Trump’s goal? Solidify control of GOP, not help win elections
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said something interesting while campaigning for Dave McCormick, one of the contenders for the GOP nomination to replace departing Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“Just once, I’d love to see a Republican candidate stand up in a primary and say: ‘I am a moderate, establishment squish. I stand for absolutely nothing.’ It would be refreshingly honest at least. But nobody says that.” He then added, “And by the way, they all pledge their love for Donald Trump. ‘I love Donald Trump.’ ‘No, no. I love Donald Trump more.’ ‘No, no, no. I have Donald Trump tattooed on my rear end.’”
Cruz’s remarks invited mockery, given that he battled Trump for the
GOP presidential nomination in 2016 all the way to the convention and then pledged his love for Trump — despite the fact that Trump had insulted Cruz’s wife, suggested Cruz’s father was linked to John F. Kennedy’s assassination and claimed Cruz stole the Iowa caucuses.
There’s no point sitting around pondering Cruz’s lack of self-awareness.
But he did make a good point. It’s true that, with few exceptions, Republican primary candidates do pledge their love for Trump. Some are more obsequious than others, of course. In Ohio, Josh Mandel lost his bid for the GOP senate nomination — and for Trump’s endorsement — despite running as the
Renfield to Trump’s Dracula.
Besides memory-holing his own Trump sycophancy, the other strange note in Cruz’s performance was his claim that “the establishment” is still run by moderate Republican “squishes.” The reality is that to the extent there is an “establishment” — everyone from nationalist donors like Peter Thiel to the Heritage Foundation to Fox News — it’s mostly MAGA.
House Republicans completed their transition to full MAGA when they defenestrated Rep. Liz Cheney and replaced her with Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has transformed from a thoughtful Republican moderate into little more than a Twitter troll.
It’s true that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has no love for Trump, but he’s neither a moderate nor a squish. (He’s also said he would vote for Trump in 2024.)
The key to understanding the GOP primaries is to understand that neither traditional conservative ideology nor even competence are qualifications or differentiators anymore. If they were, Liz Cheney wouldn’t be a pariah, and the bomb-throwing Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert wouldn’t be Republican stars. Everyone has to be an angry populist revolutionary who wants to see the world burn.
Of course, none of Trump’s criteria for endorsements have anything to do with ideological or even partisan litmus tests. Candidates seeking his endorsement must praise him lavishly. They also must subscribe to his bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And, if they check those boxes, they need to have a better-thangood chance of winning as Trump wants to pick winners so he can take credit for being a kingmaker.
Trump’s real goal isn’t to expand the party but to solidify his control of it. The irony is that Trump is now grappling with the woes of being the establishment. And while Trump will have more wins and losses in this primary season, the larger lesson is clear:
Trump’s revolution within the GOP succeeded, but as Jacques Mallet du Pan wrote in 1793 about the chaos in France, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”