SAUNDERS: Is Trump trying to drive centrist voters to a far-left Californian?

If you’re a Republican, you’ve been through this drill before — that moment when a group of establishment Republicans reveal that they are voting for a Democrat because they deem the GOP nominee to be unworthy.

They sign a group statement with a more-than-sorrow-than-in anger pronouncement that surprises absolutely no one.

And then the Democrat wins — an outcome that got no boost from the perennial GOP strays.

So, yes, with Kamala Harris heading the Democratic ticket, a Georgia group calling itself Republicans for Harris was inevitable.

There will always be a conservative rump more interested in virtue signaling and garnering praise from The New York Times editorial board than winning.

Then again, at times, Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be overly concerned about winning, either.

Over the weekend at an Atlanta rally, Trump should have been focused on tying Harris to far-left Joe Biden policies that have ravaged the economy, softened the Southwest border and emboldened America’s national security rivals. But he also went after Brian Kemp, Georgia’s popular Republican governor. Problem: Trump may need Kemp voters to win the pivotal Peach State in November.

At a moment when most candidates would be reaching out to undecided voters and mending fences because they want to win, Trump prioritized payback. His rhetoric seems almost as if it was designed to tempt moderates and conservatives to support, of all things, a California progressive.

Kemp, you see, would not give in to Trump’s pressure campaign in 2020 when the then-president wanted the Georgia governor to deny that his state’s voters had preferred Joe Biden. So Trump used the rally to call Kemp names — to wit, “a bad guy,” “disloyal,” and “Little Brian.”

This isn’t a one-time thing.

On July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a would-be assassin fired a high-powered rifle at Trump that clipped part of his ear, Trump’s defiance and decision to stand tall within seconds of the assault showed that Trump was brave and strong.

Republican National Convention attendees last month arrived in Milwaukee in awe of the courage Trump exhibited in Butler.

His acceptance speech at the end of the confab presented a unique opportunity to showcase how the near-death experience had made Trump more aware of the stakes.

But no, the former president instead chose to squander the Milwaukee moment so that he could revisit and recite his litany of petty grievances, all of which America has heard before.

Trump knows that women don’t like the way he talks. He told Atlanta rally goers that his wife, Melania, doesn’t like it when he calls people puerile names or impersonates Biden’s frailty. The former first lady “hates it when I do this” — Trump shared that she sees his bombast as “unpresidential.”

He doesn’t care.

I know many conservative women — I am one — who love the policies, but not the lack of self-discipline.

And really, I think as I watch Trump, why does he have to make supporting him so hard on people who harbor doubts?

Why couldn’t he try to win over those on the fence, like other politicians? If Trump had done was much in 2020, he would not have lost the election and Biden would not have been president.

Just this one year, couldn’t Trump put the country before his unchecked need to badmouth his list of enemies?

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.