Trump Explores Options While Awaiting Reinstatement as President

Citizen Trump is mulling the many ways to return to the political arena. He admitted to Newsmax that he misses being president, but there are other possibilities.

The Senate seems to have once been considered; he reacted to an idea proposed on talk radio saying the idea "might be better than running

for the Senate", although with the assumption of a Senate takeover by Republicans in 2022 that would give him the opportunity to unseat Mitch McConnell as majority leader in revenge for McConnell's blistering criticism of the then-president's actions on January 6th.

The idea had been posited by far-right radio host Wayne Allyn Root. He suggested that Trump should run for the House:

"Why not, instead of waiting for 2024, and I'm hoping you'll run in 2024, but why not run in 2022 for the United States Congress? A House seat in Florida. Win big. Lead us to a dramatic landslide victory. Take the House by 50 seats".

Trump immediately warmed to the idea. "That's so interesting," he said. "You know, it's very interesting."

Democrats have only a thin 219 to 211 lead in the House, lost ground in 2020, and the opposition party typically retakes the House in midterm elections — viz. 2010 and 2018.

Mr. Trump would not just be a representative, of course. He would surely be elected Speaker. Root then enticed the former president by suggesting he "lead the impeachment of Biden and start criminal investigations against Biden. You'll wipe him out for his last two years."

Actually, the idea dates from earlier. It was first heard from former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who laid it out before a group of Boston Republicans in February. Trump would displace Nancy Pelosi as speaker and launch impeachment proceedings against President Biden, he proposed.

None of this is likely. To begin with, he'd have to change county of residence; Palm Beach County is heavily Democratic. And it is hard to imagine Trump's ego succumbing to being only 1 in 435 representatives, even if the speakership is assured.

But he needn't wait until 2022 or 2024, because he now believes that he will be reinstated as president by August. In a just released Politico poll, 29% of Republicans believe that this is "somewhat or very likely" to happen, as do — sit down for this — 13% of Democrats.

Where did this come from? The MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, claims he was the one who assured Trump of this. By what means? Well, after the election Lindell had suggested Trump should declare martial law to stay in power. So had former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who visited the Oval Office in December to propose use of the military.

Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI during its Russia probe, but was pardoned by Trump, was at a Memorial Day weekend event in Texas popular with QAnon adherents called the "For God & Country Patriot Roundup". As keynote speaker he proclaimed that Trump is still president.

"This is not a conspiracy theory. OK? This is not a conspiracy theory. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I base my life on facts and judgment".

His facts tell him that "Trump won! He won! He won the popular vote, and he won the Electoral College vote."

Someone in the audience asked why “what happened in [Myanmar] can’t happen here”, referring to the Asian nation's ongoing military coup that has led to the killing of hundreds of protesters. The question brought cheers from the audience. Flynn responded, “no reason” why not. “I mean, it should happen here”, repeating, “No reason.” The speech was recorded and videoed. Flynn claimed he was misquoted.

The Washington Post reported at the beginning of June that Mr. Trump "brings the conversation back to the 2020 election" whenever his circle tries to change to a different subject. He avidly follows the Arizona recount and the attempts by Republican legislators and groups in other states to conduct ballot reviews of their own. Those around him say he" voraciously watches any television coverage he can find" of the Arizona recount and reads “everything he can get his hands on” about the audits in the belief that the election was stolen and audits will find he actually won. "He suggested recently to allies that their success could result in his return to the White House this year, according to people familiar with comments he has made", the Post went on to say, but that "some advisers said that such comments appear to be just offhand musings".

Trump-watcher Maggie Haberman at The New York Times reported the same, that he “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August". She separately wrote, "It isn’t happening in a vacuum. It is happening as he faced the possibility of an indictment from the Manhattan DA." Both were in tweets, not in the paper's news pages.

That just brings howls of "fake news" from the right. But then we hear from the right itself — Charles Cooke at the very conservative The National Review, who headlines his piece "Maggie Haberman is Right". He too "can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he…will be 'reinstated' to office this summer" based on the state audits. That Trump goes so far as to say he expects former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally to be reinstated as well lessens the notion that these are just offhand musings.

We have long been of the opinion that Trump's narcissism causes him to create his own reality when the truth is uncomfortable, and that in his endless repetitions he comes to believe his own falsehoods. This would be, of course, an acute illness. Everything about his conduct says he now truly believes the election was stolen and that this will be proved. Moreover, so must every Republican believe along with him or he will be their enemy in the primaries, which obedience will serve to send to Congress in 2022 yet again an army of neuters too afraid to have spoken out.