"During the pandemic, he became adamantly opposed to the lockdowns and considered voting for Trump in 2020"
But Trump supported the lockdowns. These voters are just as inconsistent as the standard Biden voter. These kind of profiles are really not that enlightening except to show that everyone has a mishmash of disconnected ideas about why they do what they do. Truth is no one really know their own motives but makes up reasons after the fact.
Agreed. One of them even said he started making up reasons why Trump would be good. I'm sitting here wondering whether they even remember how Trump was as president.
"Trump is advocating for schools to safely reopen this fall to ensure our Nation's children receive optimal education and care. By supporting the resumption of in-person schooling, President Trump is standing up for the well-being of American children who need to get back in the classroom and working parents." - Aug. 12, 2020.
How'd that work out? As the FP has previously reported, many felt they had to oppose Trump at every turn, so...not well. "Distrust of the president and his motives hardened the conviction of some educators that teaching in person was unsafe, helping drive union opposition." From https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/trump-schools-reopen.html
I just read through this article again and it makes even less sense on second read. The only knowledge gained by cherry picking a handful of voters is knowing how a handle of voters are justifying their vote. To suggest it describes a meaningful trend about the national vote is nonsense. God help us if Free Press keeps posting this kind of useless vox pop drivel between now and November. I didn't escape mainstream bubble for this.
Interesting article…, BUT, I have serious reservations about the journalistic quality:
So Shaun tweets he donated $300K to Trump — did anyone follow up and ask how that’s possible in view of campaign donation limits orders of magnitude smaller ($3.3K for candidates)???
Brakey voted for Libertarian Ron Paul in the last two elections? How? Paul last ran in 2012 — in the Republican primaries. He ran as a Libertarian in 1988….
Those are just the eyebrow-raisers I remember. I’m sure there are answers to these questions, but it’s disappointing they weren’t already asked and answered.
What was the point of this? Every single one of these supposed "Never Trump" voters were actually going to be Trump voters in 2024, quietly or not, with the exception of maybe guitar guy, and if not, they definitely weren't Biden voters but maybe RFK Jr voters, so same difference! So not sure what this "proves" about Trump’s first criminal conviction changing anyone's votes or beliefs, other than just a summary of some very common arguments that Trump supporters have been making all along on all these topics.
Also - Maguire guy with his 3500 word Tweet about his "well researched" criteria for supporting Trump - let's just take his bad Afghanistan take. Maybe in his "research" he missed the part where "President" Trump, The Master Of Foreign Policy (and The Universe maybe too? lol - already telling we’re dealing with a Trump Stan and not just a reluctant supporter, literally no actual “centrist” would claim that Trump had a masterful hold of foreign policy but at best had mostly muddled through with the diversions of his staff and luck of timing wrt global events) was the POTUS who negotiated the American surrender to the Taliban, and who excluded entirely from the withdrawal plan the Afghani government that we spent those 20+ years building up. Foreign Policy Master President Trump who had withdrawn the US troop presence in Afghanistan to below 1500 active duty members by the time he left Office - a much higher number than his target, which was ZERO by May 2020 that he had originally wanted to but was only talked out of doing so by his advisors who warned him against a total withdrawal attempt before the 2020 election. Apparently this was a repeated merry-go-round between Trump and his staff over his desire to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan as soon as early Jan 2020 even, that he was also repeatedly talked down off the ledge from, and by all advisor accounts, only by appealing to his naked self interest and obsession with his re-election, and not by anything resembling a strategic national or military interest.
TLDR - the withdrawal was already set into motion by the time Trump left Office, Biden would have had to have *re-invaded* Afghanistan with more troops to execute a different withdrawal, let alone thrown out Trump’s agreement by doing so, at a point when the now marginalized Afghani government had already begun dissolving as well as the fact that *Trump* had also allowed the release of the Taliban prisoners who had begun their resurgence of strength for the withdrawal. So much for the Foreign Policy Master in that regard at least, although maybe Biden and his supporters should have wished for Trump to have finally overrode his advisors on that point and executed the withdrawal as he wanted so that he could be hung with what would likely have been an even messier withdrawal than the one he left Biden to execute on (reminder: it was supposed to be Trump's second term that did that). Let alone, after the first rounds of viral coverage of the plane taking off with people hanging on, everyone forgets the rest of the withdrawal that removed a record number of refugees in regular order in a record amount of time following. And while zero US troop casualties is a great goal, 13 casualties for the scenario that was is actually pretty remarkable considering the conditions. This is not to say “Biden did everything perfectly”, but is to say there is no way to evaluate the withdrawal that ignores the state that Trump left (and again, wanted to execute on with even less!), and to be much more realistic about the odds for a completely clean and orderly withdrawal under *any* condition in the first place.
Trump's other “masterful” foreign policy near-fuck ups include, but are not limited to:
1. The withdrawal of troops and bases on a whim from the remaining Iraqi-Kurdish held bases following a phone call from Erdogan where he was promised some favorable Trump property deals in Turkey if he did so. Putin, Assad and Erdogan swooped in and divvied the assets from fully stocked bases that were left and the damage to our also long cultivated and loyal Kurdish allies is incalculable in terms of our relationships cultivated and trustworthiness. Funny how Maguire's extensive research missed this one!
2. Yes, the shredding of the JCPOA with Iran, along with the re-imposition of sanctions - of which Iran was in compliance with before Trump - that was likely a big factor into Iran's role in the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. Oh, and Iran is rebuilding that nuclear capability now that it's out of the agreement and oversight. Trump needlessly incited Iranian hostilities there as part of his juvenile revenge policy of “undoing Obama” as his Prime Directive almost entirely because Obama made fun of him in public, and there is definitely reason to believe that was a factor into Oct 7 that might not have happened had we continued with the agreement.
3. The Abraham Accords that ignored perhaps the most explosive problem Israel had in the region: Palestine and Iran, duh. Israel already had informal economic and diplomatic relations with the Accord nations and ended zero active hostilities, the "peace deal" was just a weapons trade agreement at its core, and certainly did nothing to prevent Oct 7, in fact may have created another inciting factor into Iran's role in since the Accords were done specifically to isolate Iran. Whoops. Also - the highly questionable profiting from of both Kushner and Trump in the form of massive investments and “deals” with their private businesses almost immediately after with the “Accord” nations - it’s super weird as well as to why I’m supposed to buy into the Biden Corruption over Hunter name dropping his dad at a time when his dad was actually out of office for leverage as The Worst Corruption In US History, but Trump and his family profiting from a major Middle Eastern trade compact in the form of direct payments of billions of dollars is Nothing To See Here?? Maybe Maguire can break that down for me.
