Donald Trump’s meltdown on Thursday proved, once again, he’s got no interest in supporting the party that, at every turn, has allowed itself to be co-opted by his lies and temper tantrums.
What more proof do GOP leaders who have chosen the easy route of sycophancy — we’re talking to you, Sen. Marco Rubio, and others — need to drop the guy who’s looking more like an anchor rather than a life raft for Republicans?
Trump had no interest in helping a “red wave” materialize this midterm election. His priority was ensuring election deniers won Republican primaries with his endorsement. While some of those candidates won general elections in conservative-leaning states, they underperformed in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Michigan in a rebuke to the anti-democratic forces he’s unleashed.
In Arizona, election deniers lost U.S. Senate and secretary of state races, and another was in a tight race for governor in this once-red stronghold. In Nevada, a former attorney general who helped lead Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 results was defeated in a close Senate contest.
The GOP’s leader, averse to self-reflection, didn’t want to accept his share of the blame for a lackluster Election Day. Trump released a Thursday statement that’s Exhibit A for his narcissism and self-delusion. He called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had a stellar election night, disloyal and an “average Republican governor with great public relations.” DeSantis is rumored to be seeking the presidency in 2024. Polling shows him receiving the second-most support after Trump in a hypothetical GOP presidential primary.
“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future,’” Trump scoffed. “Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
This comes on the heels of Trump telling a crowd in Pennsylvania this month: “We’re winning big, big, big in the Republican Party for the nomination like nobody’s ever seen before.
“There it is — Trump at 71. Ron DeSanctimonious at 10%.”
Those are the words of a man stewing in anger, jealousy and insecurity — fearful that he’s been out-Trumped by the man he lifted to stardom with an endorsement in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary. DeSantis has remained silent, as those with the upper hand can afford to do.
The stars seemed aligned in Republicans’ favor leading up to Tuesday. President Joe Biden faced low approval ratings, inflation and high gas prices, there’s fear of a recession and a tradition that the party in power loses badly during midterms. Republicans are favored to retake the U.S. House, but by smaller margins than anticipated, and Democrats secured control of the Senate on Saturday.
Trump’s instinct when faced with defeat and criticism is to deny reality and lash out so his millions of supporters turn against his target du jour. It will be hard to dethrone the GOP’s cult leader when he continues to enthrall so many party base voters. Yet some Republicans are saying publicly what they used to only say privately out of fear: It’s time to jump the Trump ship.
Some will continue to kiss the ring and hope the former president outperforms expectations in 2024. After all, he survived “Grab them by the p----,” two impeachments, accusations of sexual misconduct and countless scandals and investigations. He could very well do it again. In Florida, an important swing state that has turned redder with every recent election cycle, the Trump brand remains strong. In 2020, he carried the state by a wider margin than in 2016 and grew his support among Miami-Dade County’s Hispanic voters.
At the same time, it’s unheard of that, as The New York Times reported last week, some Trump allies are urging him to delay his expected presidential bid announcement. They want him to wait until after the December Georgia runoff. Trump-endorsed candidate and former football star Herschel Walker under-performed compared to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who rejected Trump’s 2020 election lies. Kemp easily won reelection.
Republicans know that whenever Trump, or his proxies, are on the ballot, Democrats can make elections about him, and not about their own performance.
Trump beat the unpopular Hillary Clinton in 2016 only to face big losses in the 2018 midterms. He couldn’t hold the White House in 2020, even though Republicans overall performed better in down-ballot races. He sunk two GOP candidates in a 2021 Georgia U.S. Senate runoff that flipped control of the chamber to Democrats. In 2022, he’s again facing blame for the GOP’s performance.
He will continue to blame somebody else for what’s clear to many. Embracing his toxic, divisive and anti-democratic style of politics got Republicans short-term gains. It turned this nation upside down and level-headed people into conspiracy theorists.
Perhaps the GOP will reach a point when they drop Trump not for the sake of the nation — we lost all hope that will ever be the case — but out of political survival. We just hope that doesn’t happen too late for America.
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