview, he did not back down.
“In my view, he’s now a loser. He’s an electoral loser,” said Christie, another 2024 prospect. “You look at a general electorate, I don’t think there’s a Democrat he can beat because he’s now toxic to suburban voters on a personal level, and he’s earned it.”
The annual event is playing out at the Las Vegas Strip’s Venetian Hotel in a nod to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s longtime benefactor, Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate who died last year. His wife Miriam Adelson remains a fundraising force within the GOP, though her level of giving in the recent midterm election, which exceeded $20 million, was somewhat scaled back.
The 76-year-old Israeli-born Miriam Adelson “is staying neutral” in the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary, according to the family’s longtime political gatekeeper Andy Abboud.
She is not alone.
Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress and heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, backed Trump’s previous campaigns but has no plans to support him in 2024, according to a Lauder spokesman.
Longtime Trump backer Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group investment firm, told Axios this week that he would back someone from a “new generation” of Republicans. Kenneth Griffin, the hedge-fund billionaire, is already openly backing DeSantis.
On Friday, aerospace CEO Phillip Friedman described himself as a “big Trump supporter,” but said he’s open to listening to others moving forward.
“There’s a couple other people who have his policies but don’t have the baggage,” Friedman said of Trump.
In his keynote address, Pence focused largely on the Trump administration’s accomplishments, but included a few indirect jabs at the former president.
“To win the future,” Pence said, “we as Republicans and elected leaders must do more than criticize and complain.”
He was more direct in an interview this week.
“I think we will have better choices in 2024,” Pence told The Associated Press. “And I’m very confident that Republican primary voters will choose wisely.”
Sure, just like they did in 2016 and 2020... and pretty much always do, including when they elected you to office yourself.
I think Jonathan Chait is Jewish and I’m pretty sure he’s not in Las Vegas this weekend. In his column today, he noted that Trump’s a low down dirty scumbag… but you already knew that. One of his points is that because he views the appointment of a special counsel as “unfair,” he is “not going to partake in it. I’m not going to partake in this.” Chait laughed: “If it were possible for a criminal suspect to simply decline to participate in the process— like an extracurricular activity you simply quit— then this would also open up a gigantic loophole in the legal system. In fact, the Justice Department does not give criminal suspects an option of whether or not to partake in being charged with a crime.”
That may be fine with fascists— including Jewish fascists— but it doesn’t go over well with normal people. “Trump’s instinctive response that he ‘won’t partake’ in charges,” concluded Chait, “reveals so much about his view of the legal system. He believes the law is optional, and that people like him don’t need to participate in it. It is why he committed the crime in the first place.”