4. The reckless incitement of North Korea Kim Jong Un that escalated into an embarrassingly juvenile set of Tweet attacks of two supposed “leaders” bragging about the supposed sizes of their “buttons” * , and culminated with the humiliation of an American President (The Foreign Policy Master again!) rhetorically jerking off at his rallies about the "love letters" the two supposedly exchanged by the end of his term. Let alone his supposed "Nixon goes to China" moment was sullied by his also embarrassing lack of protocol where he saluted North Korean military figures, while also achieving exactly zero of value. North Korea continued its nuclear program and testing while laughing in Trump's face, he just stopped talking and Tweeting about it. The "love letters" btw were probably not even written by Kim Jong Un himself but by a team of psy-ops experts most likely Chinese, and honestly, maybe not even that high level needed given how grade school easy it is to manipulate Donald John Trump, probably the most easily advertised manipulatable person on the planet: just tell him how great, strong, smart and handsome he is while keeping a straight face. Maybe compliment the buffet food at his country clubs lol and he'll “let you do anything”, to quote the Master (of locker room talk) himself.
5. His subservience to Putin was not just embarrassing as it happened on the public stage, but the stuff of which consequences we may still be understanding. The Helsinki conference where he disappeared with Putin with no aides and destroyed the translator's notes after which he emerged looking like his knees were a bit scuffed, during which he declared on a national stage that US Intelligence was to be less trusted than... Putin. His first few weeks in Office he managed to reveal Israeli intelligence assets in yet another closed door meeting with Russian diplomats after which he displayed the same blushing school girl crush behavior. We still have yet to have a real deep dive of his finances to understand who really owns his debts.
As a reminder, the "disasters" we supposedly avoided under Trump's first term were both a factor of his general incompetence and poor management skills in terms of most of what Trump wanted to do was brushed aside and "managed" by his staff - AND THANK GOD FOR IT. Of course, that's one of the few "lessons learned" by Trump from his first term - to not hire competent experts and "grown ups" but a promise to staff himself with the likes of Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, and a host of other proven "loyalists" - who are loyal to Trump over all, not the good of the nation. Let alone the movement behind him to push that down throughout the Executive under Project 2025. Maybe that makes a guy like Sean Maguire feel cozy thinking that maybe we can look forward to Don Jr running the Defense Department, and maybe Eric in charge of Commerce? Because whatever "relief" he might have felt from the *relative* stability left by Trump's first term is the exact opposite of what is promised with his second term - and Sean! Hey! It's not "the libs" making these predictions, it's Trump, his team and backing orgs behind him. Don't take my word for it, try actually following the current campaign and not your 2016 revisionism.
I'd generally agree that Trump's negotiations for the withdrawal from Afghanistan were not great. The US has not exhibited any skill in any of its negotiations with the Taliban, going back to the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange. Speaking of, didn't Obama kind of set us on this course to begin with? Oh yeah, I think he once spoke of withdrawing all troops by 2014.
As for Biden's role in Afghanistan, he basically took ownership of it early in 2021. No one ever said "Trump left us a mess" until at least August of that year. Meanwhile, Biden promised an orderly evacuation. "Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31st. The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart. " Note, also, that he retained Zalmay Khalilzad in his administration. He even brought up the chaotic scenes of the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon, saying "there going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy from Afghanistan. It's not at all comparable. By the time the entire rigamarole happened, Biden had clearly taken ownership of the withdrawal and promised.
I agree. Reminds me of the weird things I've heard Megan Kelly saying lately about voting for Trump despite thinking he tried to subvert the election because he didn't actually succeed.
Exactly - what sort of rationale is "well he was too incompetent to live up to his corrupt and fascist promises and he was thwarted when he tried by actual ethical grown ups around him" to vote for him again, while the the entire second part of that sentence actively being planned for to cut out in a putative second term. At best, they're voting for his likely incompetence again which is hardly the flex they want it to be, otherwise they're actively ignoring Project 2025 and his now total takeover of the Republican institutional apparatus and how much has changed since even November 2020. In 2016, he was much more supplicant to institutional leaders on his staffing appointments and choices, in 2024 he's in full command of their show. There's no "happy revisionist" take of Trump's first term that predicts the second, and yet that's the most common "apology" framed by the supposed grown ups left in the GOP for continuing to support him.
Actually, I think that is a totally valid rationale in the circumstances. I didn't vote for him in 2016, but one of my thoughts on the topic at the time was "Trump may be crooked in business, but Hillary is rather accomplished at evading responsibility in the political arena." For example, how would ANY other administration have dealt with the aftermath of the call to Ukraine that resulted in Trump's impeachment? He never denied it happened, and released the transcript within a few days. Whatever one might think of the call itself, it's pretty clear that the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations were not nearly so "transparent." (You might remember the White House Press Corp erupting in laughter when the press secretary claimed Obama was the "most transparent ever."
Oh, and the election denialism supposedly by Clinton and the Dems from 2016 is not even in the same ballpark as what took place in 2020, and disseminated by Trump himself. Unlike the reasonable concerns and criticisms of the Russian interference in 2016 that was based on facts, Trump and his supporters harvested fields of bullshit about his 2020 loss, and every time each wild lie and conspiracy was disproven, just moved the goalposts to another lie and conspiracy with barely a blink. Miss me with this false equivalence bulllshit that pretends that wondering whether fake social media anti-Clinton "reports" paid for by Russians might have swayed some voters into not voting is the same thing as claiming a vast nationwide conspiracy of hundreds of local elections offices were complicit in creating and counting "fake ballots", of foreign hacking "algorithms" to change real vote outcomes, etc. Let alone in conceding the race and conducting a proper turnover. Guess who did and guess who didn’t.
But really - this is disappointing for TFP. Presenting anecdotal accounts of people who weren't voting for Biden to begin with, people who were already quiet Trump voters, in service of trying to sell a desired narrative (of which it is way too early to even tell what the effect is of his conviction) of voters siding with Trump on the issue of his legal problems. Even the first paragraph states the earliest polling states the opposite, yet the authors trotted out these lame "proofs" anyway. News at 11! Trump supporters still support Trump lol. Awesome reporting ;P
* and let’s be frank, two likely very “challenged” in the button sized arena of these two little fat dudes that would be absolutely comedy gold in any other context that did not involve actual nuclear power capabilities, and really it was Kim Jong Un who really “won” the Tweet battle by gifting us all with the moniker of “Dotard” for The Donald, a most fitting insult actually, and despite what Trump supporters think, displayed a much keener sense of insult than Trump himself has ever demonstrated with his lame and repetitive (and diminishing!) limited vocabulary stable of insults he rotates through!
