Trump's BullStitt Tantrum
So, here’s where we are in American politics today: a small state governor’s endorsement of a struggling presidential wannabe can drive their party’s 2024 front-runner into social media rage.
This forehead-slapping moment occurred when Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt recently sided with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over former President Donald Trump, igniting a world-class Trump tantrum.
Sober minds might ask: why the eruption?
Yes, Stitt’s announcement came at the end of a very bad week for Trump: the unveiling in federal district court of 37 criminal indictments, 31 under the Espionage Act.
And, yes, Trump was reeling from the fact the chattering class had anointed DeSantis as his chief rival – even though the former president’s intra-party support grew after the indictments, exceeding 50% in three national polls.
Yet, somehow, the endorsement of a rival – whose campaign is listing – by the governor of a state with all of seven Electoral College votes, is worthy of a mushroom cloud response?
Only Trump, it seems, could be so butt-hurt by so little.
“Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who I didn’t know very well, called me before his last election to say he was in BIG trouble and very much needed my Endorsement,” Trump declared on Truth Social. “I LOVE Oklahoma & won 76 out of 76 Districts, something that never happened before. Ronald Reagan was next with 56.
“Anyway, I gave him my endorsement, he immediately went way up, and won. Now, despite the fact that DeSanctimonious is losing to Biden, & me, Stitt just endorsed him. Wow! He disliked ‘the Indians’ & my great Senate pick!” – apparent references to Stitt’s ongoing feuds with the state’s Tribal nations and Trump’s backing of U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
So much to unpack in that pity-party. So many factual errors, including the number of counties not districts [77] and how many times a GOP presidential nominee has carried them all [5]. So little consequence.
Here’s the big picture: Seven-months-plus before the Oklahoma Republican primary, Trump remains the favorite here, with unwavering support among uber-right evangelicals like Jackson Lahmeyer, pastor of Tulsa’s Sheridan Church.
The notion that a Stitt endorsement could help propel DeSantis to the top is fanciful thinking, at best.
Why? First, politician-to-politician endorsements rarely mean much anymore. Social media is king[maker]. For every U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn helping resurrect Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign in South Carolina, there are thousands of Stitt-style endorsements that die quiet deaths.
Second, don’t bet on Stitt’s endorsement unlocking the state’s biggest checkbooks. Harold Hamm, for one, already has thrown his greenbacks at Nikki Haley after playing a key role in Trump’s 2016 victory.
It’s doubtful others in the C-Suites are poised to take their cues from Stitt, either – even though he was twice elected governor. Hell, a dachshund with an R behind its name would stand a better-than-even chance of winning a statewide election in Oklahoma, given the breadth of straight party voting in rural areas.
Remember, too, Stitt is challenging Mary Fallin as the least popular two-term governor in at least a half-century. At the top of the ticket in 2022, he collected fewer votes than any other statewide GOP nominee – 152,982 less than Attorney General Gentner Drummond and 10,826 less than wingnuttier-than-a-fruitcake state Superintendent Ryan Walters.
There is only place for Stitt to go up the Oklahoma political ladder: to the U.S. Senate. But the state’s two current DC senators are young [by Senate standards] and not likely to be dethroned any time soon.
If DeSantis can pull the upset, maybe he’ll reward the Oklahoma governor’s early support with a cabinet post. Stitt as Interior Secretary? Given his fractured relationship with Oklahoma’s tribes, that would be hell on earth. #ImagineThat