Why Trumpism Isn't Transferrable

Thank God ...

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff from Georgia has sent me some frantic emails over the past few weeks warning that MAGA House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene might challenge him in next year’s Senate election. Gov. Brian Kemp announced earlier this month that he wouldn’t pursue a thankless seat in the Senate when his term ends. You can’t blame him: Even if he could beat Greene in a primary, he might have to talk to Ted Cruz. That’s when Ossoff’s emails became even more panicked.

“If Marjorie flips this seat and becomes a U.S. Senator,” Ossoff wrote, “she’ll use her seat to undermine the rule of law, enable Trump’s every whim and decree, and push the country closer to authoritarianism.”

Call me old-fashioned but I still think courtesy demands that we refer to the gentlefascist from Georgia as “Rep. Greene.” Besides, it’s really hard to sell the threat level of someone named “Marjorie.” (Watch below.)

In his email from May 7, Ossoff stated that Greene was “backed by Donald Trump, who pledged to ‘fight like hell’ to elect her if she runs for Senate.” Turns out Trump has instead turned his back on Greene. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump advised Greene against running after sharing the results of a poll he’d commissioned that showed Ossoff destroying her in a general election by a whopping 18 points. It’s as if the poll was conducted in Oregon — although Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden beat his Republican challenger Jo Rae Perkins by just 15 points in 2022. Perkins is a QAnon cultist and Big Lie believer who attended the January 6 protests at the Capitol. She has run for elected office multiple times but is a perpetual loser.

That must’ve been a delightful blow to Greene’s unwarranted pride. The GOP spent years painting Stacey Abrams as a far-left radical, but Kemp only beat her by eight points in 2022. Herschel Walker was almost three points away from unseating Sen. Raphael Warnock. Of course, last year Trump carried Georgia, a state in which he was under criminal indictment for trying to steal the last election. You’d think Georgia voters were open to an absolute raving lunatic who hates democracy.

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So, Marjorie Taylor Greene Thinks Democrats Have Access To Cobra’s Weather Dominator

Marjorie Taylor Greene is evil but she’s neither a convicted felon nor an adjudicated rapist. I suppose it’s good news that Trumpism doesn’t appear transferrable, but it’s still confounding how the same voters who embrace Trump will reject MAGA kooks like Greene, Kari Lake, and Mark Robinson, often citing traits that Trump himself possesses.

Jon Ossoff is an impressive politician, but that should only account for a two point margin of victory in a purplish-at-best state like Georgia. Yes, a candidate as deranged as Greene should lose a statewide election by almost 20 points, but so should the mug-shot having Trump. There’s hilarious irony in Trump’s poll showing that standard-issue boring Republicans like Kemp or former Sen. Kelly Loeffler would do better against Ossoff than Greene, the Trumpiest candidate of all.

Naturally, Greene denies that Trump told her she’s a loser who will never win anything outside of her far-right district, which is where her political career began and ends. Greene instead claims that she’s confident she could win but wants nothing to do with the Senate “because it’s completely under uniparty control and not for the American people.” Her full statement was characteristically unhinged but no more so than what Trump regularly posts on social media. She was at least discussing politics. Trump whined on Friday about how Bruce Springsteen doesn’t like him, and he one-upped his crazy on Saturday morning with an insane rant that should’ve automatically triggered the 25th Amendment.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s MAGA Mad House No Fun For Anyone

Why no one believes Trump is insane

There’s no easy explanation for why Republicans voters will back Trump but not equally loony MAGA candidates. People have argued that Trump receives the ultimate White Male Hall Pass. However, that’s a little reductive (like most racial or gender essentialism). After all, the very white election denier Doug Mastriano suffered a landslide loss to Josh Shapiro in the 2022 Pennsylvania governor’s race. The even whiter Blake Masters lost the 2022 Arizona Senate race to incumbent Mark Kelly.

Others suggest that Trump is a uniquely charismatic cult leader. There’s a lot to that theory, but we also can’t discount Trump’s celebrity image, developed over decades. Like many future psychopaths, he was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988. He was such a major pop culture figure that everyone knew his first unhappy wife Ivana’s nickname for him, “The Donald” (revealed in a 1989 Spy magazine story).

Trump often made cameo appearances on TV sitcoms in the 1990s, where he was depicted as a master deal maker and successful businessman despite his public humiliating bankruptcies. In a 1998 episode of Spin City, Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (Michael J. Fox) arranges a meeting between Trump and the fictional New York Mayor Winston (Barry Bostwick). Trump’s massive ego is played as endearing. The New York studio audience seems delighted to see him (though I’ve heard if you don’t respond to the “applause” signs, they don’t let you leave). (Watch below.)

“Mr. Trump wrote The Art of The Deal,” Mike says, apparently unaware of the name Tony Schwartz. “Then he wrote a new bestseller, The Art of the Comeback.” He “co-wrote” that book with journalist Kate Bohner, who was barely 30 at the time.

Trump: The Art of the Comeback played a major role in the Trump myth, as it spun his previous financial pratfalls as merely Act One in his triumphant story. This all culminated in that work of reality TV fiction, The Apprentice, which at its peak boasted a weekly audience of more than 20 million viewers.

“It wasn’t always so easy,” Trump says in the first episode from 2004. “About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble. I was billions of dollars in debt. But I fought back, and I won, big league. I used my brain. I used my negotiating skills, and I worked it all out.” (Watch below.)

The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett helped Trump create a popular TV character with only a superficial resemblance to the person who portrayed him. It’s like voting for Robert Downey Jr. and expecting him to invent time travel like Tony Stark.

CNN wrote in early 2016 that Trump supporters were drawn to him because “he’s unfiltered; he’s anti-establishment; he exudes confidence and strength.” Most of this is all bluster and flim-flam, but Trump did successfully combine John McCain’s “maverick” and Mitt Romney’s “businessman” personas. Democrats repeatedly reminded voters that Trump wasn’t a war hero or even a competent businessman, but a significant part of Trump’s appeal is that the lowliest person (morally speaking) can aspire to his heights — no personal sacrifice or legitimate achievements are required.

This is why Trumpism probably won’t transfer to Vice President JD Vance, either. Vance is such a miserable asshole. Trump at least seems like he’s having fun in his demented way.

Trump is objectively out of his mind, but he’s still treated as an entertainer or perhaps more fitting, a “heel” in professional wrestling. No MAGA wannabe truly has the media credentials to match Trump. If Marjorie Taylor Greene had started her career as a reality TV show villain, she might have more success. That’s bad news for her political ambitions, but it’s also a major concern for Jon Ossoff, who now worries that Republicans will nominate a candidate who’s no better than Greene on the issues but appears superficially normal.