
For decades, Florida-based Rick Wilson was a GOP strategist who aggressively championed Reagan and Goldwater conservatism. But when Donald Trump and the MAGA movement took over the GOP, Wilson left the party and — like attorney George Conway and former Weekly Standard journalist Bill Kristol — became an unlike ally of Democrats, liberals and progressives.
Wilson supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, warning that Trump would pose a major threat to U.S. democracy if he returned to the White House. But almost seven months into Trump's second presidency, Wilson described the MAGA movement's "authoritarian cosplay" as a "golden gift" to Democrats during an appearance on liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast's "Fast Politics" vodcast.
When Jong-Fast argued that the Democratic Party is in disarray, the Never Trump conservative responded that even so, Trump's over-the-top moves — including federalizing law enforcement in Washington, D.C. — are helpful to Democrats.
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Mocking Trump's claim that violence crime is out of control in the U.S. capital, Wilson commented, "There's no murder coalition in this country. There's no 'let's have the streets run red with blood' movement in this country. And sometimes, the Democrats have gotten themselves tripped up in that s---, where the right has been able to demonize it or whatever. But I think it's a lot harder in D.C. because if you travel to D.C., if you go to the city of Washington, D.C., there is about a 10-square-block area in one part of the city that's really dangerous. The rest of it is a very expensive place."
Wilson continued, "You know, it's a city where on U Street, you can pay $40, as you said, for a hamburger or $25 for a f------ smoothie or $100 for a Pilates class. It's not exactly Mogadishu. So, it is trying to put the Democrats in a dumb frame. But the correct frame is to keep saying: A, this is b-------. And B, you're just trying to distract from (Jeffrey) Epstein."
Trump and his allies, Wilson told Jong-Fast, are bringing their "authoritarian cosplay" to upscale areas like Georgetown in Washington, D.C. — and it will backfire on them.
"This chain of mistakes he is making is adding up and adding up and adding up," Wilson told Jong-Fast. "And that chain of mistakes is increasingly — even though the Democratic Party's brand sucks, the intention to vote for Democrats now is growing…. And nothing he is doing is reversing this trend right now. Could Democrats blow it? Sure, they have an infinite capacity to f--- it up. But right now, Donald Trump is losing his newfound gains."
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According to Wilson, Democrats "are being given, every day in Washington, D.C., a golden gift of the authoritarian cosplay b------- that these guys are executing on. And I mean, they're making traffic stops…. This is not in the seething, crime-ridden city. This is in Georgetown and DuPont Circle and Foggy Bottom."
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