Loss in Georgia runoff escalates Trump’s isolation
Since announcing his 2024 presidential bid three weeks ago at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has barely left his private South Florida club — except to play golf at his course across Lake Worth Lagoon.
He spoke at a friendly think tank conference held at Mar-aLago and a for-profit gala, also at Mar-a-Lago. He had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with two prominent antisemites, drawing widespread criticism, including from top Republicans.
He made video appearances at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting, a conservative conference in Mexico and a fundraiser for families of defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — all beamed out from Mar-a-Lago. He did an interview with Fox News and a tele-rally for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker and he dropped in on a fundraiser with promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, still at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s seclusion within the ornate walls of his club and a series of controversies — from the dinner with antisemites Ye and Nick Fuentes to a social media post suggesting the “termination” of the Constitution — have left him increasingly isolated within his party as he tries to mount a political comeback. Walker’s loss in a Tuesday runoff election became the latest blow, prompting more Republicans to join the chorus faulting him for dragging down the party’s performance in this year’s midterms.
“The former president presents our biggest risk of losing for 2024, and conservatives are tired of losing,” said Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Family Leader, an Iowa-based social conservative group. “Even the former president’s announcement is being greeted like it never happened. There’s no buzz amongst my network at all.”
The Trump campaign wasn’t planning to follow up his announcement with a burst of rallies or public events, instead focusing on quieter moves like staffing up. A campaign official said Trump will start doing more public events after January, which will address the criticism that he hasn’t gotten out more. A recent message from Trump suggested an upcoming stop in Iowa, home of the first Republican nominating contest.
Trump’s defenders argue he has long overcome resistance from Republican leaders and reshaped the party.
“President Trump entered the race three weeks ago ready to win and he is going to do exactly that — no amount of wishful thinking from the media or consultant class will change it,” said Taylor Budowich, head of the MAGA Inc. super PAC supporting Trump.
The early announcement — which advisers said was planned in part to clear the field of potential rivals and help Trump get ahead of a potential indictment — appears to have failed or backfired on both fronts. Rather than declining to run against Trump, a crowd of other Republicans have become more vocal about their possible moves to challenge him for the nomination. And Trump’s formal declaration of his candidacy prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to oversee the federal criminal probes circling the former president into his campaign’s efforts to submit phony electors in 2020 and into the mishandling of sensitive government secrets at Mar-aLago.