The Project Veritas "coup" proves they're all gangsters at heart
The Project Veritas "coup" proves they're all gangsters at heart
Trump’s opponents will submit to his will, and the will of his online troll army. Former MAGA loyalist turned Meatball Ron supporter Matthew Tyrmand found out the hard way.
One of the biggest try hards pushing his version of the “Hunter Biden laptop” story in the lead up to the 2020 election was a right-wing Polish-American activist named Matthew Tyrmand. A current Project Veritas board member, Tyrmand once sued a Polish journalist who wrote a 2016 article about him, claiming the article was defamatory. The article described Tyrmand as “Trump’s man” and “part of the global war by the right wing against Democracy.” Tyrmand also took issue with the article’s claim that Project Veritas, the right-wing undercover video operation which was (until recently) run by provocateur James O’Keefe, wages “informational warfare” against their opponents. He eventually lost his defamation case. Little known at the time, Tyrmand’s star rose in the lead up to the 2020 election when he disseminated material supposedly originating from “Hunter Biden’s laptop.” One America News, in particular, gave him multiple interviews to discuss this. The various iterations of the “laptop” story, you may remember, were first ginned up by Rudy Giuliani, but they quickly became Steve Bannon’s baby. Matthew Tyrmand, a frequent guest on Bannon’s show and longtime ally, has been frequently referred to as “Steve Bannon’s protégé,” which is a claim I have little trouble believing that Tyrmand himself would’ve wholeheartedly endorsed.
Nevertheless, this past week, Steve Bannon permanently banned Matthew Tyrmand from Bannon’s show, The War Room, and banned anyone else currently serving on the board of Project Veritas. Why? Because these individuals, including Tyrmand, are being blamed for participating in a coup of the Project Veritas organization and for ousting O’Keefe from his leadership position at the group. What has followed is a sprint to condemn and denounce Tyrmand quickly and loudly among right-wing influencers who—up until two weeks ago, before O’Keefe was put on leave at Veritas—considered Tyrmand a friend and ally. Similarly, the New York Young Republican Club suspended Tyrmand from his role on the club’s Board of Advisors.
What’s gained MAGA’s particular ire is the fact that Tyrmand has come out vocally in support of Ron DeSantis’s potential 2024 presidential run, despite the fact that Tyrmand himself was—again, until recently—a significant mover within the MAGA movement and its illiberal and authoritarian offshoots in Brazil and Eastern Europe. Given the fact that Tyrmand has come out in support of DeSantis, MAGA has reverse engineered the “coup” against James O’Keefe as a secret plot hatched by the DeSantis campaign to help tip the scale their way in what may prove to be the most brutal primary campaign in modern American history. While I’ve not seen anything more than circumstantial evidence to back up this theory, the very online DeSantis supporters aren’t doing themselves any favors by publicly backing the Project Veritas board and thus Tyrmand himself as he receives a significant amount of hate and vitriol from the Trump base.
Those supporting Tyrmand online include several who have indicated they prefer DeSantis to be the 2024 GOP nominee including John Cardillo, Dave Reaboi, Max Nordau and Jenna Ellis. Even so, their defenses are somewhat timid claims of “waiting for more evidence” before “rushing to judgement.” They remain in fear of drawing the full weight of MAGA’s scorn upon themselves. Nevertheless, these DeSantis influencers may feel they have a duty to defend one of their own, but for MAGA, these supportive messages only prove their theory about the “DeSantis coup” at Project Veritas. They’re angry. They’re backing O’Keefe no matter what, and as Bannon put it, “this is going to be a war.”
This story will be part of the primary battle between Trump and DeSantis
Two big names in MAGA media, Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, spent the first hour of Kirk’s show on Tuesday, Feb 21st discussing what happened at Project Veritas. There were a few ongoing themes worth noting. They steadfastly stand behind James O’Keefe, whose profile and significance in right-wing circles increased significantly during Trump’s time in office. They downplayed the accusations made by the Project Veritas board of directors against O’Keefe, and discussed the potential real reasons why the coup against O’Keefe took place. They did not pin the blame on Ron DeSantis or his supporters, nor did they make any definitive statements about anyone else causing the so-called coup. They simply said someone must be behind O’Keefe’s ouster and someone else better go and figure out who that is. A recent victim of O’Keefe’s sting operations, the drug manufacturer Pfizer, was floated out as a possible instigator, but the question was left open. It won’t remain unanswered forever. If you look at social media in particular, Matthew Tyrmand has been named the ringleader of the “coup” and his ties to the DeSantis campaign have been highlighted in the same breath on post after post on Twitter which you can see with a simple word search.
