PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) – Donald Trump has lost the megaphone of social media, government power and the unequivocal support of his party’s elected leaders. But a week after he left the White House in disgrace, it seems unlikely a large-scale Republican desertion would eventually purge him of the party.
Many Republicans refuse to publicly defend Trump’s role in provoking the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But as the Senate prepares for an impeachment trial over Trump’s incitement to riot, few seem willing to hold the former president to account.
After House Republicans, who supported his ouster, were faced with intense reaction and Trump’s lieutenants indicated that the same fate would be met with the others who joined them. On Tuesday for an attempt to dismiss his second dismissal trial. Only five Republican senators rejected the challenge to the trial.
Trump’s conviction was seen as a real possibility a few days ago after lawmakers whose lives were threatened by the crowd weighed the appropriate consequences and the future of his party. But the Senate vote on Tuesday is a sign that while Trump may be considered disrespectful in Washington after the riots, a large number of Republicans are wary of crossing his supporters, who remain the majority of party voters.
“Republican Party political winds have blown in the opposite direction,” said Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and Trump’s ally. “Republicans have decided that even if he is believed to have made mistakes after the November and January 6 elections, the policies advocated by Trump and the victories he won from judges in regulating life until the tax cuts were too big to allow the party to leave him on the battlefield. “
The vote came after Trump, who moved last week to his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, began returning to politics between rounds of golf. He took a first step in the Arkansas governor’s career by supporting former White House aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and supported Kelli Ward, an ally who won re-election as president of the Republican Party. ‘Arizona after his support.
At the same time, the Trump team has given the Allies an informal blessing to campaign against the 10 House Republicans who voted for the ouster.
After Michigan Representative Peter Meijer backed the ouster, Republican Tom Norton announced a major challenge. Norton appeared on longtime Trump Adviser Steve Bannon podcast to try to increase campaign contributions.
On Thursday, another Trump loyalist, Rep. Matt Gaetz, plans to travel to Wyoming to condemn Native State Representative Liz Cheney, leader of the House Democratic Republic who said after the Capitol riot that “never there has been greater betrayal by a U.S. president of his office and his oath in the Constitution. “
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., a star with Trump’s loyal base, has cheered Gaetz on social media and accepted requests for Cheney’s removal from the House leadership.
Trump remains lawful with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who refused to support Trump’s false accusations that Georgia’s election was fraudulent. Kemp is ready for re-election in 2022 and Trump has suggested former MP Doug Collins stand up.
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s decision not to run for re-election in 2022 opens the door for Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters, to seek the seat. Several other Republicans, some much less supporters of the former president, are also considering running.
Trump’s continued involvement in national politics so soon after his departure marks a dramatic break with past presidents, who usually came out of the spotlight, at least temporarily. Former President Barack Obama was famously seen vacationing kitesurfing with billionaire Richard Branson shortly after leaving office and former President George W. Bush began painting.
Trump, who longs for media spotlight, was never expected to be out of public view.
“We’ll be back somehow,” he told fans at a farewell ceremony before leaving for Florida. But exactly the form it will take is work in progress.
Trump remains very popular with Republican voters and is sitting on a huge cash deposit (well over $ 50 million) that he could use to defend the main challenges against Republicans who supported his removal or refused to support their failed efforts to challenge election results false accusations of massive election fraud in states like Georgia.
“POTUS told me after the election that it will participate a lot,” said Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union. “I think he will remain committed. He will continue to communicate. He will continue to express his views. I, for example, think it’s very good, and I encouraged him to do it. “
Aides say he also intends to dedicate himself to reclaiming the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022. But for now, they say his point is in the trial.
“We’re preparing for a removal trial: that’s really the focus,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said.
Trump aides have also spent the past few days trying to reassure Republicans that he currently has no plans to launch a third party, an idea he has raised, and that he will instead focus on using his influence in the Republican Party.
RN.D. Sen. Kevin Cramer said he received a call Saturday from the home of Brian Jack, the former White House political director, to assure him that Trump had no plans to step down.
“The main reason for the call was to make sure I knew of him that I wouldn’t start being a third party and that it would be useful to crush any rumors that a third party was starting. And that his political activism or any other role he would have in the future would be with the Republican Party, not as a third party, ”said Cramer.
The calls were first reported by Politico.
But the stakes remain high for Trump, whose legacy is a fierce point of contention in a Republican party that finds its identity after losing the White House and both houses of Congress. Just three weeks after a pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol, Trump’s political position among Republican leaders in Washington remains low.
“I don’t know if he incited him, but it was part of the problem, he said so,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a strong Trump supporter, said when asked about the siege of the Capitol and the related dismissal process.
Tuberville did not say whether he would personally defend Trump at trial, but downplayed the prospect of negative consequences for Republican senators who eventually vote to convict him.
“I don’t think there are repercussions,” Tuberville said. “People will vote the way they feel anyway.”
Trump maintains a solid base of support within the Republican National Committee and in the leadership of the state party, but even there, Republican officials have dared to speak out against him in recent days in ways they did not do before.
In Arizona, Ward, who had Trump’s support, was only re-elected over the weekend, even when the party voted to censor a handful of Republican critics of Trump, including former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain. , the widow of Senator John McCain.
At the same time, the possible removal of Trump provoked a heated dispute within the RNC.
In a private email exchange obtained by The Associated Press, RNC member Demetra DeMonte of Illinois proposed a resolution calling on all Republican senators to oppose what she called a “trial of falsely unconstitutional impeachment, motivated by a radical and reckless democratic majority. “
Bill Palatucci, a Republican committee from New Jersey, slapped.
“His act of insurrection was an attack on our democracy and deserves a dismissal,” Palatucci wrote.
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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.