Donald Trump is coming back to Texas. Again. Haven’t we suffered enough? | Opinion

Former President Donald Trump will hold his first large rally in his quest for the 2024 GOP nomination in Waco on Saturday evening. The rally is sure to draw thousands of excited Texans. This is a problem for Texas and the Republican Party— an embarrassment, really.

Trump isn’t the most calculating man in the world, but he doesn’t totally campaign off the cuff: There’s a reason he’s chosen to boost his campaign in the Lone Star State, and it’s not because it’s the greatest state in the union (which it is). He’s using Texas as a jump-off point because he believes Texas Republicans love him — and he’s probably right about that.

We’ve learned that Texas has the second-most defendants related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, behind Florida. About 870 people were arrested across the board and 265 of those were charged with crimes — more than two dozen were from the North Texas area. Two-thirds of those have been convicted, either through a guilty plea or trial.

To a man like Trump, this undoubtedly demonstrates an extraordinary level of loyalty. He figures if dozens were arrested, hundreds more were there and there were thousands who wanted to go to Washington that day but couldn’t.

There’s no reason for Trump to have a stranglehold on Texas — or for Texans to continue their love affair with him. They owe no fealty to him, not after everything that has happened since 2020.

Trump made his mark as president and had a good tenure for someone with no political background. The federal judiciary has improved, he appointed three originalist judges to the Supreme Court, he implemented some solid tax breaks, and he seemed strong enough on foreign policy that his tenure was a time of relative peace.

But all that changed after the 2020 election, when Trump refused to accept the results. Things worsened when he challenged the results in court after court and no judge found his claims credible. He’s spent the last three years ranting online via his PAC and smearing any conservative who dares challenge him. Just this week, the prospect of his impending arrest on a charge related to hush money paid to a former lover dominated the news.

Like a romance gone bad, the only good times with Trump are the memories of the honeymoon phase — and we’re well past that.

There’s no reason for conservatives to support Trump now anyway, with solid candidates such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as options in the 2024 presidential race. Both demonstrate maturity, integrity, a plan forward — and few of the negatives Trump has shown us daily for years.

It’s time for Texans to break up with the toxicity Trump represents, and it’s well past time for Trump to remove himself from the spotlight and stay there.