In the wake of the GOP's disastrous 2022 midterm performance, the Rupert Murdoch-led Republican media establishment is going to try, once again, to make anyone-but-Trump a thing. As sensible as it would be for Republicans to rally around a Trump-lite figure like Ron DeSantis, who carries way less baggage and who led Republicans to a crushing victory in Florida, I'm calling it right now. It ain't gonna happen. It's been established over and over again that the MAGA base is impervious to new facts. Drawing his supporters deeper and deeper over scandal after scandal, Trump has forged an emotional bond with the MAGA movement that is irreplaceable. The insults, the lies, the denialism, the excuses, the bigotry, the rage, the grifting, the indifference to human life, the win-at-all-costs mentality: It's not incidental to support for Trump. It's the whole point. And no one can deliver more of that than the man himself.
