Former President Donald Trump has been on a tear in the past two weeks, working to convince his supporters that he’s the only one who can save their children. He’s pledged to purge “the radical zealots and Marxists” from the Education Department, vowed to have federal agencies “stop” gender-affirming care for minors across the country, and called for parents to be allowed to elect their children’s school principals directly.
Trump’s current focus on children and education may diverge from his past campaigns, but he’s only following the road map that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has drawn. Though DeSantis hasn’t officially announced that he’ll challenge Trump for the GOP nomination, he has captured the heart of many Republicans who want a more polished version of Trump’s gleeful denigration of minorities. And it’s already clear that the cold war between the two ahead of the 2024 presidential primaries will be brutal, nasty, and anything but short.
Last weekend, in his first campaign stops since announcing his re-election bid, Trump tried out a slew of new material to supplement classics like “Mexico is sending rapists” and “Joe Biden loves his son too much.” His biggest applause lines were in response to promises to cut “federal funding for any school that pushes critical race theory or left-wing gender ideology.” The Trump campaign noticed, Semafor’s Shelby Talbott reported, “treating the reaction as a sort of live poll to see what messaging resonates with the base.”
The cold war between the two ahead of the 2024 presidential primaries will be brutal, nasty, and anything but short.
That approach to message-testing bodes poorly for the next two years. Trump’s events so far have been smaller than the giant rallies he once held, which means the attendees are more likely to be his most devoted followers. Giving them what they want, as in this week’s video on protecting children from “left-wing gender insanity,” will only…
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