“This is it” – Kenny Loggins, from the hit of the same title from the late 1980’s.
If you’re like me, this song comes to mind whenever anyone announces they’re hanging up
the proverbial cleats and planning to retire. Legendary G.O.A.T. quarterback Tom Brady did this before the start of last season (2023, that is), uncharacteristically speaking to a virtually deserted beach as a backdrop that he’d decided “this [was] it” and there were no more comebacks left in his ultra-competitive being.
The same could be said for 2024 Republican presidential (and 3-time) nominee Donald J. Trump, who responded similarly to a question from former CBS News journalist Sharyl Attkisson regarding his potential 2028 comeback plans should he tragically lose this year’s election to Democrat cackling Kamala Harris in about 40 days’ time.
In saying so, Trump was perhaps echoing the chorus lyrics of the famous song I just mentioned:
“(This is it) Make no mistake where you are
(This is it) Your back's to the corner
(This is it) Don't be a fool anymore
(This is it) The waiting is over”
We’re not conditioned to receiving such a definitive “won’t do it” answer from Trump, a man who characteristically leaves all options virtually wide open so he won’t ever need to backtrack on a promise or a statement at a later date. But this time, apparently, Trump has preemptively slammed the door shut to coming back – again – from the depths to rise from the political ashes to soar and lead the MAGA movement against the Democrats.
Trump didn’t elaborate on his reasons for eliminating the possibility of reemerging to run again, but here’s thinking it as something to do with the fact he’d be 82 years-old during campaign 2028 – just a bit older than senile Joe Biden is now – and that the enormous physical and mental strain of politics at the highest level would be too much even for him at that age.
Or it could be that if Democrats manage to pull a fast one and steal the election – again – this year, there would be no coming back from such a defeat. In essence, Trump is foreclosing the chance he considers himself the political equivalent of Rocky Balboa (the famous Sylvester Stallone movie character) who reemerged from “retirement” so many times no one ever took him seriously when he said, “This is it.”
It may also be Trump has finally tired of campaigning, since he’s been at it full-time for the better part of five-plus years, his 2020 reelection effort having gotten underway in earnest about the time he was acquitted in his first impeachment trial in late 2019/early 2020. That’s a lot of time to be on the road, speaking to millions of cheering fans and many, many, long days and nights.
At any rate, no matter the reason, Trump told Attkisson that this year is going to be “it” for him.
Trump: “... I think that that will be—that will be it. I don’t see that at all,” Trump said. “I think that, hopefully, we’re going to be successful [in the 2024 General Election].”
One believes Trump when he says he’ll prevail this year and thus will be precluded (by constitutional mandate) from running again in 2028. Despite a few ominous signs from various recent polls, Trump generally sits in much better position than he was in 2016 vis-à-vis Crooked Hillary Clinton and in 2020 versus senile Joe Biden. Trump’s poll following with most demographic and ethnic groups is improved from those years, too. Why wouldn’t he be confident?
Kind of like fictional character Rocky Balboa, Trump has been figuratively punched in the noggin about a billion times since he first entered politics, and despite a few knock downs and a split-decision loss, he’s always managed to get back up before the referee counted to ten and declared, “This is it”. Trump is currently recovering from two unsuccessful assassination attempts, an iffy debate performance where he was too easily distracted, and a host of other obstacles. Despite all this, he’s thought to have an even chance – at worst – to return to the Oval Office.
They’re not exactly measuring the drapes in Trump-world, but they no doubt have begun the preliminary work of planning the next Trump administration, starting with who he’d tap to serve in his second cabinet. In an article titled, “Names swirl for Trump second Cabinet as transition team meets White House”, Naomi Lim and Cami Mondeaux et. al reported at the Washington Examiner the other day:
“Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe was candid about Trump’s Cabinet talent pool, contending there are ‘a lot of highly qualified people that could do an amazing job who aren’t willing to serve in a Trump administration.’ ‘That’s unfortunate because it doesn’t leave the best options,’ Cabel Roe told the Washington Examiner. …
“But other Republicans counter Cabel Roe’s criticism, asserting the party has a deep bench, especially now that Trump has reasserted control over the congressional GOP. ‘I don’t think that there are broad concerns about the level of talent that will occupy the secretarial positions,’ a former Trump administration official told the Washington Examiner. ‘Even if you look back at the first Trump administration, you look at the level of people that occupied those positions, either first or the subsequent replacements, you had people like Rex Tillerson, and Steven Mnuchin, and Mike Pompeo. They were really talented.’
