New York Times columnist David Brooks fears the FBI raid will ‘re-elect Donald Trump’

 

The New York Times columnist David Brooks worried Thursday the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home will help his chances of electoral victory in 2024. 

Brooks further argued Trump's main message is that societal elites are ruining America, and that there is a lot of truth in that. "Why is Donald Trump so powerful?" Brooks asked. "How did he come to dominate one of the two major parties and get himself elected president?" He answered that it's Trump's "narratives" and "powerful stories that ring true to tens of millions of Americans," the main one being "that America is being ruined by corrupt coastal elites."

"According to this narrative, there is an interlocking network of highly educated Americans who make up what the Trumpians have come to call the Regime: Washington power players, liberal media, big foundations, elite universities, woke corporations. These people are corrupt, condescending and immoral and are looking out only for themselves," he wrote.

He continued, "They are out to get Trump because Trump is the person who stands up to them. They are not only out to get Trump; they are out to get you."

Brooks admitted that "this narrative has a core of truth to it" and "highly educated metropolitan elites have become something of a self-enclosed Brahmin class." He argued, however, that "the Trumpian propaganda turns what is an unfortunate social chasm into venomous conspiracy theory."

"Trump’s political career has been kept afloat by elite scorn. The more elites scorn him, the more Republicans love him," Brooks wrote. 

He argued that the FBI's raid of Trump's residence has united the Republican Party. "Several weeks ago, about half of Republican voters were ready to move on from Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. This week the entire party seemed to rally behind him," Brooks wrote.

However, Brooks' characterization of the GOP and Trump's standing in it prior to the raid is not consistent with the vast majority of polls, which according to the current Real Clear Politics average, show Trump having a 27.8 percent lead over the next potential primary challenger. Trump-endorsed candidates have also been achieving key wins in primaries across the country, reaffirming his grip on the Republican Party

The Times columnist also expressed concern that the FBI raid would make Republicans more likely to vote in the 2022 midterm elections. "According to a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action survey, 83 percent of likely Republican voters said the F.B.I. search made them more motivated to vote in the 2022 elections," Brooks wrote.

Brooks said that he feared the prosecution and imprisonment of Trump during an election would constitute "the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown."

Trump is leading President Joe Biden in a potential 2024 rematch, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. Many Republicans and even some Democrats, have argued that the FBI's raid against Trump appears politically motivated.