Kennedy, Trump Kind Coalition of Vengeful Whiners

RFK Jr. goes over the brink into MAGA-land.
Photograph: Rebecca Noble/Getty Pictures

At a Phoenix press convention on Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed a number of days of rumors by suspending his presidential marketing campaign and endorsing Donald Trump, lending America’s most well-known Democratic title to a person practically all modern Democrats detest. He’ll stay on the poll in “blue states” the place, as he made clear, he couldn’t actually assist Trump. However it seems he’ll actively marketing campaign for the previous president, maybe starting with a Trump rally later within the day.

Kennedy’s reasoning was comparatively clear, if not essentially compelling. He mentioned he had damaged with Democrats over the “existential points” of “censorship, warfare, and power illness.” However it’s that first merchandise he dwelled on in speaking about his former social gathering, accusing them bitterly of working with large tech to warn individuals of his anti-vaxx views throughout and because the COVID pandemic, and rigging the 2024 primaries to maintain potentials rivals like Kennedy out whereas “hiding the cognitive decline” of President Biden. He repeatedly asserted he would have gained a good combat, in each the primaries and the overall election. He appeared to equate DNC authorized efforts to problem his poll petitions with authoritarianism generally and with supposed Democratic “lawfare” in opposition to Trump particularly. And sure, he did go on to accuse Democrats of being within the grip of “neocon” warmongers and of Huge Ag and Huge Pharma and different evil company forces who’re poisoning the nation and significantly its kids.

Nicely over midway via his presser, Kennedy lastly pivoted to the constructive case for endorsing Trump, asserting that they have been in settlement on the important thing problems with “free speech, the Ukraine Battle, and the warfare on kids.” Once more, it appears Trump’s free-speech dedication quantities to little greater than being the enemy of Kennedy’s enemies, significantly those that have mocked his subscription to an array of conspiracy theories. He made essentially the most sense in precisely describing the forty fifth president as lukewarm at greatest towards Ukraine. As for whether or not Trump will act on the prime concern of the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket — the alleged government-corporate plot to kill, sicken and fatten up children to earn cash for Huge Pharma and Huge Ag — RFK Jr. appears to be relying totally on blind religion. He mentioned he hoped that Trump would “hold his guarantees on this case,” recognizing that hadn’t been an excellent guess previously, together with an acknowledgement that they don’t agree on plenty of points. (That’s an understatement; in April Trump accused Kennedy of being “way more LIBERAL than anybody operating as a Democrat,” and extra liberal than Jill Stein or Cornel West.)

And so, this deeply alienated man will type an odd partnership with the Republican candidate for president primarily based totally on a typical sense of grievance with Democrats and different elites, and a typical lust for vengeance. As for what his endorsement might be price, that’s unclear. He’s been dropping like a rock within the polls, particularly since Kamala Harris turned the Democratic candidate; the newest nationwide survey, by RMG Analysis, put him at three p.c of the vote. And it isn’t in any respect clear what number of of his remaining supporters will observe him over the brink into MAGA-land, which some accurately understand as a spot the place environmentalists and people who fret about navy spending (a specific preoccupation of Kennedy’s operating mate, Nicole Shanahan, who wasn’t on the presser however was apparently in on the choice) and childhood well being are sometimes handled as hippies and suspected Marxists. The timing of the transfer was handy in that many pollsters already within the subject to determine if Harris will get a post-convention “bounce” will even have the ability to discern whether or not Kennedy’s transfer swayed any precise voters.

We’ll additionally see what, if any, impact RFK Jr.’s help has on Trump, absolutely essentially the most narcissistic and hard-to-influence presidential candidate ever. At his presser, RFK Jr. mentioned he needed to introduce a “tradition of kindness” into the Trump marketing campaign. Good luck with that, Bobby. In all probability ought to stick with the script of whining and plotting vengeance.