“Another former Trump administration official predicted a 2024 transition would ‘be nothing like 2016.’”
One would hope not. For those who remember back to Trump’s first try at assembling a team following the surprising (to some) victory in 2016, you probably recall a topsy turvy journey that saw the original head of the transition team, Chris Christie, be unceremoniously fired and a new head installed within a matter of days.
It could be said Trump tried hard to make good on his promises during the campaign to kick the GOP establishment out of the deliberations, yet with (former RNC Chair) Reince Priebus intimately involved with much of the personnel planning, it was darn near impossible to purge the elites’ influence from the entire process.
This led to certain names being floated for high-level positions – like Mitt Romney as a finalist for the Secretary of State’s position – who must’ve never had a serious chance of being nominated, especially since they weren’t Trump loyalists. And we knew, even back then, that the new president liked having people in positions who he knew and understood.
Trump’s philosophy for cabinet members appeared foolproof enough – he’d said he’d met the best and brightest from the private sector and would fill his cabinet with proven professionals who knew policy and could get things implemented quickly. The problem was many of the people Trump chose for the highest profile positions never had personally worked with Trump himself and weren’t conditioned to having someone tell them what policies to implement.
Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State? It was a disaster waiting to happen.
Trump also relied way too much on ex-military generals to be his go-to guys for civilian service jobs. These didn’t work out well either, and it took Trump a couple years to finally get rid of most of them. They also weren’t good personality fits and a number of them had a penchant for leaking to the media – and criticizing their boss behind his back. Those are bad things – and there were a number of “Trump’s cabinet is in chaos” reports that put a damper on the president’s ability to push through his MAGA agenda.
Further, in addition, remember Trump didn’t have cooperation from Republican congressional leaders, so he couldn’t count on then-Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell going along with his emphases – except maybe for judicial appointments, where the Kentuckian still merits high marks for his willingness to go to bat for Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.
I’m not absolutely certain, but I still think Trump counts his nomination of former senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General as his single most costly error, since Sessions’ lack of backbone ultimately led to the whole “Russian collusion” fiasco that paralyzed Trump’s early going. Canning former FBI Director James Comey didn’t help rid the administration of enemies – but it did provide valuable lessons that would help Trump choose better the next time around.
As for now, Trump often answers the, “How would your second administration be different?” question by replying that he now knows everyone in Washington and can separate the good ones from the bad ones. There’s no doubt Trump does know more solid people – and a lot of bad ones – but here’s also thinking it would still be a struggle to purge the DC swamp creatures at first effort.
Trump’s emphasis on a “You’re with me or you’re against me” method of culling the swamp slime will probably only carry him so far. The deep state influence is pretty entrenched and some argue only a wholesale purging of entire agencies (such as the FBI) would truly kick the bad ones out.
Or there’ve been a number of suggestions regarding moving key agencies physically out of the Washington swamp. Interesting thoughts, but is it doable?
The Washington Examiner reporters floated a lot of names as cabinet possibilities, and I’d recommend you consult their article to see who’s being rumored to go where. It’s all just speculation for now.
A note of caution would be to rely on too many current congressman or senators to fill the slots, since GOP majorities, if any, will be thin… and Trump will have a hard enough time getting things accomplished in Congress with (temporarily) vacant seats. Just a thought.
Choosing a possible Trump cabinet over a month before the election may be the ultimate cart-before-the-horse exercise, but seeing as the nominee has said “this is it” for his political career, nothing is out of the question right now. We can only hope Trump wins – and he has indeed learned from his past mistakes.
The full Trump interview with Sharyl Attkisson:
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
Kamala Harris candidacy
Donald Trump campaign
Harris Trump debates
J.D. Vance
Kamala vice president
Speaker Mike Johnson
Donald Trump assassination
2022 elections
Donald Trump
2024 presidential election
Tim Walz
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