On Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol teased that an “independent candidate – an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance” could be entering the presidential race very soon – an announcement that would strike fear into the heart of the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
Although Kristol didn’t throw out any specific names, it was definitely an exciting announcement for the #NeverTrump movement, and a predictable move from the Republican strategist. For the last few weeks, Kristol has been calling for an independent conservative to run against Trump – a personal mission that has earned him scorn and names like “Republican spoiler” and “renegade Jew” from conservative news outlets like Breitbart.
Thanks to Trump’s social media addiction and the fact that he is incapable of focusing his attention on creating sound policies and solutions like a true presidential candidate should, Trump noticed almost immediately that Kristol had launched yet another attack against him.
Shortly after Kristol’s announcement, Trump fired back using his favorite social media platform – Twitter. He lashed out, calling Kristol a “dummy” and “loser” and begged his fellow Republicans “to be smart & strong”. He also channeled his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had recently said that if there was a third-party candidate, we could all kiss the Second Amendment goodbye because the Democrats would take over the Supreme Court.
Trump is likely terrified by the idea that he might have another candidate to beat – because surely another Republican candidate would not only split the GOP, but highly jeopardize his chances of winning against Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton. But regardless of how Trump feels about Kristol’s announcement, it’s definitely an exciting one for the Democrats. If a third-party candidate enters the race to run against Trump, the GOP can pretty much forget about winning the election.