During the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris and her supporters didn’t literally describe Donald Trump as an incumbent, but it was a message the party was eager to convey. Over the weekend, the former president added text to the subtext.
“Kamala and her ‘handlers’ are trying to make it sound like I am the Incumbent President,” the Republican whined at 1:15 a.m. on Saturday morning.
He’s not the only one who’s noticed. TPM’s Josh Marshall summarized:
Harris has made Trump into the incumbent with her as the challenger running on a campaign message to turn the page. Whether this is fair or true or any number of other descriptors you might come up with, there’s little doubt that it is an accurate description of the campaign we are in the midst of. The Trump campaign itself is telling us this, almost in spite of itself.
I can appreciate why this is exasperating to the GOP nominee and his supporters. Harris is, after all, the incumbent vice president. She’s also the candidate offering American voters a breath of fresh air and a “new way forward,” as the Democrat put it in her convention speech.
To a very real degree, Trump brought this on himself, pretending he won the 2020 race, asking that he be described as “Mr. President,” meeting with foreign officials as a matter of course, banishing the word “former” from his title, etc.
But there’s more to it than that. As Off Message’s Brian Beutler noted in his latest column:
Only in policy-absolutist terms, where a political era is defined by a president’s official acts alone, have we not been stuck in the Trump era the whole way through. Nine years running. And what majorities of Americans keep saying, election after election, is that Trump’s America is an unpleasant place to spend time.
Quite right. Trump grudgingly exited the White House in January 2021, but in the months and years that followed, he not only retook control of his political party, he also remained a dominant voice in the American discourse, en route to cruising through GOP primaries and caucuses, becoming his party’s presidential nominee for the third consecutive cycle.
As a legal and official matter, the Republican has no more authority than you or I. He can’t sign or veto bills. He can’t issue executive orders. He is a private citizen with no powers to speak of.
But it’s hardly unreasonable to conclude that we’re mired in the Trump era of American politics. And that, in turn, is precisely why Harris has an advantage as the candidate of change.
The message to the electorate couldn’t be more straightforward: 2024 offers a unique opportunity to bring the Trump era to an end, and usher in something new.
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