Sometimes I think that Donald Trump must be a mole, secretly working to help Democrats defeat Republicans.
I wondered whose side he was on when during his chaotic presidency he managed to rile up enough voters and get them so fed up with his combative style that they turned on him and turned the House, the Senate and the White House over to the Democrats.
And now, instead of sitting back and enjoying the good life at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, we hear hints that he may announce plans to run for president again — and that he may actually go public with his plans before the November midterms.
Guess who’s praying he does? Correct, the Democrats! They may despise just about everything about the former president, but they know how much they need him. They know that he galvanizes their base; he gives Democrats a reason to get out of bed in the morning. He’s the gift that keeps on giving.
At the moment, voters are focused on Joe Biden. And they don’t like what they see. But a Donald Trump candidacy, with all the attention from a Trump-hating media that it would garner, would change everything.
And just the other day, there was bad news at the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It came from a New York Times/Siena poll that said 64 percent of Democrats don’t want President Biden to run for reelection in 2024.
Only 13 percent say the country is on the right track, “the lowest point in Times polling since the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago,” the Times reports.
“More than three-quarters of registered voters see the United States moving in the wrong direction, a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties,” is how the Times put it.
Overall, Biden’s job approval rating is a dismal 33 percent, according to the poll. And yet …
And yet, when asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical rematch between Biden and Trump in 2024, Biden wins 44 to 41 percent. Let that sink in. Joe Biden, politically speaking, is a dead man walking, the most unpopular president of the modern era — and he still beats Donald Trump!
Yes, polls can be wrong and even if they’re not, they represent only a snapshot in time. Still, Republicans would be smart to pay attention to this one — and contemplate the question: Is it time to move on and let Donald Trump wallow in his delusion about a stolen election all by himself?
Apparently, more than a few Republican voters are wondering the same thing because, according to the Times’ poll, nearly half of GOP voters — 49 percent — don’t want Trump to run in 2024.
Sixteen percent say if Trump turns out to be the GOP nominee in 2024, they would either vote for Biden, back a third-party candidate, wouldn’t vote at all, or aren’t sure what they’d do.
And the poll found that a majority of primary voters under 35 years old — 64 percent — as well as 65 percent of those with at least a college degree, said they would vote against Trump in a presidential primary.
His role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot seems to be contributing to his unpopularity within his own party. “While 75 percent of primary voters said Mr. Trump was ‘just exercising his right to contest the election,’” the Times reports, “nearly one in five said he ‘went so far that he threatened American democracy.’”
So, with Democrats on the ropes as we approach the November midterms, with voters unhappy with inflation, gasoline prices, crime and a lot more, why would Donald Trump even consider announcing his candidacy before November and risk messing up a good thing for his party? “The former president’s advisers say he may do this so soon because he doesn’t like the attention other potential candidates are getting,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
No one wants Donald Trump to get into the 2024 presidential race sooner rather than later more than the Democrats.
The question is: Will he and his ego conspire to give them what they want? Or to put it another, snarkier, way: Is Donald Trump a mole, secretly working to help Democrats beat Republicans — or does it just look that way?
Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He was a correspondent with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” for 22 years and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News and as an analyst for Fox News. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him on Twitter @BernardGoldberg.