Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, one of the first on the Right to support then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, believes the president deserved to lose his bid for reelection.
In an email interview with the Washington Examiner, Coulter placed the blame of Trump’s defeat squarely on the feet of son-in-law, adviser, and “wonderboy” Jared Kushner, who she said knows just as much about politics as she does about Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. “I do not know the first thing about Kathmandu,” she joked.
The New York Times bestselling author, who wrote the book In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! to defend Trump’s 2016 platform, said in a speech last week to students of University of Texas, Austin, that Joe Biden’s presidential victory and the Republican results in Congress were “the best of all possible outcomes.”
“This would’ve been Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second term, except even worse,” Coulter said on a second Trump term, asserting that “Trumpism without Trump — that is the winning formula.”
Coulter said Kushner’s counsel led the president to abandon his winning 2016 agenda. In some cases, such as on the issue of trade, she said that Trump governed opposite to how he campaigned for his first term.
“In fact his tax cuts provided incentives for offshoring. But at least Jared got to hang with Gary Cohn!” she quipped.
Coulter said Trump failed to court enough white, working-class voters, which made up his base, during his reelection campaign.
“He deserved to lose, but the country doesn’t deserve what the Democrats have in store for us,” Coulter said. “He did not earn any Trumpster’s vote. He earned the votes of Jeb! supporters. But I still hate his opponents more.”
In states like Florida, Trump over-performed among minority voters, including Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade county. Following the election, GOP politicians like Florida Sen. Marco said to Axios that the future of the Republican party is a “multiethnic, multiracial working class coalition.” Meanwhile, commentators like MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said the results of the election foretell that “demographics is destiny,” meaning shifting racial demographics in the U.S. will ultimately favor Democrats. When asked if Trump’s turnout disproved the phrase, Coulter said Biden’s win is a “confirmation” to the phrase “Demographics are destiny,” advising Republicans that a successful campaign is built upon appealing to a large segment of white voters.
“As in every election for nearly a century now, the only demographic that gave the Republican candidate a majority of its votes was white people. Trump just didn’t get enough of them. (Thanks, Jared!) Like all Republicans, it baffles me that we don’t already get a majority of black, Hispanic, Asian, gay, etc etc votes. Love it when we get our numbers up with minorities! Yet and still, the only swing voters are white people,” she said. “70% of the voting population is white people. How white people vote determines the result of presidential elections. In a sane world, you’d think Dems and GOPs would be jockeying for their votes. You’d be wrong. Both political parties can’t crap on white people enough. Thus, Jared’s philosophy was: Screw you, whites! Haha! You’ve got no place else to go!”
“And that, boys and girls, is why Trump is a rare incumbent president who couldn’t win re-election (even running against a senile dementia patient on his 4th [sic] try for the presidency),” she continued, referencing Biden’s failed attempts to run for president in 1988 and 2008.
There is one upside to Trump’s presidency that Coulter identified, saying his election is “proof that any candidate who runs on popular issues will win — unless he already did run on popular issues, won, and then failed to follow through as president.”
When asked to grade Trump’s performance on a scale from A to F, Coulter said she thinks his “grade is obvious” but was “charitable” in her assessment.
“He lost didn’t he? He pissed away the most spectacular campaign and most spectacular victory in the history of politics. That all our hopes came down to the integrity of this man is heartbreaking,” she said. “I think his grade is obvious, but to be charitable I’ll give him an ‘incomplete.'”
Coulter isn’t certain about a Republican candidate who would best embody “Trumpism” in the future, though she did rule out Rubio, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. In her speech last week, she said, “As long as [Republicans] can run someone half believable with the Trump issues, the establishment Republicans don’t have a chance.”