Even if big names like Bannon and Kirk aren’t prepared to go there on DeSantis yet—and we can only speculate as to the hesitation, there’s no doubt they or their producers have seen the commentary already—it will surely be brought up if DeSantis decides to get in the primary race. James O’Keefe is a hero in right-wing media, and they simply don’t care how much money he stole from Project Veritas or how many employees he mistreated to get the ratfucking job done. If he stays loyal to Trump, the MAGA movement will continue to back him, continue to funnel donations to whatever organization he’s running now or in the future and continue to eliminate all who stand opposed to that agenda.
I see no reason to believe the DeSantis campaign knew anything about what was happening at Project Veritas. The evidence put forth so far is entirely circumstantial, but it won’t matter if Ron jumps in the race. Tyrmand is on record saying Trump “was a super POTUS- but it’s over” in a tweet he posted with a related video where he endorsed DeSantis and said if Trump won again, "he would be the weakest president in American history. He'd be lame duck from day one."
Trump has always excelled at casting himself as a victim. That Tyrmand quote is more than enough to sell that narrative once again.
The reality is the right is still terrified of Donald Trump’s scorn
The recently leaked text messages which came out due to the ongoing litigation by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News showed the network's biggest names never believed Trump's stolen election lies in 2020, but they played along with that false narrative anyway. Why? In part, it was about their declining ratings, but we get another hint from the texts involving the network's top host, Tucker Carlson, who called Donald Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer.” He added, "What [Trump's] good at is destroying things. He's the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong." As in, if the network contradicted Trump and correctly told its viewers he lost the 2020 election, which they knew he did not win at the time. Think of the Main Characters that Trump chose to single out, attack and destroy while he was president. Many of them were central figures in the FBI—Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strokz, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr and so on—whose careers were derailed and ultimately sent careening into oblivion. Sure, some of them have resurfaced as successful authors and media figures, but their lives were fundamentally upended when Trump put a target on their backs. As the text messages reveal, several figures who questioned the approved MAGA narrative on the 2020 election subsequently left the Fox network. They could no longer be trusted.
It’s perhaps best to recall that Donald Trump’s mentor was the mafia attorney Roy Cohn. This is how exactly how Donald Trump operates—like a mob boss. Those who advance Donald Trump’s agenda can see their stars rise quickly—plenty of right-wing careers rose significantly on the back of Trump’s endorsement while he was president. But betrayal? That means an even quicker fall from the mountaintop. Tucker understands this dynamic better than most. Charlie Kirk, the TPUSA creator and streaming host, was recently observed flirting with a Ron DeSantis 2024 candidacy. A little. Barely. But even his mild criticisms of Trump and hints that DeSantis might be better than Trump at a few things resulted in warning shots—with quotes and detailed “concerns” given to NBC News which quickly ran with the story.
Kirk, for his part, claimed this was all manufactured drama because he had already endorsed Trump for 2024, and while that’s true, criticisms of Trump or the DeSantis interview endorsing Harmeet Dhillon for RNC Chair over Trump’s handpicked candidate for the job, Ronna McDaniel, became a growing concern for the Trump campaign. Charlie Kirk—who wouldn’t exist without Donald Trump’s support and particularly Don Jr.’s involvement in the greater TPUSA movement—was told to fall back in line. He has, and the murmurs of discontent pointed in his direction have stopped. For now.
The point was made. The threat and the potential consequences still loom.
If Trump wins, it will once again be because people are too afraid to cross him. Thus as ever.
It’s been a long-running theme of Trump’s opponents in the Republican Party that maybe, just maybe, the guy will give up or disappear at some point. From his 2016 primary opponents, to the general election he was sure to lose to the January 6th insurrection, surely Trump’s support would fade away and he would to fall off the map and become irrelevant. Despite what QAnon may believe, Trump is not immortal, but I suspect we may be stuck with him quite a bit longer. As for the ongoing legal cases against him, I’ve yet to see a convincing argument that these cases—which MAGA will cast as Deep State plots to bring down their favorite president—will actually hurt Trump enough to cost him the primary. There’s every chance an indictment or conviction could instead help Trump win, and there’s been plenty of speculation that he hoped to have already been indicted by now for that very reason. Trump needs enemies to destroy, and another Deep State plot is likely to boost the idea among his fans that he really is draining the swamp.
None of this means Trump can or will beat Biden in a general election. I find many of the actions that would help Trump win the primary have the opposite result in the general election, but at the end of the day, he has to get there before worrying about how he’s going to beat Joe Biden. The 2016 election showed us that once you’re the nominee for one of the two parties, anything can happen. Right now, it’s all about who can do the most to up the profile of Dear Leader Trump while he still has the clout to be a kingmaker in their world. His endorsement remains the quickest way to turning online shitposting into a lucrative career in right-wing media. Matthew Tyrmand’s fate reminds us of the real reason Trump remains the GOP frontrunner—MAGA media can turn anyone from ally to roadkill in a matter of days. What matters most is loyalty.
Is there really anyone out there who wants to go for the king next?