Democrat-Gazette online

A few days ago, I received a screenshot of a text Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and now ambassador to Israel, sent to President Donald Trump. Trump was so tickled with it he posted it to Truth Social, his personal Twitter, and then real Twitter, which is called X now, like one of Elon Musk's many children. The screenshot was sent to me by a friend in a group message with other political junkies. While they all rolled their eyes, I said I didn't think it was real.

I have read some of Mike Huckabee's books, sometimes scan his social media, and have watched footage of him speaking. There was a time many years ago that he seemed sincere if hokey, but a significant change in tone happened as he hosted his Fox show, then entered Trump's orbit. It only grows stronger with time and proximity to power. It is a snarky, resentful tone his daughter also uses when she wants to fire up her MAGA base, like in her dark response to Biden's State of the Union address a few years ago, or nearly any time someone disagrees with her.

If Mike Huckabee is questioned about such meanness by someone who knew him before he morphed into a MAGA evangelist, he often claims he is joking, or being sarcastic, as he did in 2021 after companies criticized a new Georgia voting bill that civil rights groups said suppressed Black voters. When evangelist and author Beth Moore called him out for using anti-Asian language presumably to push back against those companies just as six Asian women were gunned down in Atlanta, Huckabee tweeted this: "I've decided to 'identify' as Chinese. Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my 'values' and I'll probably get shoes from Nike and tickets to @MLB games. Ain't America great?"

Moore........

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