3 reasons why Mike Lee's Trump endorsement makes no sense

Huh?

(Utah Sen. Mike Lee)

On Friday night, Utah Sen. Mike Lee endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Here’s how he explained it via Twitter X:

I just endorsed Donald Trump. Whether you like Trump or not, Americans face a binary choice. Biden refuses to enforce our border, prosecutes his opponents, & embraces policies that make life unaffordable for hardworking Americans. I’ll take the mean tweets. I choose Trump.

Ok. There’s a lot there — and a lot that makes no sense to me. Let’s go through it!

1. Americans face a binary choice. Look, I think it’s very likely that Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination. I’ve written that over and over again in this space. But, it is more than a little weird that, just three days before the Iowa caucuses — and with polls showing Nikki Haley is within striking distance of Trump in New Hampshire — that Lee decides that the choice is either Trump or Biden. Like, in theory, he could endorse someone else! Could have weeks or months ago! And worked to help them beat Trump. Throwing up your hands now and saying “Well, we have no choice!” seems very, very weird.

2. Lee was one of the loudest voices urging anyone but Trump in the 2016 election. In June 2016, Lee said the following about why he was refusing to endorse Trump:

   “We can get into the fact that he accused my best friend’s father of conspiring to kill JFK. We can go through the fact that he’s made statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant. We can get into the fact that he’s wildly unpopular in my state, in part because my state consists of people who are members of a religious minority church.”

   At the Republican National Convention in 2016, Lee strongly opposed the nomination of Trump. Watch:

   When the “Access Hollywood” tape came out in October 2016, Lee called on Trump to drop out of the race entirely.

   “You, sir, are the distraction,” Lee said in a Facebook video. “Your conduct, sir, is the distraction.”

   While Lee is FAR from the only Republican to be on the record denouncing Trump, he was also one of the loudest and most prominent voices to do so.

   Given that, it’s jarring — at least — to see him turn into a major Trump defender. Especially given that Lee has never, really, explained what occasioned his change of heart on Trump. Other than that Trump won, I guess.

3. The “mean tweets” defense. I’ve written about this before but the argument Lee is making boils down to this: The worst thing about Trump is that he occasionally sends mean tweets. The worst thing about Biden is that his policies are bad for America.

   We can certainly debate the latter proposition (and will in this space over the next year or so!). But it’s the former idea that really gets me: That people who are worried about a second Trump presidential term are, fundamentally, concerned because of his mean tweets.

   Let’s be clear here: I don’t, really, care about Trump’s mean tweets. I think it degrades public discourse. And I think in certain situations he encourages violence — generally or against a specific person he is targeting. That is not good!

   But what really worries me about a Trump second term is: a) he refused to acknowledge he had lost a free and fair election in 2020 b) he fomented an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to protest the election and c) the plans he has said he will implement if he is elected again tend more toward authoritarianism than democracy.

   So, no, Senator Lee, it’s not just the mean tweets. It’s the whole “preserving democracy” thing.

I get what Lee is doing. He’s protecting himself politically. Trump is the VERY likely nominee. Lee may not love any of the other options — and he clearly doesn’t love them enough to expend political capital on trying to help them beat Trump.

But, like, dude. Have a little self respect. You are never going to a Trump guy. Never.