Boy, has President Trump got Gov. Charlie Baker’s number.
I had POTUS on my radio show Monday and he generally seemed in a pretty mellow mood — he just chuckled when I played for him the soundbite of Dementia Joe Biden last week falsely bragging that “I started the vaccination program.”
But when it comes to Baker — and at least one other RINO governor — it appears that Trump is on a revenge tour.
Last week he endorsed ex-Rep. Geoff Diehl, Baker’s opponent in the GOP primary, so I asked Trump to expand on how he came to his decision.
“Well, it started off with the fact that I can’t stand Baker. He’s a phony. He’d come to the White House and say oh you’re doing such a great job. You know once a year and sometimes more the governors come into the White House, right? And he’d say, ‘Oh what a job, what a job you’re doing.’ ”
But then Baker would fly back to Boston and guess what — he’d start talking out of the other side of his mouth.
“You’d see him on television saying the opposite (of what he’d said at the White House) and he knew what a great, great job we’ve been doing. But he’s, you know, catering to a certain constituency.”
Yes, he is. Groveling would be another way to describe that catering to the “mostly peaceful” protest crowd. For once, Donald Trump is understating the situation.
“I didn’t like him. I don’t think he’s doing a great job. I don’t think (Maryland Gov. Larry) Hogan is doing a great job either. They’re like two of a kind.”
Trump spent the summer at his golf club in New Jersey. Among his visitors was the chairman of the Mass. state Republican party, Jim Lyons.
“I think he’s a great guy, and he called me and he said we have a wonderful candidate that we think will do very well. I’d heard of him but I didn’t know too much about him so I checked it out very carefully and I think that Diehl will be the real deal.”
Then Trump repeated: “Diehl will be the real deal.”
An endorsement from President Trump is a big … deal in state Republican politics. Because what we’re talking about here is the GOP primary electorate, a small group, less than 10% of the overall electorate, but they’re the ones (along with independents who take a Republican ballot on primary day) who decide who the candidate is in the general election.
If the man Dementia Joe calls “Charlie Parker” can’t win the tiny GOP primary, he doesn’t get to … cater to the trust-funded moonbats next November.
Let’s compare the votes in recent Republican primaries in Massachusetts for Trump and Baker. I understand that presidential and gubernatorial primaries are not quite comparable, but in this case, the numbers are rather interesting.
Trump in 2016 and 2020 GOP presidential primaries: 550,428 votes.
Baker in 2014 and 2018 GOP gubernatorial primaries: 290,130 votes.
“I don’t think Charlie Baker is gonna do well in a primary,” Trump said. “Maybe he’ll drop out and do something else. But I don’t think he’s gonna do very well. I don’t think he’s very popular with the Republican party. He has not supported the party. I think he’s been terrible to the party, frankly.”
Some of Baker’s fellow RINOs have used the same rationale for his abysmal performance that King Louis XV did defending himself back in the 18th century, before the French Revolution:
“After me, the deluge.”
Meaning, as wretched a governor as Charlie Baker has been, any Democrat successor will be even worse. Like most Republican primary voters in Massachusetts, Trump is not buying that lame argument.
“You might as well have a Democrat as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said. “He was absolutely terrible.”
I asked Trump if he’d be willing to come to the heart of deepest darkest Massachusetts to campaign for Diehl. He’s been here in the past — in Lowell, Worcester, at Ernie Boch Jr.’s spread in Norwood.
“I would do that,” he said. “Diehl’s gonna work very hard. It’s not an easy place, you know. Let’s not kid ourselves. Probably rigged voting like a lot of other places …”
I love having the president on my show. I think I’ll invite him back on after Charlie Parker gleefully begins his mass firings of state employees this weekend — the deluge could be coming early this season.