Trump Goes Full-On Karen

With Gov. Kim Reynolds poised to endorse DeSantis, Trump wants to speak to the manager

Never go full-on Karen, especially in politics. Unless you enjoy sounding like a whiny bitch or wronged woman.

I remember when Donald Trump was the guy setting the course of Republican politics. Immigration. Trade. Foreign wars. Trump made headlines by discussing the issues voters cared about but other politicians wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.

Then he shut down the US economy, added trillions to the national debt, and lost to a broken-down old crock who hid in his basement. And everything changed.

Since the 2020 election, Donald Trump has been transitioning into a whiny wronged woman. And now that the primary season is starting, Donald’s transformation is cranking into high gear.

He is now a full-on political Karen, reacting with fussy indignation each time a Republican not named Trump is the one making headlines and setting the course of Republican politics.

Hell, his Karen transition is so ingrained that Trump loses his composure when another Republican presidential candidate wins an endorsement.

Take yesterday’s big news.

It was reported Sunday that Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s popular Republican Governor, will endorse Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a rally today.

There’s no two ways about it. This is huge news. Reynolds enjoys high favorability in the first caucus state, winning reelection in a landslide last year. Her endorsement of Ron DeSantis could be the thing to push many Iowa fence-sitters into his corral.

And while Trump’s band of misfit “influencers” downplayed the news, claiming that Reynolds’ endorsement wouldn’t move the needle one bit, Trump was over on Truth Social demanding to speak to the manager.

For a guy who keeps telling us that he has the nomination all sewn up, Trump certainly sounds as panicked as a cat in a room full of rottweilers.

The Trump campaign released a statement from Kandidate Karen who claimed that by endorsing Ron DeSantis, “clearly” Kim Reynolds “does not have any ambition for higher office.”

Is that the only reason politicians are endorsing Donald Trump? If so, that sounds more like a quid quo pro “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” kind of thing rather than a genuine endorsement. In his sputtering rage over Reynolds endorsing DeSantis, did Trump accidentally reveal the machinations behind the endorsements he receives?

Meanwhile, in a series of Truth Social rants, Trump repeatedly attacked Governor Reynolds, claiming that “MAGA would never support her again” if she endorsed DeSantis.

Unsurprisingly, Karen Trump also blasted both Reynolds and DeSantis for being “extremely disloyal” and suggested they can be happy being disloyal together “because nobody else wants them!!!”

“Oh yeah?! Well, if you won’t let me speak to the manager, you can all go to hell! Nobody likes your restaurant anyway!”

But don’t worry, folks. Team Trump isn’t sweating the Reynolds endorsement.

In another post raging about disloyalty, Trump credited himself with Reynolds’ win in 2022, claiming that she was “losing to the Democrat Candidate” until he stepped in and helped her.

Trump gets so much mileage out of that old chestnut, doesn’t he? He inexplicably believes that no Republican in office today would be there if not for him. It’s so damn tiresome, and whenever he says it, I think of Brian Kemp, Ron DeSantis, and Glenn Youngkin and I chuckle.

After raging about everything he supposedly did for Iowa and Governor Reynolds, Trump declared her “America’s most Unpopular Governor” and said Governor DeSantis “is Second.”

Karen Trump closed his rant with, “That’s what happens when you are disloyal to those that got you there!”

“You tell the manager that I’ve been a loyal customer of your establishment for years! I’m the only reason you’re even in business! And if this is how you treat loyalty, then clearly, you do not want to stay in business for long!!!”

Can’t you just feel the confidence oozing off of him?

Yup. He’s got the nomination in the bag.

I don’t know. Maybe Trump should avoid declaring anyone unpopular, especially since the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll has him 31 points underwater, with only 29% of respondents viewing Trump favorably while 60% do not.

Meanwhile, Trump lickspittles like Leo Terrell were accusing Reynolds, one of the most conservative governors in the country, of being a “RINO.”

No surprise there. Team Trump redefined RINO (AKA “Republican in Name Only) to mean “Disloyal to Trump” ages ago.

As conservative Matt Whitlock noted about Terrell’s ridiculous attack:

The irony of this mind-numbingly stupid take is staggering.

“RINO” used to mean fake Republicans who aren’t actually conservative. Now it just means “anyone who won’t kiss the Trump ring.” Because Reynolds conservative credentials are much stronger than Trump’s.

Yes, it’s great that Trump nominated the judges he was told to nominate, got rid of the regulations he was told to get rid of, and signed the bills Congress sent him.

But left to his own devices he locked the country down, pushed for wild gun laws, and attacks pro-lifers.

The Trump campaign officially launched nearly one year ago, and since then, it has never once sounded like the winning team, which leads me to suspect that the polls are about as accurate as the predictions from the Climate Change Cult.

Yes, yes, I know. Some of you will declare me a disloyal RINO NeverTrumper, which, by definition, is impossible since “never” means never, and I voted for Trump twice.

For those of you feeling Karenish right now, let me remind you that it is no longer 2020 but 2023. I won’t pretend that Trump’s childish, petulant, vindictive behavior over the last three years never happened. It happened and has gotten progressively worse with each passing day.

Back in 2017, I compared Hillary Clinton’s obsession with losing to Trump to the vindictive ex-girlfriend who ruins every gathering by endlessly complaining about her ex. Eventually, nobody wants to put up with that kind of obsessive carping. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room and exhausts the hell out of everyone who isn’t blindly loyal to her.

Well, newsflash guys. Donald Trump has been doing the same damn thing for three solid years.

His bitterness and resentment have devoured everything that inspired me to vote for him in 2016 and 2020. Now he has become the shrill, vindictive bitch whose tantrums and outlandish lies are sucking all the oxygen out of the room and exhausting the hell out of everyone who isn’t blindly loyal to him.

At least Hillary Clinton’s transformation into a bitter Karen was done on her own time and not as part of another presidential campaign.

If only we could say the same thing about Karen Trump.