Trump’s really got a hold on them
U.S. president Donald Trump’s first public speech since leaving office wasn’t a particularly remarkable performance — it was a low-energy, read-from-theteleprompter address packed with familiar refrains attacking President Joe Biden and the spectre of socialism, repeating his long-standing lies about how the election was stolen, and reciting the story of the Wall and other achievements he claims. There wasn’t a lot new there.
Still, the packed room in Orlando, Florida at the influential Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday interrupted him at one point to chant, “We love you! We love you! We love you!”
If anyone thought the right wing of the U.S. political spectrum would let little things like defeat and encouraging insurrection get in the way of Trump’s continued dominance of the Republican party, the conference dispelled the notion. “America Uncancelled” was the nominal theme of the event, adulation of the fabulist 45th president was the implicit one.
Donald Trump Jr. joked the conference should be called the Trump Political Action Conference to reflect its mood. “Trump ain’t going anywhere,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said from the stage. A straw poll of attendees showed 97 per cent approval for the former president, and a supermajority of 68 per cent want him to run in 2024.
He was heavily hinting he might do just that. “I wonder who it could be,” he said repeatedly about the candidate to beat Biden next time around. “Who knows? I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” Trump said, prompting what might have been the loudest reaction of the night.
Even his critics within the party acknowledge he still owns the hearts and minds of Republicans. “I’m not sure if he will run in 2024 or not, but if he does I’m pretty sure he’ll win the nomination,” Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who twice voted to convict Trump in impeachment trials and skipped the CPAC conference, told the New York Times last week.
That the base of the Republican party is loyal to Trump isn’t in much doubt. Despite some party leadership in Congress expressing their dismay, the bulk of the party’s elected representatives in state governments and in Washington have pledged their loyalty to him. What that loyalty will lead to is the question.
After all, despite his claim he’d like to win a third time, he hasn’t actually won twice yet. In fact, he hasn’t won the popular vote even once. The party that handed over its heart and soul to his cult of personality presidency not only lost the White House, but both houses of Congress too, including both Senate seats in Georgia where he campaigned hard leading up to a run-off election.
During Trump’s second impeachment trial in January after the Capitol riot, Rep. Jamie Raskin who led the prosecution reflected a bit on the price of loyalty to Trump. He said some comments his daughter made led him to feel some sympathy for the rioters themselves, who believed Trump’s claims about the stolen election, heeded his call to come to Washington to “Stop the Steal,” stormed the Capitol after he told them to fight and claimed he would come with them. And then found themselves abandoned and disavowed when they did exactly what they thought he was telling them to do.
In court filings and statements from their lawyers, many charged in the insurrection have expressed their dismay at how their loyalty has been rewarded. “He went to Washington because Trump asked him to save the country,” Jonathan Zucker, lawyer for indicted Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola told the New York Times. “Then he got arrested and Trump went to play golf.”
Perhaps Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, who had supported Trump’s attempts to challenge the election results, can sympathize. When he called Trump during the insurrection to beg him to call off his followers who were smashing through his office windows at that moment, Trump reportedly said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Or former vice-president Mike Pence, whose four years in office were defined by his subservience to the boss. While he was in hiding at the Capitol Jan. 6 as a mob roamed the halls of Congress calling for his execution, rioters read Trump’s tweets attacking Pence through a bullhorn.
That would sound familiar to the slew of appointees and staff members whose service on Trump’s behalf was rewarded with firings and public attacks. And, no doubt, to the hundreds of suppliers and professionals who did business with him prior to his political career, who complained that he did not pay them for the work they did.
It seems loyalty to Trump has often led to heartbreak and abandonment. Those who believe in him find themselves eventually swindled, and those who see through the con but ride along with him because they think they can share in the spoils find out eventually that though they thought they were co-conspirators, they were always marks too.
Trump continues to inspire a legion of true believers. And the Republican party continues to try to cultivate them by signalling allegiance to Trump. He is, after all, a fundraising powerhouse. He even made an appeal from the stage at CPAC — though not for the conference or the Republican National Committee, but for his own political committee. “There’s only one way to contribute to our efforts to elect America First Republican conservatives,” he said. “And that’s through Save America PAC and DonaldTrump.com.”
Demanding loyalty and tribute has served Trump well. History suggests it hasn’t always worked out the same way for those providing it. But at CPAC, the most influential members of the Republican party base showed they aren’t ready to rethink the relationship yet.