I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, mainly because I didn't think Trump had a chance and I didn't really approve of his policies. In 2020 I voted for Trump out of pure spite against legacy media outlets outright lying about Trump and crafting a false narrative with Russian Collusion for 3 years. In 2024 I'm going to vote for Trump again, not so much because of legacy media, they're hopeless but rather because things were better under Trump with inflation and basically with everything else with the economy. On top of that, a vote for Trump is a vote against the entire corrupt system we're seeing with the legal system being turned against him in a way I can so plainly see, Hillary and the payment for the Steele Dossier is the SAME EXACT thing Trump did but somehow she's avoiding prosecution for it AND the FEC fined her campaign for it while the FEC didn't even fine Trump for the payment to Daniels.
I thought something similar in 2020: the reason to vote for Trump was really to teach a lesson to the media that their efforts, their constant bias and "putting a thumb on the scale," was counterproductive. Instead, the media "won" in 2020, helping Biden's election, and now most of them scoff at the very idea of "journalistic integrity."
On this point: " I'm going to vote for Trump again, not so much because of legacy media, they're hopeless but rather because things were better under Trump with inflation and basically with everything else with the economy."
Trump inherited a decades long low-inflation economy, and one that was on a near also 6+ year recovery glide from the depths of The Great Recession of 2008. He inherited the easy money policy from the Fed, an unemployment rate that was already under 4% by the time he took Office and still falling, a steady GDP growth average with also low inflation, wage increases that finally began to catch up to job growth, etc. There's no economic trend that indicates that Trump's Presidency or "policies" created any different trajectory or impact than the trends he inherited, other than the 2017 tax cuts blowing up the debt and perhaps some of his tariff/trade war policies exacerbating the post-COVID supply chain/inflation woes (also, manufacturing was in an official recession by 2019 Q3 as it was - some attributed to the increased cost of raw steel caused by Trump's steel tariffs that yet did not also create any new steel manufacturing jobs/plants domestically but did raise the costs for pretty much the entire supply chain dependent on raw steel).
You're voting for the conditions that Trump was lucky to preside over for the first 3 years of his term (assuming you are giving him the COVID pass for the final year) - there's no indication or reason to believe that if Trump was re-elected in 2020 that the negatives you and other voters are placing on Biden wrt to inflation would have went any differently - Trump was also promoting another big round of stimulus in fall 2020, in fact he blamed Mitch McConnell for losing the Georgia run-off for not passing a bigger stimulus round after November 2020 (and not, of course, his own erratic and insane behavior over his election loss post-November 2020). The rest of the global COVID economy factors would have been the same no matter who won in 2020, and if Trump had won his re-election would have presided over an inflationary economy regardless.
Voting for Trump in 2024 to get back the 2019 economy that Trump had very little to do with in the first place is going to make a lot of voters very disappointed, at best, IMO, that will also come with a hefty price tag on it even if Trump is granted another glide path into the already trending deflationary economy by Jan 2025 (that he will, of course, take full credit for, sigh), higher if a second Trump Presidency makes inflation worse (which, if you read his actually proposed policy agenda for his second term, will be very likely!)
How can a chief white house correspondent have called the conviction "a gift to democrats" ? I'm the farthest thing from an 'expert' and I could have predicted the spike in approval for the exact reasons stated in this article. It highlights the problem with MSM.
Democracy is the idea of the people ruling themselves. Well, who is the biggest class of victims in all history (to exaggerate)? It's the American Left. They're victims of patriarchy, colonialism, all kinds of __phobia, of boundary breaking, of narcissists, etc. etc. etc. That's the opposite of governing your self. So, when they say the word 'democracy' they seem to mean "my colorful-haired people getting their way." and if they don't, they declare victimhood. When the Right talks about democracy, they mean getting your own ducks in a row so that you can't be exploited so much through taxation and all the other things that will drag you down. then you can govern yourself and in your group. And you know the structures.
Why don't all of these people put their efforts into getting someone with integrity into the White House? The worst thing everyone has done is accepting we must choose between Biden or Trump. Trump being convicted for paying hush money is like Al Capone being convicted of tax evasion - it's not a good reason to convict him, but there are far worse things he has done. I don't plan to vote for him or Biden.
Awesome article! Thank you for sharing opinions from folks who appear to have a deep love for our great country and remain open-minded enough to see where the true threat to our constitutional republic lives.
A reminder to everyone who is switching to Trump because they feel the Democrats have 'weaponized' the Justice Department:
Two wrongs do not make a right
Donald Trump has said, on record, that he WILL weaponize the Justice Department to go after his enemies. If the 'weaponization' of the justice system is what you are against, voting for Trump will just make it worse.
Is this what you're referring to? Because I'm not seeing where he says he WILL do this.
"Well, he's unleashed something that everybody, we've all known about this for a hundred years," Trump said, apparently in reference to President Biden and his administration. "We've watched other countries do it and, in some cases, effective and in other cases, the country's overthrown or it's been totally ineffective. But we've watched this for a long time, and it's not unique, but it's unique for the United States. Yeah. If they do this and they've already done it, but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse. What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box."
"They call it weaponization, and the people aren't going to stand for it," Trump said. "But yeah. they have done something that allows the next party. I mean, if somebody — if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, 'Go down and indict them.' Mostly what that would be, you know, they would be out of business. They'd be out, they'd be out of the election."
He is speaking of the very foreseeable situations that this behavior will lead to. Kind of like the Dems efforts to remove the filibuster in the Senate, and to pack the Supreme Court, and, oh yeah, remove a contender from the ballot, which we all seem to have already forgotten.
See my other post about what Trump actually did, not said.
He is "preparing" the populace for him to weaponize the Dept of Justice against anyone who he considers an enemy. That could be you for all I know. This is scary stuff. If you think Biden is bad, why do you think Trump is good? Because he's on your team? He has done and will do exactly the same thing you accuse Biden of.
So what is your solution? Don't punish Democrats for this?! The answer is to punish people who commit lawfare at the ballot box until they stop. If Trump *actually* does this I will vote against him until politicians get the memo that lawfare is a losing strategy.
Vote the DA out of office. That is how you punish the Democrats on this. Electing Trump will not solve the problem but only make it worst. Vote in people who pledge to not do what you think is bad. Has Trump made such a pledge? So far he has said the exact opposite.
