Wild stuff just happens with Trump, doesn't it?
It's hardly news when he says or does something crazy - nor when something crazy happens to him.
So, how’s your Tuesday going so far?
Better than Bryce Young’s, I bet. Hopefully better than Justin Trudeau’s, too:
Voters have dealt Prime Minister Justin Trudeau another devastating byelection loss, this time picking a Bloc Québécois candidate in a Montreal riding that's been held by the Liberals for most of the last century.
The defeat in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun is Trudeau's second byelection loss in a safe Liberal seat in the last three months and it raises questions about his long-term viability as party leader.
Bloc candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé very narrowly beat Liberal Laura Palestini — a stunning upset given the governing party's past strength in this part of southwest Montreal. NDP candidate Craig Sauvé finished third.
[…]
Before Monday's byelection, there were few seats safer than LaSalle-Émard-Verdun for the federal Liberals in Quebec. This loss is a sign of how far the party has fallen.
Former prime minister Paul Martin previously represented parts of this riding, and a non-Liberal candidate hasn't won here since the historic Orange Wave of 2011 when Quebec voters elected dozens of NDP MPs.
The outgoing Liberal MP, David Lametti, beat his Bloc opponent by some 20 points in this riding in 2021. Palestini lost by less than one percentage point.
If that same sort of vote swing was applied to other Liberal ridings in Quebec, more than a dozen MPs could lose their seats at the next election.
Admittedly, by-elections are when voters are more likely to take a flyer on a party for which they’ve never voted. It’s no accident that the two most surprising U.S. Senate election results in recent history, Republican Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy’s old seat and Democrat Doug Jones getting elected in Alabama, came in special elections.
This particular result is kind of like if a Republican won the House seat held by people named “Dingell” since 1955.
It’s still sunny ways for the PM, though, who wants to heal Canada’s divisions by reminding you that the Leader of the Opposition is evil in human form:
While there have been calls for him to step aside after a tumultuous period, Trudeau has said he will carry on as prime minister and take the Liberals into the next federal election no matter what happens.
He has said he can't leave now because he wants to make sure Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doesn't win and take the country in a radically different direction.
"I'm not going anywhere," Trudeau said Saturday in an interview on the Montreal radio station CJAD 800.
"I've got a fight to lead against people who want to hurt this country," he said.
“Pierre Poilievre wants to destroy Canada and I will do everything in my power to stop him, except resign.” Noted.
Reminds you a little of people who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy but won’t vote for his opponent, doesn’t it?
Speaking of Trump, here’s some regrettable headline placement from USA Today on the day after a second assassination attempt against him1 was foiled:
Most of Monday’s newspapers avoided such awkwardness, and some gave the story prominent placement on their front pages.
But, from my perusal of PressReader, many did not. Some papers barely even mentioned it on the front page at all.
MAGA and anti-anti-MAGA is Twitter crying foul, and it could very well be that some editors are indifferent if not downright enthusiastic about another weirdo trying to take a shot at Trump.2
But there are more likely some mundane explanations, including the incident happening on a Sunday while Monday newspapers are usually kind of half-assed3 if still published at all; the would-be shooter caught before he could even get Trump in his sights, much less take a shot; early conflicting reports about gunfire coming from a seedy neighborhood near Trump’s resort; and, most importantly, the fact that we already went through all of this just a couple of months ago.
In one way, it’s startling that two people have gunned for the same candidate within such a short period of time.
In another way, well…crazy shit just kind of happens in the vicinity of Donald Trump, and it’s hardly even surprising anymore, isn’t it?
Since 2016, a cottage industry has emerged online, with journalism professors and “media critics” and “disinformation specialists” parsing every word of major newspapers - The New York Times is their most frequent target - looking for clues about how they’re at least trying to “normalize” Trump if not actively trying to re-elect him. (As goes the old saying I just made up, in the future every liberal will cancel his New York Times subscription for fifteen minutes.)
Sometimes they make good points. At other times they’re whining that the Times and CNN aren’t Occupy Democrats.
Either way, I’ve long believed the question of whether Trump is being “normalized” is like asking if your house is at risk of fire as it burns to the ground. He’s been a major politician for almost a decade and was a celebrity for many years before that. There’s a scandal or a gaffe or a shocking comment from him pretty much every day. We’ve become numb.
The relatively muted reaction to this second assassination attempt is the flip side. Instead of something truly shocking and unprecedented, it’s thrown in with all the other Trump madness to which we’ve become resigned since 2015. The “normalization” of Trump cuts both ways.
Put it this way: if Keanu Reeves was caught on video in the middle of a barroom brawl at a brothel in Thailand, it would make headlines around the world. But if Steven Seagal were caught on video in the middle of said barroom brawl, it would be more grist for the YouTube channels dedicated to making fun of Steven Seagal, of which I am pleased to report there’s more than one.
Trump is basically the Steven Seagal of politics. And now I’m not sure who should be insulted by that comparison.
This isn’t the shortest period of time for two would-be shooters to kill a current or former President. Gerald Ford survived two attempts twenty days apart in 1975. Both of the failed assassins were women. One of whom was a Manson Family member.
The seventies were wild.
I presume you know my feelings about the man, but an America in which political assassination is normalized would be even worse than one in which Trump is re-elected.
Yesterday’s National Post was only sixteen pages long!