Trump, an Afflicted Candidate

<It is estimated that the core of his supporters still follow him, and for better or worse, his candidacy is part of the current Republican plan.

There’s an old saying that a fish dies when it opens its mouth, a saying that can be used to describe what is now happening to former President Donald Trump.

Since he announced his candidacy almost a month ago for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Trump has been involved in a series of controversies that, while they have kept him in the public eye, have also cast him in a negative light to many Americans.

The fact is that in recent weeks Trump has faced — and defied — a storm for things he has said and especially for his role in the selecting candidates that were unfit for congressional and state government office, a fact that diminished what was expected to be a Republican wave.

Blamed for that Democratic victory, which was a failure for Republicans, Trump got involved in a series of controversies that, while they fit his image as a political iconoclast, exposed his worst side.

From a dinner with rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) and the far-right-leaning Nick Fuentes, one an antisemite and the other a neo-fascist, to calling for revising the Constitution to suit his purposes and even restore his presidency by rejecting the 2020 election results, the business tycoon has juxtaposed himself against other perhaps less well-known candidates who don’t have any personal baggage in tow.

And if you add the investigations surrounding him, from possible tax evasion to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, you have a potential candidate with genuine negatives.

However, it is believed that the core of the Trumpists still follow him, and for better or worse, his candidacy is part of the current Republican plan.

Trump’s political style is to take advantage of — and, when necessary, create — controversy and extol his own image.

The former president spent decades casting himself as a successful businessman, something he crowned with what in 2015 seemed like a very unlikely run for the Republican presidential nomination and, in 2016, winning the presidency.

Trump benefited from the frustration and resentment of groups of voters, especially conservative, nationalist and racist elements who lumped together their concerns about the growth of minorities, alleged border insecurity, feminism, free trade and the disappearance of industrial jobs.

But the combination of scandals that made him a media personality before he began his political career and his current image as an anti-establishment politician, has led many Republicans who have no problem with his views to prefer candidates with similar ideas, but who are younger and come with less history, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Nevertheless, it’s still too early to rule Trump out.