The dangerous naivete of thinking you can influence Trump

Tom Hoefling

Once upon a time, three decades ago, I was a member of the Iowa Republican State Central Committee. Because of the first in the nation Iowa caucuses, few Iowans were courted more assiduously by presidential candidates than the folks on this committee. They'd come and stay in our spare bedroom, given the chance.

Our stock in trade was the belief that we could influence these candidates. Many times, I've had meetings with them, and then watched as my talking points began to pop up in their public speeches and communications. Shoot, I watched Mike Huckabee lay out our anti-judicial supremacy platform from the steps of the U.S. Capitol just days after I met with him and laid it all out for him in black and white.

What difference did it make? Very little, if any. Even if you got one of these guys to swerve a little, it was only a matter of time until they swerved back. Fact is, you're not going to convince people at that level of much of anything. Who and what they are is set like concrete long before you got anywhere near them. You're naive, like I once was, if you think otherwise.

I've learned these lessens from decades of hard experience. And so, as I watch certain abortion abolitionists getting all giddy because they think they accomplished something by getting Trump to supposedly flip on Florida's Amendment 4, part of me is sympathetic to their naivete. It's kind of cute, and I've been there myself.

But, the other part of me remembers that naivete can also be extremely dangerous and harmful.

Especially when the politician in question is Donald Trump.

After all, Trump's position didn't actually change, in substance. Whether he was saying he was for Amendment 4, or against it, either way he still supports lawless laws that allow the murder of every unborn child conceived or present in the state, as long as they are murdered on his schedule.

And I'm certain that there are Christian readers of these exchanges on X who are now again rationalizing support for this preeminently wicked candidate, solely because they want to believe abortion abolitionists actually gained something of real value by participating in another in a long line of unprincipled, cynical Trump political games.

But, it's all a Big Fat Lie, just like pretty much everything associated with Donald Trump.