It’s Time for Trump to Leave the Race

It’s time for Donald Trump to leave the 2024 presidential race.  Continuing his candidacy promises nothing positive for himself, the Republican Party, or our country.

Iowans have witnessed from front-row seats some of the multitude of reasons he should get out — and they have a unique opportunity to help him exit the race if he doesn’t do it on his own.

They should use that opportunity and leave him now.

First, the obvious reason. He’s unfit to be President.

1. Donald Trump does not believe in, support, or practice democracy.  He clearly wants to “rule” America as an authoritarian, anti-democratic dictator.  This isn’t even in question anymore.
2. Donald Trump betrayed his country multiple times.  He failed to protect national secrets, stole and then withheld top secret documents.  We still don’t know why, but there are few possible good explanations.
3. Donald Trump tried to overthrow our democracy.  He waged a months-long fake elector scheme to corrupt the constitutionally mandated vote-counting process.  When that didn’t work, he launched a violent insurrection and gave aid and comfort – as President – to those fighting at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
4. Donald Trump is a loser. He’s never won a majority of votes cast in a general election, not even in 2016, when he “won” the presidency despite losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, even after strategic help from Russia’s Putin.  He has never been anything but a drag on Republican efforts to win or keep control of the U.S. House and Senate.
5. Donald Trump is corrupt.  He corrupts everything and everybody who comes near him.  He makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of law-abiding virtue.  Look at the excuses of the January 6th attackers … they thought the President told them to do it!
6. He was an awful president the first time around.  What part of his ignorant, blundering incompetence and the multiple disasters left in the wake of his time as President sounds like a good idea to repeat?   Millions — MILLIONS! — of COVID deaths resulted from his lies and mishandling of the deadly virus in the early stages of COVID-19 and throughout the pandemic.  What more evidence is necessary?  Do we need more of the following, e.g., The crashed economy that followed?  — His soaring new deficits? –The loss — likely permanently — of overseas U.S. farm markets to other nations? —What damage is done to international partnerships and allied relationships? — Do you support the betrayal of America’s values as he snuggled up to deadly despots, dictators, and America’s adversaries?
7. Donald Trump’s character is deeply flawed.  He is a pathological liar, a narcissist, and a sociopath.  He believes the world revolves around him.  He is loyal to no one and nothing but himself.  Nothing and no one else matters.
8. He wants to be President again for all the wrong reasons.  They boil down to just three:  (a) he can pardon himself as President;  (b) he can hide behind the presidential seal to avoid prosecution for the 91 criminal indictments he now faces; (c) being President again would allow him to resume a very lucrative career as a grifter, pocketing millions in federal cash.

It’s baffling why so many Republicans don’t seem to care about any of the above, but far too many do not.

Then there are the practical reasons. He’s simply a wrong choice for Republicans and America.

1. Donald Trump will not have time to campaign in caucuses and primaries.  Court dates are already stacking up for the 91 criminal indictments he is facing.  Given his penchant for playing “stall ball” in courtrooms, that backlog and those scheduling conflicts will only grow.  The court dates will and must always take precedence over campaign dates … unless he’d like to add a few new “contempt of courts” to his resume.  When Trump finally faces this reality, he will predictably complain that “they” are trying to keep him from winning.  No.  He will face the inevitable result of his behavior, resulting in 91 criminal indictments.  He will merely be experiencing what every other American faces when court dates call.
2. Republicans must remember that even though their base may love Trump, the rest of America loathes him.  He may win a primary or a nomination, but he has never won a general election and never will.  And there is no guarantee even the Republic base won’t desert him once convictions start piling up.
3. America has a lot of problems that have nothing to do with Donald Trump.  They need attention.  Trump, however, continues to suck up all the oxygen in the public square.  As a result, America’s problems — and possible solutions — don’t get the focus they need from Republicans and are also a distraction for the rest of us.
4. An entire generation is learning – by watching Trump and his gangs – that it is normal for a president to be corrupt, to be a criminal, that democracy can be shed easily if your side is losing, that authoritarianism is an easy, available option, and that violent resolution of political differences is acceptable.  What Trump is making normal does real long-term damage to our democracy.  Every American who loves a democratic America ought to be highly concerned about it.
5. Trump’s legal entanglements have made it impossible for him to effectively campaign for President, even if he had the time.  This may be the strongest practical argument for why Trump ought to get out of the race – and that Republicans ought to insist that he do so.  Iowans have already seen Trump’s “campaign” at the Iowa State Fair, where he dodged the Des Moines Register’s Soap Box stage, offering voters the opportunity to ask questions in public, with his answers recorded by the news media.  During that same State Fair visit, Iowans saw him place himself only in situations where he could limit interactions to brief, on-the-run exchanges of just a few sentences, all of which were difficult to cover and, therefore, unlikely to be covered by reporters.  Trump was hiding in plain sight.
6. Trump is hiding in plain sight from the policy changes and updates the American people need.  The nation has already seen Trump skip a national Republican candidates’ debate where informed moderators and competing candidates would have been able to confront and question him.  We have all watched as he announced and then canceled a press conference where he would have been asked questions about his 91 criminal indictments and upcoming court dates.  All no doubt, on the advice of his lawyers, who don’t trust him to stop making his legal situation worse with more lies — or, ironically, more public confessions.

America does not need, and should not accept, a candidate for President who thinks he doesn’t have to say anything of substance, or on the record, or about what he would do as President, or about troublesome legal problems he may be facing.  This is not a new strategy for Trump.  Remember – at his insistence – national Republicans didn’t even bother writing a national party platform in 2020.

Harry Truman used to describe a party’s platform as its “contract with the people,” which was a pretty good description. Trump’s view seems to be that it’s nobody’s business what he would do as President. That’s not the way democracy works, nor is it the way election campaigns in a democracy should work.

There are plenty more reasons why Trump should get out of the race – for his good, for his party’s good, and most importantly, for the nation’s good.

If he won’t do it on his own, Iowans — through the Caucuses — have a unique role to play in making it happen – and in making it happen sooner rather than later.

If Iowa Republicans will nudge Trump out the door and into the past for their party, it will have to start with Republican voters and caucus attenders.  Iowa Republican leaders — state-wide elected officials, party officials, and the state’s U.S. House and Senate congressional delegations — have all proven to be pretty much spineless when taking on Trump.  None of them have a problem with a twice impeached, 91 times criminally indicted, pathological liar, grifter, wanna-be dictator being America’s President.

If they do, they sure haven’t said so publicly.  It’s time for Trump to get out of the race.  If he won’t go willingly, then Iowan Republicans can and should help him find the door.

The best thing Iowa Republicans can do for their party and their country is to abandon Trump now – and do it quickly – to give some oxygen in what little time remains before the caucuses to more electable, thoughtful, non-criminal Republicans who might actually believe in and want to practice democracy.