Trump in the political center?

It's not as difficult as you might think when your opponents are crazy.

I often agree with Abe Greenwald of Commentary and do so again today as he writes that, odd as it may sound, Donald Trump now finds himself roughly in the political center. This is not, I think, because Trump is by nature a “centrist.” Indeed, I doubt he has that many deep political ideas at all, outside of liking tariffs and disliking illegal (and, it sometimes sounds like, legal) immigration.

Q: So how did Trump get to the middle? A: Largely because his opponents have migrated, or perhaps “stampeded” is the better word, to Fruitcakeland.

As Greenwald notes:

With chaos to the left of him and anti-Semitism to the right, Trump has landed in an advantageous spot that kind of looks like the political middle. We’re not really used to seeing him there.

Actually, we’re more used to seeing him there than it appears at first blush. Not too surprisingly when you think about it, he won the election because he was running on widely accepted ideas — that the border was out of control and needed to get fixed; that America could use to tend to its internal problems before focusing on those overseas; and that, in matters of race, equality of opportunity is better than identity obsession and (forced) equality of outcomes.

In American elections, the candidate closest to the center almost always wins. This happened last November, too, although it often didn’t seem that way because of both Trump’s oversized mouth and the vicious and deceitful MSM coverage of it.

Whatever he’s actually up to regarding Iran, Trump at least appears to be both considered and resolute. He has continued to offer Tehran a diplomatic offramp while supporting Israeli military action and indicating that he’s willing to back up his threat of direct U.S. involvement.

Again, while I think there’s an element of truth to this observation as a general summary of Trump’s position, let’s not get carried away. Although the press loves to talk in gauzy metaphors like an “offramp,” that locution is actually used to paper over the fact that Iran’s nuclear ambitions and capacities must be brought to an end, period. Forty-six years of “Death to America” and relentless cheating on earlier deals tells us that the diplomatic “offramp” is an illusion. But for purposes of characterizing Trump’s position — if it hasn’t changed since I started typing this — it’s serviceable. And it does denote a contrast with the Left’s eagerness to genuflect to Iran always and ever, no matter what.

[Trump’s stated willingness to use force] has put some much-needed space between the president and his anti-American, anti-Semitic cheering section. Trump is telling off Jew-hating MAGA influencers, dubbing the head of the pack “kooky Tucker Carlson,” and joining in on the credit for Israel’s ongoing success. And some of his most offensive supporters have renounced him in return. At the same time, he’s frozen out his apocalypse-obsessed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, proclaiming “I don’t care what she said,” when asked about her assessment of Iran’s nuclear program.

Ms. Gabbard was an astonishingly bad choice for DNI, and her foolhardy and dangerous take on Iran should be enough to get her fired. Being dead wrong about the mullahs is, in her position and at this moment, unacceptable. And Trump’s rejection of the repulsive Tucker Carlson is likewise long overdue. Why DJT kept him around this long, except to be a reliable sycophant, is a big mystery. Good riddance.

In other words, Trump is having fights with exactly the right people: the extremists and oddballs who have made him and his movement look unsavory since he entered politics. And what’s more heartening, these are fights he’s winning. A new Grayhouse poll shows that a combined 79 percent of 2024 Trump voters either somewhat or strongly support the U.S. giving Israel offensive weapons to use against Iran, and a combined 73 percent are in favor of the U.S. striking Iran directly.

And then there are, as ever, our friendly Democrats, doing their best to make Trump look serious by their bovine, and at this point borderline insane, Carteresque obsession with appeasing Iran, now put in bright lights along with — ready now? — transgenderism and race huckstering.

Ladies and gentlemen, when this is the opposition, how hard is it not to look like a centrist? As Greenwald elaborates:

While Trump pushes back on his own lunatic fringe, some Democrats, conversely, have fully melded into the radical left…[T]heir big new idea is to publicly protest ICE, do some shoving and shouting, and earn themselves a pair of handcuffs. Meanwhile, this week, Democratic New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani defended pro-Hamas activists’ genocidal slogans as mere calls for equality.

He went so far as to say “globalize the intifada” — something you might think I’m making up, except that even the New York Times had to admit it. And he said it even as Iran’s client terrorists continue to starve their hostages to death.

The pro-Hamas activists have, in turn, melded into the pro-Iran lobby. They popped up in Times Square and D.C.’s Lafayette Park to show their support for the regime whose leaders have for decades been chanting “Death to America.” And when their supporters start chanting that here, you can bet that Mamdani will be on hand to offer another nuanced reading…The American left always finds its own way into the arms of America’s most repulsive enemies.

The Trump-is-Hitler crowd has also been having a tough time in court over the last few days.

[T]he left’s hysteria over Trump’s supposed lawless authoritarianism took a big hit yesterday when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Trump could legally maintain control of the National Guard troops that he sent into Los Angeles to break up the anti-ICE riots. Gavin Newsom’s crusade is fizzling fast.

Speaking of courts, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on “gender-affirming care” for minors.

Just to be clear about this, “gender-affirming care” is the MSM term for “sexual mutilation.”

Greenwald closes with a wry observation that, while these developments may give our side at least transitory amusement, they should give the Democrats the more persistent migraine their venom toward Trump has spent a long time earning:

So, Trump is currently the grown-up in the room. He’s sidelining the crazies of the right while the Democrats and leftists are championing illegals, Iran, and destructive medical intervention. Perhaps he extended his decision on Iran by two weeks just to savor the moment.