This is beyond voting scumbags out of office...Democrats have taken this to the level of how things get done on the streets...America will not be taken over by these aaaholes simply by waiting for the next election...Scary time in America and it would be better to be armed than it would to be a Democrat...
Your alternative is to vote for those who’ve already done it, or to abstain? Past choices are the best predictor of future actions. Apparently you hold that “weaponized” doesn’t include include directing the FBI to investigate parents who disagreed with woke school boards or slow-walking Hunter Biden’s prosecution to a sweetheart deal stopped at the last by a judge asking a basic question. Better yet, consider the IRS whistleblowers who risked their future careers by reporting the limitations placed by the Justice Department appointed prosecutor upon reasonable lines of investigation.
Our choice is between a party hack whose mind is far gone and a loudmouth whose claims (which result in him dominating the news) far exceed his reach.
"Past choices are the best predictor of future actions." Okay then:
“According to Sessions, the President asked him to reverse his recusal so that Sessions could direct the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton,” the Mueller report said.
and
Geoffrey Berman, a Republican who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York until Trump fired him, described Barr’s Justice Department in his book, “Holding the Line.” “Demands came down from Main Justice that were overtly political — among the most outrageous of them, pressure to pursue baseless criminal charges against John Kerry, who had served in the Obama administration as Secretary of State,” he wrote.
Hmmmm. Looks like Trump and the Republicans started 'weaponizing' the Dept of Justice before Sleepy Joe did. Trump is already priming the pump for round 2; listen closely to his language.
What were the baseless charges against Kerry? I suspect that it was that he continued to speak to Iranians and recommend to them that they hold out for a Democratic return to office. I very much suspect no one would think that baseless if a Republican did it.
I started looking into disinformation a couple years ago, thinking it was coming mostly from the right. Yes, they have their fair share, but so much of it comes from the left (or mainstream). It is rather jarring to make these discoveries, and the worst part is that everyone in your bubble thinks you've gone insane if you say anything.
The recent knife attack in Germany is a perfect example of how the media reframes things. A radical Islamist from Afghanistan stabbed and killed a German police officer but the headlines report, "Police officer killed at far-right protest" The level of dishonesty in so many of these stories is almost beyond belief. If anyone goes down the rabbit hole to find out who is labeled "far right," they will find mostly centrists.
I'm a life-long traditional liberal. I now have no choice but to vote a straight Republican ticket. There's no longer any connection between liberalism and the Democratic party.
Voted Democrat the past few elections. That being said, for four years the media had its hair on fire over every little tweet Trump made, yet when most of our lives are socially and materially worse under Biden, there’s crickets.
Then there’s the fact that these jokers ran for office promising to get Trump on something, anything really, and now we’re expected to respect a Manhattan verdict of some alleged crime from eight years ago that was supposed to be a misdemeanor.
My views of Trump haven’t changed. He’s puerile, selfish, ignorant… but we cannot have another two years of Biden plus two from Harris.
I have never voted for Trump, this election may mark the first time for the exact same reason. One, I don't believe Trump is really capable of wrecking the system- he has too much of both parties lined up against him. Two, Biden and the Democrats ferrying around bags of Chinese cash and classified documents can hardly claim to stand for equal justice under the law. This isn't a contest between corruption and rule of law, it's a face off between two State factions that are equally corrupt and intent on power. Three - politics are a sideshow at this point. To anyone who has even the slightest interest and knowledge of Americanism; a limited Constitutional Republic that places individual agency, rights, as its focal point - this country is toast. We're trading one senile aged crooked politician for a reality TV scam artist. Nothing going on in politics now is going to result in a course correction; both parties are driving us off the same fiscal and moral cliff. Ultimately, probably when the bills of the entitlement State finally come due soon (i.e. Social Security), we will have to face real decisions about the direction of this country. I'm thinking of a Milei type figure who finally throws all the bums out, and replaces the ideology of the Progressives out, and replaces it with it with something like that Benjamin Franklin wrote on the first penny. "Mind your Business".
Regardless of the merits of the case, I hope that for balance TFP also runs a story highlighting and interviewing people who were previously Trump supporters, but have turned against him because of his felony convictions.
I voted for Trump the in 2016, drank the kool-aid in 2020 and was a suburban "Never Trumper"/Biden mom, and now I'm kicking myself because I voted "character over policy", instead of doing my own homework as I've done now. Never again. Our foreign affairs/relationships have totally tanked. I cannot believe what is happening in Africa, and no one is reporting it. I can't believe we have turned our backs on such a vulnerable population. I have a covid kid who is now going into the 5th grade and can't read and hasn't socially matured, and big government doesn't care. I'm heartbroken at the lack of empathy or support. When did the Democrats become the elites? They have no clue what we're going through. And, to top it all off, they're giving away millions of dollars to support migrants needs, when my tax dollars need to be spent on helping my neighbors. If my neighbor needs a coat, give them a coat before you set up households for those who don't pay taxes (yes, I know sales tax = tax).
I would be interested in reading their stories as well. But, my guess is there are few who were Trump supporters who have changed their mind based on the conviction. There may be more independent voters who hadn't decided prior to the trial that may now be voting for Biden.
TFP did not "select" these people, they just represent the majority who have turned, not so much to Trump, but away from Biden. If the movement is predominantly one direction, which it clearly is, only MSM would try to spin an alternative. That is why I read TFP.
Well lets wait and see what the appeals courts say first. EVERYONE that has paid attention knows this was a corrupt trial with flawed jury instructions. It should be a wake up call for reform of the judicial system. Judges can easily corrupt the system and when paired with a corrupt prosecutor they can destroy any of us to poor to defend ourselves. In busy jurisdictions, public defenders are so busy they assist matriculation of the system but can lack the resources to effect a defense. George Soros figured out years ago how to weaponize this. Now we all know and it must be stopped.
I think the appeal won't be decided until after the election because they know it was a sham trial and will decide to overturn the conviction, obviously to keep the public thinking it was a trial with a jury of peers.
"During the pandemic, he became adamantly opposed to the lockdowns and considered voting for Trump in 2020"
But Trump supported the lockdowns. These voters are just as inconsistent as the standard Biden voter. These kind of profiles are really not that enlightening except to show that everyone has a mishmash of disconnected ideas about why they do what they do. Truth is no one really know their own motives but makes up reasons after the fact.
Agreed. One of them even said he started making up reasons why Trump would be good. I'm sitting here wondering whether they even remember how Trump was as president.
