The Art of War

| 6:00 pm EST December 21, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu was a book I read in adulthood. I’d never read it growing up. I wish I had. It is a fascinating piece of literature that educates and teaches one how to know their opponent. It can also be used as a sort of style guide in politics.

Many of you ask — what is our strategy? What will be done to weaken Donald Trump? The Art of War has many lessons to teach. One of them is to know the enemy’s weak spots. We certainly know many of Donald Trump’s weak spots. As Bill Palmer has said, tanking his approval ratings is key. Some of you ask WHY that is so important.

It’s important for many reasons, but the lower his numbers are, the less likely he is to implement horrible policies. We also know Trump hates it when his numbers are down.

So it stands to reason that if we succeed in driving down those numbers, Trump will rage about it on Truth Social. He will blame the walls, the television, the empty ketchup bottles, and everyone but himself for his low numbers.

While he is raging, bad policies will not be implemented. The more he rages, the less awful he can bring to America. The lower his numbers, the less likely Republicans are to win the midterms.

Another weakness of the GOP, in general, is its willingness to turn on each other. This is not a battle we’re having against a smooth and efficient group of people; instead, it’s a battle against a rude and incompetent band of ragamuffins who have no idea what they’re doing moment by moment, hour by hour.

Mocking them, laughing at them, and showing people how chaotic the other side is—all of these are tools in our arsenal, and we’d best use them. Republicans have no idea what loyalty is, and in a political war, that is not good – for them.

A good example is happening right now. Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy is one of the rare ones who openly opposed what Trump and Musk are doing with the government funding bill.

Trump then promptly threatened to primary him. You see it. The party splinters like pencil fragments at the slightest provocation. They’re all a bunch of incompetent bullies working for the biggest bully of all.

The Art of War says to know your enemy, to take stock of all their weaknesses, and to gather information calmly and competently. We can do that. Everything we do will lead to more chaos for the Republicans and more ammo for us to win our next election.