Trump is 'the former guy' ? Let's call cancer a bad head cold.

[speak easy]

Trump is not going away. I agree with Rick Wilson. To call the current leader of the GOP, - 'the former guy' is insane.

Rick Wilson
@TheRickWilson

1/ Those of you thinking Trump will go away if you call him “the former guy” miss the point; you cannot wish him away. It’s politically naïve and borders on juvenile.

2/ “I’ll call this cancer a bad cold because then the algorithms won’t give it as much attention” isn’t a strategy. It’s — at best — a prank.

In 2015 and 2016 the entire American political class - myself included - had a massive failure of imagination.

It can always be worse.

3/ Trump’s minions — both in Mar a Lago and beyond — now entirely control the political and fundraising apparatus of the Republican Party.

His word is law. No one is coming to save the GOP from him; they’re accomplices, not hostages.

4/ Many of the “call him the former guy” advocates live in a Beltway dreamworld.

Mitch’s fans and his Lil Abramoff consultants are huffing political jenkem. McConnell runs the GOP? Ha!

“A new MAGA prince will take the mantle!”

Trump can break any of them with a word.

5/ Refusal to focus on the pendant reality of his next run and his defining role in our politics is going to make 2022 and 2024 that much harder...and while the internal splits in the Democratic party are expected, the GOP is planning, working, grinding.

https://bit.ly/3harhiw

[Phoenix61]

1. I think it's a great way for Biden to reference him

on those occasions when it can’t be avoided. It’s a public shunning and I have to doubt it gets under the former guys skin big time.

[speak easy]

2. Oh. Yes. I agree with that.

[Walleye]

3. Fine. Whatever we call him. What can we do that we aren't doing now? Suggestions?

[Scrivener7]

4. Those of you saying those of us who call him "the former guy" think doing so will make

him go away are insane.

However, the name is perfect because it marginalizes him and does damage where he needs to be damaged most. In his ego.

We can do two things at once: insult him while at the same time understanding he is not going away.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

5. He craves attention...

...any kind, positive or negative (like a toddler). Calling him 'the former guy' is sucking the energy away from him, energy he thrives on. It denies him the respect he thinks he is due. I feel it has two purposes, one is to not-so-subtlely snub him, and secondly to cool down the overheated rhetoric of the last 4 years.

I don't feel it is capitulating, or excusing him. It's just a way to show he's not as powerful or important as he and his followers thinks he is.