Trump wanted the lockdowns to end, and also wanted schools to re-open in Fall.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-insists-schools-open-fall-local-authorities-hold/story?id=71648610
"Trump is advocating for schools to safely reopen this fall to ensure our Nation's children receive optimal education and care. By supporting the resumption of in-person schooling, President Trump is standing up for the well-being of American children who need to get back in the classroom and working parents." - Aug. 12, 2020.
How'd that work out? As the FP has previously reported, many felt they had to oppose Trump at every turn, so...not well. "Distrust of the president and his motives hardened the conviction of some educators that teaching in person was unsafe, helping drive union opposition." From https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/trump-schools-reopen.html
I just read through this article again and it makes even less sense on second read. The only knowledge gained by cherry picking a handful of voters is knowing how a handle of voters are justifying their vote. To suggest it describes a meaningful trend about the national vote is nonsense. God help us if Free Press keeps posting this kind of useless vox pop drivel between now and November. I didn't escape mainstream bubble for this.
Interesting article…, BUT, I have serious reservations about the journalistic quality:
So Shaun tweets he donated $300K to Trump — did anyone follow up and ask how that’s possible in view of campaign donation limits orders of magnitude smaller ($3.3K for candidates)???
Brakey voted for Libertarian Ron Paul in the last two elections? How? Paul last ran in 2012 — in the Republican primaries. He ran as a Libertarian in 1988….
Those are just the eyebrow-raisers I remember. I’m sure there are answers to these questions, but it’s disappointing they weren’t already asked and answered.
What was the point of this? Every single one of these supposed "Never Trump" voters were actually going to be Trump voters in 2024, quietly or not, with the exception of maybe guitar guy, and if not, they definitely weren't Biden voters but maybe RFK Jr voters, so same difference! So not sure what this "proves" about Trump’s first criminal conviction changing anyone's votes or beliefs, other than just a summary of some very common arguments that Trump supporters have been making all along on all these topics.
Also - Maguire guy with his 3500 word Tweet about his "well researched" criteria for supporting Trump - let's just take his bad Afghanistan take. Maybe in his "research" he missed the part where "President" Trump, The Master Of Foreign Policy (and The Universe maybe too? lol - already telling we’re dealing with a Trump Stan and not just a reluctant supporter, literally no actual “centrist” would claim that Trump had a masterful hold of foreign policy but at best had mostly muddled through with the diversions of his staff and luck of timing wrt global events) was the POTUS who negotiated the American surrender to the Taliban, and who excluded entirely from the withdrawal plan the Afghani government that we spent those 20+ years building up. Foreign Policy Master President Trump who had withdrawn the US troop presence in Afghanistan to below 1500 active duty members by the time he left Office - a much higher number than his target, which was ZERO by May 2020 that he had originally wanted to but was only talked out of doing so by his advisors who warned him against a total withdrawal attempt before the 2020 election. Apparently this was a repeated merry-go-round between Trump and his staff over his desire to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan as soon as early Jan 2020 even, that he was also repeatedly talked down off the ledge from, and by all advisor accounts, only by appealing to his naked self interest and obsession with his re-election, and not by anything resembling a strategic national or military interest.
TLDR - the withdrawal was already set into motion by the time Trump left Office, Biden would have had to have *re-invaded* Afghanistan with more troops to execute a different withdrawal, let alone thrown out Trump’s agreement by doing so, at a point when the now marginalized Afghani government had already begun dissolving as well as the fact that *Trump* had also allowed the release of the Taliban prisoners who had begun their resurgence of strength for the withdrawal. So much for the Foreign Policy Master in that regard at least, although maybe Biden and his supporters should have wished for Trump to have finally overrode his advisors on that point and executed the withdrawal as he wanted so that he could be hung with what would likely have been an even messier withdrawal than the one he left Biden to execute on (reminder: it was supposed to be Trump's second term that did that). Let alone, after the first rounds of viral coverage of the plane taking off with people hanging on, everyone forgets the rest of the withdrawal that removed a record number of refugees in regular order in a record amount of time following. And while zero US troop casualties is a great goal, 13 casualties for the scenario that was is actually pretty remarkable considering the conditions. This is not to say “Biden did everything perfectly”, but is to say there is no way to evaluate the withdrawal that ignores the state that Trump left (and again, wanted to execute on with even less!), and to be much more realistic about the odds for a completely clean and orderly withdrawal under *any* condition in the first place.
Trump's other “masterful” foreign policy near-fuck ups include, but are not limited to:
1. The withdrawal of troops and bases on a whim from the remaining Iraqi-Kurdish held bases following a phone call from Erdogan where he was promised some favorable Trump property deals in Turkey if he did so. Putin, Assad and Erdogan swooped in and divvied the assets from fully stocked bases that were left and the damage to our also long cultivated and loyal Kurdish allies is incalculable in terms of our relationships cultivated and trustworthiness. Funny how Maguire's extensive research missed this one!
2. Yes, the shredding of the JCPOA with Iran, along with the re-imposition of sanctions - of which Iran was in compliance with before Trump - that was likely a big factor into Iran's role in the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. Oh, and Iran is rebuilding that nuclear capability now that it's out of the agreement and oversight. Trump needlessly incited Iranian hostilities there as part of his juvenile revenge policy of “undoing Obama” as his Prime Directive almost entirely because Obama made fun of him in public, and there is definitely reason to believe that was a factor into Oct 7 that might not have happened had we continued with the agreement.
3. The Abraham Accords that ignored perhaps the most explosive problem Israel had in the region: Palestine and Iran, duh. Israel already had informal economic and diplomatic relations with the Accord nations and ended zero active hostilities, the "peace deal" was just a weapons trade agreement at its core, and certainly did nothing to prevent Oct 7, in fact may have created another inciting factor into Iran's role in since the Accords were done specifically to isolate Iran. Whoops. Also - the highly questionable profiting from of both Kushner and Trump in the form of massive investments and “deals” with their private businesses almost immediately after with the “Accord” nations - it’s super weird as well as to why I’m supposed to buy into the Biden Corruption over Hunter name dropping his dad at a time when his dad was actually out of office for leverage as The Worst Corruption In US History, but Trump and his family profiting from a major Middle Eastern trade compact in the form of direct payments of billions of dollars is Nothing To See Here?? Maybe Maguire can break that down for me.
