Trumpism without Trump? What’s next for the GOP?
Six weeks ago, Americans were assured that Donald Trump had left the presidency disgraced and forever ruined politically.
Trump was the first president to be impeached twice. He was the first to be impeached without the chief justice of the United States presiding over his trial. His nonstop complaining about a stolen “landslide” election was blamed by many as a distraction that lost two Republican Senate seats from Georgia.
Americans were assured by Trump’s impeachment prosecutors and the media that the Jan. 6 Capitol assault was his fault alone. So Trump was condemned as a veritable murderer, responsible for five deaths at the Capitol. Yet six weeks after leaving office, Trump brought a crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference to its feet.
So why is a supposedly once-toxic Trump apparently back at center stage?
For all the national outrage at Trump, 95% of Republican House members voted against his impeachment. Eighty-six percent of Republican senators voted to acquit him of impeachment charges.
Getting kicked off social media ironically turned out to be a plus for Trump. His once controversial tweets and posts no longer distract from Biden’s frequent displays of ineptitude. Attention has turned to Trump’s fiercest critics — especially Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California. Both are now mired in scandal, and Newsom is likely facing a recall election.
Ever so slowly, the image of the now-muted expresident is transforming from former bad-boy bully to current bullied private citizen.
The detention of undocumented minors at the border and presidential orders to bomb in Syria remind voters that Biden is doing exactly what the now-silent media used to blast Trump for doing. A Biden-created border crisis, climbing gas prices and renewed aggression from China suggest that the “Make American Great Again” agenda may be missed after a little more than a month of reset.
The United States leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations, in part because Trump wisely hedged bets by enlisting and often subsidizing several different companies.
Right after the Capitol riot, there was talk in
Republican Party circles about building upon the successful MAGA agenda — but by engineering a Trump transition to a senior statesman role.
Insiders think impressive possible 2024 presidential candidates such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others might better advance the popular MAGA cause — with the endorsement of Trump himself. The new standard-bearer then supposedly would lack Trump’s off-putting manner that alienated swing voters.
That may happen. But for now, no one knows whether Trump’s ability to cut through left-wing platitudes revs up more to vote than it does to turn off others. Events have radically turned political realities upside down in just six weeks.
Party insiders may dream of Trumpism without Trump, fearing that he could never win a majority of voters. They may be right. But then again, who has been right about Donald Trump’s final demise in the last five years?