Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer in the studio to comment on Donald Trump’s unforced errors and how conservatives have shifted to Ron DeSantis.
Leahy: Unforced errors. We are going to talk about an unforced error. Actually, several unforced errors. And again, a great president, Donald Trump, no longer president, has announced that he’s running for real. Running for the GOP nomination in 2024. Now he’s announced that he’s running for president. So you would think…
Brewer: A chaotic, underattended announcement, if you recall.
Leahy: Yes, I thought his messaging was pretty good.
Brewer: See, he’s getting dinged by a lot of people for that. For being a toned-down version of himself.
Leahy: Yes.
Brewer: Do you think that’s a fair criticism?
Leahy: I don’t think it is fair, but people like to criticize him.
Brewer: His supporters criticize him.
Leahy: I understand. Let’s talk about the unforced error, however, which was probably a setup, I think. Kanye West, who is a troubled guy, I guess you could say he’s allegedly a billionaire, but maybe not a billionaire anymore.
Brewer: At one time, let’s be fair, it’s not necessarily music people of my generation or yours would listen to every day, but at one point in his career was a brilliant musician.
Leahy: And also, he’s done business stuff. Apparently, he said when he was on the Tim Cast, which is a very popular video cast out there, and said that the IRS has put a $75 million hold on some of his accounts. He claimed he was in $50 million.
He said, well, I’m not really a finance guy. I don’t know, how do you be in business without being a finance guy? Having said all that, he’s an interesting fellow, but has said apparently a lot of anti-Semitic things and hasn’t backed away from them.
So that’s A problem one. B, problem two, so he sets up a dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and he brings this guy who I’ve never heard of, Nick Fuentes, who is purportedly not only anti-Semitic but a white nationalist, purportedly. And so Trump, because he has no discipline and because…
Brewer: Apparently nobody vetting, who he’s taking meetings with.
Leahy: He’s announced he’s running for president!
Brewer: This is sort of a microcosm of the problem.
Leahy: So he’s announced he’s running for president. So you should have a staff that vets who you meet with.
Brewer: Yes.
Leahy: Having said all that, clearly somebody set him up. Somebody set him up for this.
Brewer: They also understand his sort of pathological desire to be in the presence of a celebrity. Dr. Oz, Herschel Walker, JD. Vance, and Kanye West. I mean, just keep going.
Leahy: Clint Brewer.
Brewer: All of his problems seem to come from his recent problems. His desire to be around those types of people.
Leahy: He’s a very friendly guy. He’s a very open guy. You would enjoy having dinner with him.
Brewer: But you can’t try to be President of the United States and make decisions about who you’re going to associate with based on whether or not, are they famous.
Leahy: But even you would have a delightful dinner, you would enjoy dinner with Donald Trump.
Brewer: I have no doubt. But if I had dinner with Donald Trump, it would not make headlines. I would be a safe dinner companion for Donald Trump. Kanye West and whoever he brings along is not a safe dinner companion for Donald Trump.
Leahy: I think what happened is somebody knew how Donald Trump operates and said, let’s embarrass him, right? And we’re going to have this dinner and immediately talk about the dinner, and then all of his enemies will attack him for it.
But this was, like, predictable. It’s an unforced error. It’s not only a Donald Trump lack of discipline, but it’s also a staff problem.
Brewer: And frankly, looking back, it’s a little bit of a microcosm of what the Trump presidency was. A lot of unforced errors. Great policies, great ideas, lots of unforced errors, no message discipline.
Here is the threshold question conservatives and Republicans need to ask themselves about the next election cycle. It’s very simple. Do you want to win? That’s it. That’s the only question to ask them.
Leahy: First – A: Does Donald Trump have a right to run? He absolutely does.
Brewer: Of course.
Leahy: He has a great track record as a president in terms of accomplishments, a very strong track record. However, that’s not what the game is about, really, in 2024. It’s what’s your message?
Can you get out the vote? Can you appeal to that growing center, if you will, in America? We talked about this before. Can you appeal to people under 30?
Brewer: By the time this election comes around, Donald Trump’s 2016 victory will be eight years in the rearview mirror. Nobody’s listening to the greatest hits from the summer of 2016.
Leahy: Part of it is, a lot of people on our side took such great delight in that November 2nd, 3rd, 2:30 am announcement that he’d been elected president. It’s a highlight of everybody’s life to look at the liberal media melting down and Hillary Clinton melting down. And they want to do it over again.
Brewer: And in the inauguration. The people screaming and rending their clothes in the streets in the protests.
Leahy: But the problem is, it’s come and gone. It’s gone.
Brewer: We’re almost a decade beyond it.
Leahy: So here we have Ron DeSantis.
Brewer: Governor DeSantis.
Leahy: Mr. No Unforced Errors. Mr.-I-Won-by-20-Percent-in-Red-State-Florida. Now a red state. He’s not announced. The polls show him down by 20 points in the GOP primary. I know this will shock you. He’s got a book coming out. He’s got a book coming out on February 28th. Headline: The Courage to Be Free. This is going to tell you everything. The subtitle: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.
Brewer: This is anecdotal, but I mean, I think we’ve seen that polls are not necessarily something we can trust anymore.
Leahy: No kidding. Ask Trafalgar Group.
Brewer: All I can tell you is Tennessee is an extremely red state. As I move around the state. I talk to friends, I talk to family, I talk to colleagues very quietly, but very steadily Conservatives are moving on from Donald Trump. And I’ve heard more people, talk about this.
Leahy: A lot of conservatives have.
Brewer: Well enough that we’re seeing a shift.
Leahy: He’s not even announced yet.
Brewer: No.
Leahy: But he will announce.
Brewer: And I’m hearing DeSantis’s name everywhere I go.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Ron DeSantis.