4. The reckless incitement of North Korea Kim Jong Un that escalated into an embarrassingly juvenile set of Tweet attacks of two supposed “leaders” bragging about the supposed sizes of their “buttons” * , and culminated with the humiliation of an American President (The Foreign Policy Master again!) rhetorically jerking off at his rallies about the "love letters" the two supposedly exchanged by the end of his term. Let alone his supposed "Nixon goes to China" moment was sullied by his also embarrassing lack of protocol where he saluted North Korean military figures, while also achieving exactly zero of value. North Korea continued its nuclear program and testing while laughing in Trump's face, he just stopped talking and Tweeting about it. The "love letters" btw were probably not even written by Kim Jong Un himself but by a team of psy-ops experts most likely Chinese, and honestly, maybe not even that high level needed given how grade school easy it is to manipulate Donald John Trump, probably the most easily advertised manipulatable person on the planet: just tell him how great, strong, smart and handsome he is while keeping a straight face. Maybe compliment the buffet food at his country clubs lol and he'll “let you do anything”, to quote the Master (of locker room talk) himself.
5. His subservience to Putin was not just embarrassing as it happened on the public stage, but the stuff of which consequences we may still be understanding. The Helsinki conference where he disappeared with Putin with no aides and destroyed the translator's notes after which he emerged looking like his knees were a bit scuffed, during which he declared on a national stage that US Intelligence was to be less trusted than... Putin. His first few weeks in Office he managed to reveal Israeli intelligence assets in yet another closed door meeting with Russian diplomats after which he displayed the same blushing school girl crush behavior. We still have yet to have a real deep dive of his finances to understand who really owns his debts.
As a reminder, the "disasters" we supposedly avoided under Trump's first term were both a factor of his general incompetence and poor management skills in terms of most of what Trump wanted to do was brushed aside and "managed" by his staff - AND THANK GOD FOR IT. Of course, that's one of the few "lessons learned" by Trump from his first term - to not hire competent experts and "grown ups" but a promise to staff himself with the likes of Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, and a host of other proven "loyalists" - who are loyal to Trump over all, not the good of the nation. Let alone the movement behind him to push that down throughout the Executive under Project 2025. Maybe that makes a guy like Sean Maguire feel cozy thinking that maybe we can look forward to Don Jr running the Defense Department, and maybe Eric in charge of Commerce? Because whatever "relief" he might have felt from the *relative* stability left by Trump's first term is the exact opposite of what is promised with his second term - and Sean! Hey! It's not "the libs" making these predictions, it's Trump, his team and backing orgs behind him. Don't take my word for it, try actually following the current campaign and not your 2016 revisionism.
You're right about one thing, this is TL;DR.
I'd generally agree that Trump's negotiations for the withdrawal from Afghanistan were not great. The US has not exhibited any skill in any of its negotiations with the Taliban, going back to the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange. Speaking of, didn't Obama kind of set us on this course to begin with? Oh yeah, I think he once spoke of withdrawing all troops by 2014.
As for Biden's role in Afghanistan, he basically took ownership of it early in 2021. No one ever said "Trump left us a mess" until at least August of that year. Meanwhile, Biden promised an orderly evacuation. "Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31st. The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart. " Note, also, that he retained Zalmay Khalilzad in his administration. He even brought up the chaotic scenes of the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon, saying "there going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy from Afghanistan. It's not at all comparable. By the time the entire rigamarole happened, Biden had clearly taken ownership of the withdrawal and promised.
I agree. Reminds me of the weird things I've heard Megan Kelly saying lately about voting for Trump despite thinking he tried to subvert the election because he didn't actually succeed.
Exactly - what sort of rationale is "well he was too incompetent to live up to his corrupt and fascist promises and he was thwarted when he tried by actual ethical grown ups around him" to vote for him again, while the the entire second part of that sentence actively being planned for to cut out in a putative second term. At best, they're voting for his likely incompetence again which is hardly the flex they want it to be, otherwise they're actively ignoring Project 2025 and his now total takeover of the Republican institutional apparatus and how much has changed since even November 2020. In 2016, he was much more supplicant to institutional leaders on his staffing appointments and choices, in 2024 he's in full command of their show. There's no "happy revisionist" take of Trump's first term that predicts the second, and yet that's the most common "apology" framed by the supposed grown ups left in the GOP for continuing to support him.
Actually, I think that is a totally valid rationale in the circumstances. I didn't vote for him in 2016, but one of my thoughts on the topic at the time was "Trump may be crooked in business, but Hillary is rather accomplished at evading responsibility in the political arena." For example, how would ANY other administration have dealt with the aftermath of the call to Ukraine that resulted in Trump's impeachment? He never denied it happened, and released the transcript within a few days. Whatever one might think of the call itself, it's pretty clear that the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations were not nearly so "transparent." (You might remember the White House Press Corp erupting in laughter when the press secretary claimed Obama was the "most transparent ever."
Oh, and the election denialism supposedly by Clinton and the Dems from 2016 is not even in the same ballpark as what took place in 2020, and disseminated by Trump himself. Unlike the reasonable concerns and criticisms of the Russian interference in 2016 that was based on facts, Trump and his supporters harvested fields of bullshit about his 2020 loss, and every time each wild lie and conspiracy was disproven, just moved the goalposts to another lie and conspiracy with barely a blink. Miss me with this false equivalence bulllshit that pretends that wondering whether fake social media anti-Clinton "reports" paid for by Russians might have swayed some voters into not voting is the same thing as claiming a vast nationwide conspiracy of hundreds of local elections offices were complicit in creating and counting "fake ballots", of foreign hacking "algorithms" to change real vote outcomes, etc. Let alone in conceding the race and conducting a proper turnover. Guess who did and guess who didn’t.
But really - this is disappointing for TFP. Presenting anecdotal accounts of people who weren't voting for Biden to begin with, people who were already quiet Trump voters, in service of trying to sell a desired narrative (of which it is way too early to even tell what the effect is of his conviction) of voters siding with Trump on the issue of his legal problems. Even the first paragraph states the earliest polling states the opposite, yet the authors trotted out these lame "proofs" anyway. News at 11! Trump supporters still support Trump lol. Awesome reporting ;P
* and let’s be frank, two likely very “challenged” in the button sized arena of these two little fat dudes that would be absolutely comedy gold in any other context that did not involve actual nuclear power capabilities, and really it was Kim Jong Un who really “won” the Tweet battle by gifting us all with the moniker of “Dotard” for The Donald, a most fitting insult actually, and despite what Trump supporters think, displayed a much keener sense of insult than Trump himself has ever demonstrated with his lame and repetitive (and diminishing!) limited vocabulary stable of insults he rotates through!
