What’s going on with Donald Trump?
The man who not that long ago said he was unlikely to get his COVID-19 booster admitted, during an event in Dallas last week, that he indeed got his jab.
This did not sit well with some of the MAGA folks in attendance. In fact, a smattering of boos erupted after he told the event’s co-host, Bill O’Reilly, he got boosted.
Trump would later go on to laud the effectiveness of vaccines during an interview with The Daily Wires Candace Owens.
“Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get (Covid), it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine,” Trump said.
It didn’t take long from some factions of MAGA world to condemn Trump for going against one of the main tenets of hardcore Republicanism … vaccines bad!
Conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, came out strongly against Trump’s new push for the efficacy of vaccines.
“This is an emergency Christmas Day warning to President Trump,” Jones said. “You are either completely ignorant about the so-called vaccine gene therapy that you helped ram through with Operation Warp Speed or you are one of the most evil men who ever lived, to push this toxic poison on the public and to attack your constituents when they simply try to save their lives and the lives of others.”
“Hell, we’re fighting Bill Gates and Fauci and Biden and the New World Order and Psaki and the Davos Group. And now we’ve got Trump on their team!” Jones added.
Some have suggested Trump’s touting the benefits of vaccines is all about helping his reelection bid. While he’s the clear favorite to win the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, he needs to worry about the general election.
Even though Republicans are generally opposed to vaccine mandates, most are, themselves, at least partially vaccinated. A 65% majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents report having received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the most recent CNN polling.
Still, some have likened Trump’s recent public endorsement of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters to the “random foray of an unpredictable political figure.” (Rick Klein)
Then, of course, there is what some are calling the “Occam’s razor” answer to Trump’s new behavior … COVID-19 has significantly killed, and continues to kill, a disproportionate amount of the Republican base!
Is Trump turning into a Liz Cheney… who many Republicans call a RINO (Republican in name only)?
What’s next? Trump will admit that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden fair and square? Will he condemn the January 6 Capitol mob as insurrectionists?
I don’t know but I do believe there is a Republican governor in Florida who isn’t too unhappy with the new anti-Trump rumblings going on in MAGA world (along with one in Texas, and one in South Dakota.)