Everybody's mad at Orange Man

how do you like me now?

Publius linked to the article in The Spectator, and I found a repost of it that’s not behind a cash wall.

Trump has plenty of money of his own, certainly, but any “I shall return” campaign may be stymied by a reluctance of Big Money Republicans to chip in. We’ll undoubtedly find out.

Donald Trump is an albatross around the Republican neck

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Constitutional Nobody

Donald Trump spent the days immediately before the midterms teasing and threatening his biggest Republican rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. At a rally in Philadelphia, he coined the nickname Ron DeSanctimonious. Then, on the night before the election, flying in his 757 from Ohio to Florida, he said that he thought a DeSantis presidential run would be a “mistake,” that “the base would not like it” and that “if he did run, I will tell you things about him that will not be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”

DeSantis said nothing. Instead, he let the voters do the talking. And their voice was heard very clearly last night. The Florida governor secured a stunning victory: with more than 95 percent of the votes counted, he has won reelection by more than 1.5 million votes. In the race four years ago, he won by just 30,000 votes.

But the early good news for Republicans failed to materialize across the rest of the country. The red wave looks like it will be more of a ripple, with control of both the House and the Senate still undecided on Wednesday morning. Handed an old and unpopular Democratic president and a favorable environment on most of the big issues, Republicans failed to meet the high expectations they set for themselves. Several factors explain this underperformance, but a big one is Donald Trump. If it wasn’t already obvious, the former president is an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. He had the run of the primary and the pick of the candidates, but his slate of Republicans look like they have failed to deliver.