It surely won’t change a single vote, but let’s still take a moment out of this busy political season to marvel at a truly epic flip-flop. It comes courtesy of a guy who doesn’t make news much anymore, but clearly wants to.
Former Gov. Bobby Jindal did make some news eight years ago, when, in the midst of his dud of a presidential campaign, he sent up a warning flare about one of his primary-season opponents. Here, in only some of its full glory, is 2015 Jindal’s assessment of Donald Trump:
Trump is an “egomaniacal madman” and an “entertaining narcissist,” Jindal said at an appearance at the National Press Club. He’s “full of foolishness and nonsense," and “unstable,” “insecure,” “weak” and “shallow.” He’s a “non-serious carnival act.”
“Donald Trump has never read the Bible. The reason I know he has not read the Bible is that he's not in the Bible,” he added.
It was a spectacular takedown, largely because it was true.
And that was before Trump got himself impeached twice; refused to accept his reelection loss and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power; was criminally indicted four times; was deemed by a judge in a New York civil case to have built his financial empire on persistent and repeated fraud; and started making even weirder and more inciteful comments than before, including his recent suggestion that maybe his own former top general should be executed.
Yet somewhere in there, something happened that changed Jindal’s opinion of Trump for the better. Because last week, the former Louisiana governor went on X and said that he’s all in on the one-term president’s attempted return to Washington.
“I just had a great conversation with President Trump, and I told him that he has my full and complete endorsement to win back the White House and Make America Great Again!”
What followed was a long thread of reasons, some making the usual far-fetched allegations against Democrats and some claiming substantive wins during Trump’s first term — the most credible of which was Trump's conservative takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court, which Jindal had cited as a common goal in a much less fervent general election endorsement in 2016.
Then, as Jindal noted at the time, the alternative was Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Now, with the primaries still ahead, other options include a bunch of Republicans whom a conservative like Jindal could easily back without looking like a complete hypocrite, including two current or former Southern governors, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis; another former governor who is saying now what Jindal said then, Chris Christie; and a fellow former member of Congress and governor who shares Jindal’s evangelical worldview, Mike Pence. Yet Jindal’s thread dismissed the idea that any of them have a shot — which may well be true but is also a symptom of a depressing collective surrender.
“Trump may not be warm and cuddly, but he is a warrior, and that is what we need right now,” Jindal wrote.
So I guess one question here is whether Trump needs Jindal.
Politicians sell their souls for spare change all the time, but what, exactly, does Jindal get out of the deal? A way back to political relevance after a second term so reviled that it remains a cautionary tale even now?
Jindal’s actually been a bit in the news lately, as the last Louisiana gubernatorial candidate before Jeff Landry to win without having to go into a runoff. Back then he rode even higher than Landry — his election carried more an air of optimism, less today's sense of resignation and partisan triumph — before his spectacular self-inflicted fall.
Yet Landry could face some of the same temptations that Jindal gave in to. One is to assume he can follow the national GOP script, even if his decisions hurt the state, without losing public support. Another is to approach a fiscal cliff — like the one that many think Louisiana will again face once federal pandemic aid disappears and a temporary sales tax drops off — without a plan to avert deep cuts to state services that people care about.
We can only hope Landry proves to be an attentive student of recent history. Or at least a better student than the once-promising Rhodes Scholar from Baton Rouge turned out to be.