Trump’s Looming Influence Over the Republican Party Is Bound To Create More Disaster
Which GOP leader(s) will tell Donald Trump he’s sending their party to a huge disaster in November?
Tuesday, Democrat Tom Suozzi decisively won back the House seat that Republican George Santos disgraced. It’s just the latest of many flashing warning signs that Americans have had enough of the self-pitying old man who can’t tell Nikki Haley from Nancy Pelosi and falsely claims that he won all 50 states in 2020.
This year and last, voters elected many other Democrats and approved initiatives that the Dems favor — and the Republicans oppose — especially on women’s healthcare rights. The more Trump brags about appointing the trio of Supreme Court justices whose votes, for the first time in our history, took away a right and made women second-class citizens, the more he ensures that a majority of women will vote against not just Trump, but those who back his misogyny.
Should Democrats retain the White House and Senate while acquiring a House majority, expect to see America move quickly away from the white supremacy that was always a part of Reaganism and that forms the heart of its evil spawn, Trumpism.
Donald’s constant begging for small donations to pay his not-very-good lawyers is sucking up a huge share of what Republican small donors can give. Several state party organizations are basically broke. The Michigan GOP began last year with almost $2 million in the bank but ended with less than $250,000, pocket change for a state political party. The Arizona Republican Party was down to $14,800 last fall. And just last month, Trump backed out of attending an Arizona GOP fundraiser to avoid one of the many fights and scandals tearing the state party apart.
The Republican National Committee was riding high in late 2016 after Trump won the Electoral College. It had almost $22 million in cash, but a cash flow drought shrank that down to just $8 million.
Mandatory Trial Attendance
Civil judgments and the four criminal cases will keep Donald tied up for months. That means he won’t be able to bounce around the country campaigning in the late summer and fall.
His campaign to delay his four criminal trials is fading. His delay, delay and delay strategy will now hurt his campaign. That is because, by law, every criminal defendant must be present for every single second of trial proceedings. Running for president is no excuse. Trump will show up at trial, or he will be taken into custody and made to show up. His campaigning would be limited to daily television appearances after court and traveling on weekends.
Conviction in any of the criminal cases, surveys show, will doom his candidacy. People who are soft Trump supporters will run away if he is a felon, pollsters report. In all four jurisdictions, the evidence of guilt is overwhelming — and his defenses are very limited.
And what will happen to his claim that he’s a multibillionaire if he can’t come up with the money to appeal the second E. Jean Carroll defamation award, the case where she won $83.8 million in actual and punitive damages? I doubt he’s got the resources to post the full amount and doubt even more that he can get a financial institution to post a bond. Who would take on such a risky financing scheme?
Cash-Poor Republicans
Meanwhile, the cash-poor Republicans just sabotaged their own Mexican border bill to placate Trump’s losing campaign. And on Saturday, Donald essentially invited Vladimir Putin to attack more countries in Europe. Neither of those will sit well with the majority of Americans. He also completely bollixed how NATO functions.
Winners build out from their base, creating alliances with a widening mix of voters. Not Trump. He focuses on his base, pushing away people who don’t give up their political souls to submit to his petty wants and unpredictable whims.
Sticking with Donald is political malpractice. The price for that malpractice will be huge come fall if Republicans continue bowing down to the con man who courts religious leaders while acting as a perfect example of blasphemy and also claiming to be a savior.
A half-century ago, three Republican Congressional leaders told Richard Nixon that he had to resign. Nixon then did the right thing, saving his party from what could’ve been years of devastating losses.
Who, if anyone, among today’s Republican leaders, has the integrity — and the clout — to tell Donald he needs to withdraw or the Democrats will romp in the fall?
Trump Malarky
Trump doesn’t care about anyone but himself. But being president with the opposing party in charge of both the House and Senate he would get little done and could see his executive powers severely constrained.
Last year I wrote that should Donald realize all is lost — that he’ll be trounced in fall voting — he might pull out on his own just to avoid humiliation. Don’t be surprised if Trump tells MAGA to stay home, claiming that the voting system is rigged, malarkey that his gullible acolytes may swallow.
Trump has become so delusional in the past few years, his mind so deeply confused about events, times and places, that he may just blunder on to November 5.
Should that happen, the upside would be a major and beneficial course correction for America.
For nine years, Trump has made bigotry, hatred and revenge the defining characteristics of the Grand Old Party. Should Democrats retain the White House and Senate while acquiring a House majority, expect to see our government move quickly away from the white supremacy that was always a part of Reaganism and that now forms the heart of its soulless evil spawn, Trumpism.