Okay, now you're descending into humor. Is this a parody account?
I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, mainly because I didn't think Trump had a chance and I didn't really approve of his policies. In 2020 I voted for Trump out of pure spite against legacy media outlets outright lying about Trump and crafting a false narrative with Russian Collusion for 3 years. In 2024 I'm going to vote for Trump again, not so much because of legacy media, they're hopeless but rather because things were better under Trump with inflation and basically with everything else with the economy. On top of that, a vote for Trump is a vote against the entire corrupt system we're seeing with the legal system being turned against him in a way I can so plainly see, Hillary and the payment for the Steele Dossier is the SAME EXACT thing Trump did but somehow she's avoiding prosecution for it AND the FEC fined her campaign for it while the FEC didn't even fine Trump for the payment to Daniels.
I thought something similar in 2020: the reason to vote for Trump was really to teach a lesson to the media that their efforts, their constant bias and "putting a thumb on the scale," was counterproductive. Instead, the media "won" in 2020, helping Biden's election, and now most of them scoff at the very idea of "journalistic integrity."
On this point: " I'm going to vote for Trump again, not so much because of legacy media, they're hopeless but rather because things were better under Trump with inflation and basically with everything else with the economy."
Trump inherited a decades long low-inflation economy, and one that was on a near also 6+ year recovery glide from the depths of The Great Recession of 2008. He inherited the easy money policy from the Fed, an unemployment rate that was already under 4% by the time he took Office and still falling, a steady GDP growth average with also low inflation, wage increases that finally began to catch up to job growth, etc. There's no economic trend that indicates that Trump's Presidency or "policies" created any different trajectory or impact than the trends he inherited, other than the 2017 tax cuts blowing up the debt and perhaps some of his tariff/trade war policies exacerbating the post-COVID supply chain/inflation woes (also, manufacturing was in an official recession by 2019 Q3 as it was - some attributed to the increased cost of raw steel caused by Trump's steel tariffs that yet did not also create any new steel manufacturing jobs/plants domestically but did raise the costs for pretty much the entire supply chain dependent on raw steel).
You're voting for the conditions that Trump was lucky to preside over for the first 3 years of his term (assuming you are giving him the COVID pass for the final year) - there's no indication or reason to believe that if Trump was re-elected in 2020 that the negatives you and other voters are placing on Biden wrt to inflation would have went any differently - Trump was also promoting another big round of stimulus in fall 2020, in fact he blamed Mitch McConnell for losing the Georgia run-off for not passing a bigger stimulus round after November 2020 (and not, of course, his own erratic and insane behavior over his election loss post-November 2020). The rest of the global COVID economy factors would have been the same no matter who won in 2020, and if Trump had won his re-election would have presided over an inflationary economy regardless.
Voting for Trump in 2024 to get back the 2019 economy that Trump had very little to do with in the first place is going to make a lot of voters very disappointed, at best, IMO, that will also come with a hefty price tag on it even if Trump is granted another glide path into the already trending deflationary economy by Jan 2025 (that he will, of course, take full credit for, sigh), higher if a second Trump Presidency makes inflation worse (which, if you read his actually proposed policy agenda for his second term, will be very likely!)
How can a chief white house correspondent have called the conviction "a gift to democrats" ? I'm the farthest thing from an 'expert' and I could have predicted the spike in approval for the exact reasons stated in this article. It highlights the problem with MSM.
Democracy is the idea of the people ruling themselves. Well, who is the biggest class of victims in all history (to exaggerate)? It's the American Left. They're victims of patriarchy, colonialism, all kinds of __phobia, of boundary breaking, of narcissists, etc. etc. etc. That's the opposite of governing your self. So, when they say the word 'democracy' they seem to mean "my colorful-haired people getting their way." and if they don't, they declare victimhood. When the Right talks about democracy, they mean getting your own ducks in a row so that you can't be exploited so much through taxation and all the other things that will drag you down. then you can govern yourself and in your group. And you know the structures.
Why don't all of these people put their efforts into getting someone with integrity into the White House? The worst thing everyone has done is accepting we must choose between Biden or Trump. Trump being convicted for paying hush money is like Al Capone being convicted of tax evasion - it's not a good reason to convict him, but there are far worse things he has done. I don't plan to vote for him or Biden.
The stFU...who would be the best of the bad choices we have...god I hate pussy's like you!!
Just another point of view:
https://x.com/shaunmmaguire/status/1796293774794268747
Awesome article! Thank you for sharing opinions from folks who appear to have a deep love for our great country and remain open-minded enough to see where the true threat to our constitutional republic lives.
A reminder to everyone who is switching to Trump because they feel the Democrats have 'weaponized' the Justice Department:
Two wrongs do not make a right
Donald Trump has said, on record, that he WILL weaponize the Justice Department to go after his enemies. If the 'weaponization' of the justice system is what you are against, voting for Trump will just make it worse.
Thanks.
Is this what you're referring to? Because I'm not seeing where he says he WILL do this.
"Well, he's unleashed something that everybody, we've all known about this for a hundred years," Trump said, apparently in reference to President Biden and his administration. "We've watched other countries do it and, in some cases, effective and in other cases, the country's overthrown or it's been totally ineffective. But we've watched this for a long time, and it's not unique, but it's unique for the United States. Yeah. If they do this and they've already done it, but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse. What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box."
"They call it weaponization, and the people aren't going to stand for it," Trump said. "But yeah. they have done something that allows the next party. I mean, if somebody — if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, 'Go down and indict them.' Mostly what that would be, you know, they would be out of business. They'd be out, they'd be out of the election."
He is speaking of the very foreseeable situations that this behavior will lead to. Kind of like the Dems efforts to remove the filibuster in the Senate, and to pack the Supreme Court, and, oh yeah, remove a contender from the ballot, which we all seem to have already forgotten.
See my other post about what Trump actually did, not said.
He is "preparing" the populace for him to weaponize the Dept of Justice against anyone who he considers an enemy. That could be you for all I know. This is scary stuff. If you think Biden is bad, why do you think Trump is good? Because he's on your team? He has done and will do exactly the same thing you accuse Biden of.
So what is your solution? Don't punish Democrats for this?! The answer is to punish people who commit lawfare at the ballot box until they stop. If Trump *actually* does this I will vote against him until politicians get the memo that lawfare is a losing strategy.
Vote the DA out of office. That is how you punish the Democrats on this. Electing Trump will not solve the problem but only make it worst. Vote in people who pledge to not do what you think is bad. Has Trump made such a pledge? So far he has said the exact opposite.
