Ann Coulter Warns Trump Republicans are Being Played 'Like a Fiddle'

Conservative writer and Trump critic Ann Coulter says Democrats are playing the former president's supporters "like a fiddle" with their current lawsuits as conservatives have prematurely begun to coronate Trump as the Republican nominee for president in 2024.

Writing on her Substack Wednesday, Coulter claimed Democratic efforts to make Trump a martyr through various lawsuits could actually serve to help them in the 2024 presidential election, noting Trump's popularity with the Republican base—and his extreme unpopularity with just about everyone else—could set conservatives up for another loss in '24.

"Democrats are playing Republicans like a fiddle," wrote Coulter. "The left's sole objective is to make Trump the Republicans' 2024 presidential nominee. He's already lost three election cycles for the GOP—why not make it four?"

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment.

Polls show Trump's popularity surged after news of his looming indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for allegedly forging business records to cover up hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle.

In the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted at the end of March, Trump had dramatically widened his lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—another presumptive candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024—in a hypothetical Republican primary race, apparently demonstrating the effect of his arrest actually strengthened his supporters' resolve.

But they support Trump at their own peril, Coulter warned. While DeSantis remains less popular than Trump almost everywhere except his home state of Florida, he polled significantly better than Trump among the crucial independent voters Republicans will need to capture in the swing states necessary to win the presidency shortly after the 2022 midterm election cycle.

If Democrats hope to win in 2024, Coulter claimed, they need the candidate with the lowest crossover appeal on the ticket opposite Joe Biden—himself an unpopular president—to do so.

"Against DeSantis' smarts and energy, the Democrats would be running President Senile Dementia and a vice president whose sole credentials are that she is black and a woman," Coulter wrote. "They had only one hope: Get Trump the nomination."

Trump's presence in the race could also have impacts Coulter didn't address: damaging the GOP brand even further.

To gain a leg on Trump, DeSantis is now running to his right flank on a number of other issues in an effort to gain the support of the Republican base, raising questions about whether he could potentially alienate more independent voters than Trump could ever dream of.

"The challenge for DeSantis is that he outflanks [former President] Trump to the right on COVID, colleges and crime and while helpful in a primary, ostensibly those positions could hurt him with independents in a general," Martin Sweet, a political science professor at Purdue University, told The Hill newspaper. "This is the classic poli sci 101 'primary paradox.'"