Donald Trump just totally blew it with Colonel Vindman
Donald Trump is now roughly 48 hours into the post-acquittal period of his presidency. The media pundits almost uniformly told us that the acquittal would make Trump “emboldened” and that he’s about to start making moves that will magically cause him to get reelected. But as Palmer Report predicted, what we’re seeing is the same old Trump doing the same old crap.
Multiple major news outlets are reporting that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and his Lieutenant Colonel twin brother were both fired from the White House today and escorted out of the building. This is despicable. Trump is retaliating against Vindman and his family for having dared to testify against him during House impeachment hearings. It’s also a phenomenally stupid move.
This isn’t “Trump emboldened.” This is Trump focusing on small, isolated, petty revenge. With his underwater approval rating, he can’t win in 2020 unless he finds a way to win over at least some additional supporters outside his base. Kicking Vindman out of the White House won’t get him more votes. Instead it’ll hand the Democrats a huge 2020 talking point, because not only did Trump just commit yet another crime, he also just disrespected the military something fierce.
You have to give Colonel Vindman and his brother huge props for actually going back to work and doing their jobs after the impeachment hearings, knowing Donald Trump would be targeting them. But while he can fire them from the White House, he can’t fire them from the military. They’ll be reassigned to other military gigs for now. The best thing we can do to help Vindman is to make sure Trump loses in 2020, so the next administration can give Vindman the gig he deserves.
Frankly, with Trump focusing on this nonsense, he’s not focusing on winning. He’s acting like someone who greatly fears he won’t win, and is too hung up on getting revenge for his potential upcoming loss to bother focusing on trying to improve his odds of winning. This means that if we focus on winning – and put in the work required between now and November – we’ll beat him.