This is beyond voting scumbags out of office...Democrats have taken this to the level of how things get done on the streets...America will not be taken over by these aaaholes simply by waiting for the next election...Scary time in America and it would be better to be armed than it would to be a Democrat...
Naive
Did you miss the Biden Campaign rallying outside the courthouse and fundraising within minutes of the verdict? This goes way past a single DA.
Your alternative is to vote for those who’ve already done it, or to abstain? Past choices are the best predictor of future actions. Apparently you hold that “weaponized” doesn’t include include directing the FBI to investigate parents who disagreed with woke school boards or slow-walking Hunter Biden’s prosecution to a sweetheart deal stopped at the last by a judge asking a basic question. Better yet, consider the IRS whistleblowers who risked their future careers by reporting the limitations placed by the Justice Department appointed prosecutor upon reasonable lines of investigation.
Our choice is between a party hack whose mind is far gone and a loudmouth whose claims (which result in him dominating the news) far exceed his reach.
"Past choices are the best predictor of future actions." Okay then:
“According to Sessions, the President asked him to reverse his recusal so that Sessions could direct the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton,” the Mueller report said.
and
Geoffrey Berman, a Republican who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York until Trump fired him, described Barr’s Justice Department in his book, “Holding the Line.” “Demands came down from Main Justice that were overtly political — among the most outrageous of them, pressure to pursue baseless criminal charges against John Kerry, who had served in the Obama administration as Secretary of State,” he wrote.
Hmmmm. Looks like Trump and the Republicans started 'weaponizing' the Dept of Justice before Sleepy Joe did. Trump is already priming the pump for round 2; listen closely to his language.
All I am saying is that Trump is not the answer.
What were the baseless charges against Kerry? I suspect that it was that he continued to speak to Iranians and recommend to them that they hold out for a Democratic return to office. I very much suspect no one would think that baseless if a Republican did it.
Please name an actual crime you think John Kerry did.
I started looking into disinformation a couple years ago, thinking it was coming mostly from the right. Yes, they have their fair share, but so much of it comes from the left (or mainstream). It is rather jarring to make these discoveries, and the worst part is that everyone in your bubble thinks you've gone insane if you say anything.
The recent knife attack in Germany is a perfect example of how the media reframes things. A radical Islamist from Afghanistan stabbed and killed a German police officer but the headlines report, "Police officer killed at far-right protest" The level of dishonesty in so many of these stories is almost beyond belief. If anyone goes down the rabbit hole to find out who is labeled "far right," they will find mostly centrists.
I'm a life-long traditional liberal. I now have no choice but to vote a straight Republican ticket. There's no longer any connection between liberalism and the Democratic party.
Fascism does not = liberalism.
Voted Democrat the past few elections. That being said, for four years the media had its hair on fire over every little tweet Trump made, yet when most of our lives are socially and materially worse under Biden, there’s crickets.
Then there’s the fact that these jokers ran for office promising to get Trump on something, anything really, and now we’re expected to respect a Manhattan verdict of some alleged crime from eight years ago that was supposed to be a misdemeanor.
My views of Trump haven’t changed. He’s puerile, selfish, ignorant… but we cannot have another two years of Biden plus two from Harris.
I don’t know about you but I am reading the Free Press.
I have never voted for Trump, this election may mark the first time for the exact same reason. One, I don't believe Trump is really capable of wrecking the system- he has too much of both parties lined up against him. Two, Biden and the Democrats ferrying around bags of Chinese cash and classified documents can hardly claim to stand for equal justice under the law. This isn't a contest between corruption and rule of law, it's a face off between two State factions that are equally corrupt and intent on power. Three - politics are a sideshow at this point. To anyone who has even the slightest interest and knowledge of Americanism; a limited Constitutional Republic that places individual agency, rights, as its focal point - this country is toast. We're trading one senile aged crooked politician for a reality TV scam artist. Nothing going on in politics now is going to result in a course correction; both parties are driving us off the same fiscal and moral cliff. Ultimately, probably when the bills of the entitlement State finally come due soon (i.e. Social Security), we will have to face real decisions about the direction of this country. I'm thinking of a Milei type figure who finally throws all the bums out, and replaces the ideology of the Progressives out, and replaces it with it with something like that Benjamin Franklin wrote on the first penny. "Mind your Business".
I'm no fan of Trump but if he is elected I hope he makes Vivek the hatchet man to seriously drain the swamp once and for all.
Regardless of the merits of the case, I hope that for balance TFP also runs a story highlighting and interviewing people who were previously Trump supporters, but have turned against him because of his felony convictions.
I voted for Trump the in 2016, drank the kool-aid in 2020 and was a suburban "Never Trumper"/Biden mom, and now I'm kicking myself because I voted "character over policy", instead of doing my own homework as I've done now. Never again. Our foreign affairs/relationships have totally tanked. I cannot believe what is happening in Africa, and no one is reporting it. I can't believe we have turned our backs on such a vulnerable population. I have a covid kid who is now going into the 5th grade and can't read and hasn't socially matured, and big government doesn't care. I'm heartbroken at the lack of empathy or support. When did the Democrats become the elites? They have no clue what we're going through. And, to top it all off, they're giving away millions of dollars to support migrants needs, when my tax dollars need to be spent on helping my neighbors. If my neighbor needs a coat, give them a coat before you set up households for those who don't pay taxes (yes, I know sales tax = tax).
I would be interested in reading their stories as well. But, my guess is there are few who were Trump supporters who have changed their mind based on the conviction. There may be more independent voters who hadn't decided prior to the trial that may now be voting for Biden.
TFP did not "select" these people, they just represent the majority who have turned, not so much to Trump, but away from Biden. If the movement is predominantly one direction, which it clearly is, only MSM would try to spin an alternative. That is why I read TFP.
Well lets wait and see what the appeals courts say first. EVERYONE that has paid attention knows this was a corrupt trial with flawed jury instructions. It should be a wake up call for reform of the judicial system. Judges can easily corrupt the system and when paired with a corrupt prosecutor they can destroy any of us to poor to defend ourselves. In busy jurisdictions, public defenders are so busy they assist matriculation of the system but can lack the resources to effect a defense. George Soros figured out years ago how to weaponize this. Now we all know and it must be stopped.
I think the appeal won't be decided until after the election because they know it was a sham trial and will decide to overturn the conviction, obviously to keep the public thinking it was a trial with a jury of peers.