Major ally turns against Donald Trump
There’s an old cowboy saying, “Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.” Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin is finally realizing that he failed to heed these words of wisdom. After meeting repeatedly with Donald Trump, spreading hateful, conspiratorial views, and proudly participating in the January 6 insurrection, Griffin turned against the cretin while addressing a QAnon crowd in Las Vegas on Sunday.
The event, a multi-day misinformation extravaganza awkwardly known as the For God & Country Patriot Double Down convention, is not exactly the place where you would expect to hear some rootin’-tootin’ Trump bashing. However, Griffin, who last month survived an effort to recall him as a county commissioner in New Mexico, didn’t refrain from airing his grievances against Trump for his empty bluster.
“For four years, we cried ‘lock her up, lock her up, lock her up, we know she’s a criminal.’ What did the president tell us? ‘If I was in charge of the law, you’d be in jail,’” Griffin began. “Okay, Mr. President, you were in charge of the law for four years… the only ones that were locked up were men like me and others like me that had stood by the president the strongest.”
Griffin is no hero, and his words don’t reflect the sincere regrets of a decent human being who was lassoed into Trump’s cult. On the contrary, Griffin has crafted a long resume of hate in recent years. Among other greatest hits, Griffin told people who supported playing the Black national anthem at football games to “go back to Africa,” he called people who opposed flying the Confederate flag “vile scum,” he claimed that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” he promoted birtherism, and he questioned whether Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and rioter Ashli Babbitt were dead.
Griffin appears to be taking issue only with Trump’s failure to make good on his hateful promises—not with the hateful promises themselves. Yet, if someone so entrenched in Trumpian ideology feels compelled to complain about it publicly to a QAnon audience even at this late date, it’s not hard to imagine a growing number of Trump voters at least quietly acknowledging their own disillusionment with the failed, phony fascist experiment, hopefully leading to apathy in the midterms.
Each day that passes since the Biden administration rescued America from the precipice of disaster is one more day after the four long years Trump had to “make America great again.” Although Trump caused damage, he ultimately failed to transform the United States into what would have been a dystopian nightmare. Griffin’s anti-Trump outburst at this QAnon rodeo is yet another sign that the demagogue’s brand is fading like an ugly, desiccated tumbleweed that blows ever farther into the sunset.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month