George Conway has been very accurate and unsparing in his criticism of Trump. It is true that he once supported Trump and even voted for him. Conway addressed the issue forthrightly in a new Salon interview that is literally everywhere this morning:

“I thoroughly own up to the fact that I voted for Donald Trump in 2016. That was a grave moral error on my part, and I own it. I’m happy — well, not happy, but willing — to admit my error. But some people can’t do it that easily.”

Half of that is easily true. It is obvious that some people cannot easily admit their errors. But Trump showed plenty of “who he really is” in the campaign that one should be somewhat skeptical of Conway. To be fair, even Obama said that he thought the seriousness of the office and the guardrails around him would keep Trump focused.

But the interview then gets into the reality we face going forward, and it both rings true and is terrifying:

Trump is in a downward psychological, emotional and physical spiral. His embrace of QAnon shows how extreme his deterioration is. But here is the problem for the rest of us: Donald Trump is not going to go away immediately. He is going to try to use the electoral process, and threats of violence, to regain power and influence. Then Trump will say that he can’t control what people do because they are so angry at how he is being treated by Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, the DOJ, the various prosecutors and judges, the news media and so on. Trump is going to make things much worse in this country before things finally get better.

Trump is NOT going to come out and say, “The violence must stop!!” He will sit back and say there’s nothing he can do. Very true.

If America were actually healthy, then Trump would be gone, a non-factor. In all likelihood, I believe that Trump gets the Republican nomination in 2024, unless he goes to prison before then. If Trump is convicted or it looks like he is going to be, he will try to take down as many people as possible with him. That’s what malignant narcissists do. 

Well, he won’t be going to prison before then. Conway is off track a bit. He wouldn’t even go to trial for a year, and then Trump is famous for his appeals, and he could probably convince a trial judge to keep him out of prison pending appeal… depending on what he’s convicted of. IF IF IF Trump is convicted of espionage, a judge will not likely allow him to stay out and commit espionage again while awaiting trial. But it is difficult to see Trump in an orange jumpsuit prior to the November 2024 election. It is also an open question as to whether he will run.

Trump is also going to cause damage to the Republican Party. The party is finally going to realize that Trump will take them down with him. It is going to be very ugly all around. In the end, though, it will get better. Once Trump is dealt with, there’s the other problem that must be confronted: Trump let all the termites into the basement of the house. The Big Lie and the election deniers and all the assorted lunatics who have taken up residence in the Republican Party and are now its base must be pushed out. We need two functioning, normal political parties that support democracy in this country. Right now, we only have one, and that is the Democrats. I don’t know what’s going to happen next — perhaps the Republican Party will collapse, and something better will replace it

The Grand Old Party will turn into a bouncing baby party? Unlikely. They might just dump Trump, though we’ve been making that argument for some time now.

It is easy to see how this must get worse before it gets better. It is hard to have absolute faith that it will get better eventually.

There is much more to the interview here.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman