His being an awful person is fully priced in by now and I don't see him turning out to be a kiddie-fiddler as well as all the other stuff is going to persuade anyone who isn't already persuaded.
I disagree. Trump’s awfulness had previously been directed at people the MAGA base also had issues with. Illegal immigrants, elite celebrities, Democrats, academics. In the Epstein case Trump is perceived as defending all of those people in the coverup. Now the Trump-branded awfulness is directed at his own supporters—that’s the difference. He called his own supporters losers and weaklings, using the very same rhetorical tactics to shut them up that the base chafed at so strongly when, only a year before, it was Democrats in power doing the same thing. (E.g. covering up Biden’s age-based incompetence with ludicrous claims, ‘cheap fakes’, etc.)
In addition, I think the MAGA base genuinely cares about seeing justice come to the children and young women victimized by this pedophile cabal. This sentiment runs deep among social conservatives. It relates to longstanding scandals/conspiracies involving Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Hollywood actors, rich financiers, and the other archetypal Republican villains for 30+ years. The base won’t let such a visceral scandal pass. This was a central promise of the Trump 2024 campaign. Trump has a real problem on his hands now.
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I disagree. Trump’s awfulness had previously been directed at people the MAGA base also had issues with. Illegal immigrants, elite celebrities, Democrats, academics. In the Epstein case Trump is perceived as defending all of those people in the coverup. Now the Trump-branded awfulness is directed at his own supporters—that’s the difference. He called his own supporters losers and weaklings, using the very same rhetorical tactics to shut them up that the base chafed at so strongly when, only a year before, it was Democrats in power doing the same thing. (E.g. covering up Biden’s age-based incompetence with ludicrous claims, ‘cheap fakes’, etc.)
In addition, I think the MAGA base genuinely cares about seeing justice come to the children and young women victimized by this pedophile cabal. This sentiment runs deep among social conservatives. It relates to longstanding scandals/conspiracies involving Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Hollywood actors, rich financiers, and the other archetypal Republican villains for 30+ years. The base won’t let such a visceral scandal pass. This was a central promise of the Trump 2024 campaign. Trump has a real problem on his hands now.
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