It’s no secret that Donald Trump, the president, is weak in the arena of governance. Trump the campaigner, however, is an entirely different beast, squeaking out two presidential victories, despite all the obvious flaws and failures. For whatever reason, Trump’s political presence, no matter how odd and off-putting, has proven itself to be an animating force that has created a movement seemingly unmoved by the norms and standards of the past.
But Trump’s power over the MAGA base, after an excruciatingly long decade of poisonous politics, appears to finally be waning. Not even a Thursday campaign stop, once Trump’s strongpoint, in Rome, Georgia — where he propped up Republican nominee Clay Fuller in the race to replace former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — could revive the political capital lost by this lame-duck president.
(IN THE NEWS: Trump touts tariffs at visit to Coosa Steel Corp. in Rome, Georgia)
It was a rally, running on the fumes of Trump’s declining popularity, full of the president’s characteristic meandering rants and senseless attacks on his political opposition.
Touting his administration’s efforts to “solve affordability” and “bring back the American dream,” Trump went after his detractors in the Democratic Party — who have emphasized the rising cost of living under Trump to make electoral gains, including here in Tennessee and in a recent monumental special election upset in deep red Texas.