Donald Trump is finished

| 10:00 pm EST February 4, 2021
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The Democrats invited Donald Trump today to appear and testify at his own impeachment trial next week. If he were looking to make any sort of comeback, or even if he were simply looking to hog the spotlight for a day, this would be the perfect opportunity. Instead he quickly turned down the offer.

It couldn’t be more clear that Trump is finished in public life. He’s not even trying to get back in the game. In fact he’s refusing to get back in the game. This isn’t a guy who’s going to try to win the Republican nomination in 2024, or launch his own political party. He’s even letting his kids handle his public feud with the government of Scotland. His heart, to the extent that he technically has one, simply isn’t in it.

But we already kind of knew it was going to be like this. Trump lost in such a massive blowout, he cost his party a seemingly secure Senate majority in the process. He was going to limp along the political landscape at best. Then January 6th happened and it ensured that he was finished entirely. Even he seems to see that now, considering how intent he is in remaining off the stage.

Yet even with Trump clearly finished, new polling suggests that as many as two-thirds of registered Republicans would be interested in switching to a new Trump-led political party. This helps explain why Republican Party leaders are still trying to align themselves with Trump’s ghost, even knowing that Trump himself is no longer a relevant political figure. But what kind of turnout can the GOP expect in general elections by aligning itself with a vanished Trump in a way that alienates voters in the middle?

At some point the Republican Party will have to reconcile itself with the fact that it’s still married to Donald Trump, and that being married to Trump isn’t going to help it one bit. Similarly, at some point the media is going to have to stop pushing ratings-driven false narratives about Trump somehow being a figure in the 2024 race or still being a relevant person in politics. Trump is simply finished.