Just two weeks ago, Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy declared Donald Trump guilty in the deadly attack on the US Capitol. On Thursday, he sought political support.
A private meeting between the two men at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort signaled a remarkable turnaround in the former president’s stature among elected Republicans. Immediately after the insurrection, Trump inspired, the idea that he would enjoy any kind of role as king-maker in his post-presidency seemed highly unlikely.
But after an initial wave of condemnation, Republicans appear to be cheering for Trump, fully aware that his supporters are about to punish anyone who shows disloyalty. With that in mind, party leaders are working to keep Trump in the fold while focusing on the resumption of the House and Senate in 2022.
“United and ready to win in 22”, McCarthy tweeted after the meeting. He and Trump issued statements outlining their promise to work together to help Republicans regain control of the House and Senate in 2022.
Realignment with Trump occurs when those who cross him continue to feel the burn. Trump ally Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, spent the day in Wyoming trying to overthrow Rep. Liz Cheney, the House Republican No. 3, who voted to impeach Trump. Amid the reaction, Senate Republicans made it clear this week that they have no intention of condemning Trump.
While Trump tries to exert influence, he is undeniably diminished.
Before inciting his supporters to invade the Capitol, Trump was expected to spend his post-presidency settling accounts with Republican rivals, launching a Twitter-fueled overthrow of his successor and thinking about running again for a second term. Now he is largely isolated and silenced by social media platforms as President Joe Biden tries to dismantle his executive-to-executive agenda.
He has not been seen in public since he disappeared behind the manicured hedges in Mar-a-Lago last Wednesday, half an hour before the end of his presidency. He spent his days consulting with defense advisers and lawyers as he prepared for his historic second impeachment trial.
Things are very different now. Last time, Trump had an army of defenders that included a team of Washington lawyers, a presidential communications store, a taxpayer-funded White House law firm and the constant support of leading Republicans, including the Republican National Committee.
This time, Trump is still struggling to assemble a legal team, with the trial less than two weeks away.
“I think he’s at a significant disadvantage,” said criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s legal team in 2020, but is among the long list of lawyers who are not in this case.
However, even the impeachment trial, once seen as an opportunity for Senate Republicans to expel Trump from the party, preventing him from running for office again, is now being used as a rallying cry to rally the party against Democrats . Instead of debating whether he is guilty of “deliberately inciting violence against the United States government,” Republicans attacked the process, arguing that it is unconstitutional to try a president who has already left the White House.
“At a time when our country needs to come together, Democrats in Congress are reshaping the same strategy they’ve used over the past four years: overtaking for political reasons that will divide us even more,” said Republican National Committee President Ronna McDaniel in a statement this came after heated internal divisions over whether the group should publicly criticize Trump for inciting the riot.
In an interview, McDaniel refused to criticize the five Republican senators who voted this week to move ahead with the trial. But she said “it is more important to look at the 45 who said this is ridiculous”.
In addition to the trial, Trump gradually began to return to public conversation, firing press releases from the political committee he created before leaving the White House.
“He’s decompressing. He has a legal team he’s trying to organize and he just needs to keep doing what he’s doing, ”said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally in Congress who has helped Trump raise a legal team after several companies punished .
“I think there is an adjustment,” said Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union and another Trump ally.
Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, insisted it is “too early” to discuss the president’s impeachment strategy and the post-presidential political operation that should include former White House political director Brian Jack and ex-campaign manager Trump, Bill Stepien.
“We had discussions about where we want to be active in relation to the 2022 midterms and how we helped Republicans win back the Senate and the House,” said Miller, but Trump has not yet decided whether to get involved in the primary races to challenge the Republicans who voted against it.
After these members faced an intense reaction from Trump supporters, Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for an attempt to reject their second impeachment trial.
“I think it’s pretty clear that Republican voters are strongly opposed to impeachment and Republicans who vote for impeachment do so at their own risk,” said Miller.
Despite the Capitol rebellion, polls show that Trump remains deeply popular with Republican voters – many of whom now consider themselves more in line with him than with the party.
“It is not so much Trump that they are trying to embrace. It is the Trump base that they are trying to embrace, ”said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. “I think Trump’s departure left a huge vacuum. He was the one thing that brought Republicans together more than anything. I mean, the Republican Party became the Trump Party for four years. And without him leading, there is an obvious power vacuum, and I think you are seeing this happening now in Congress. “
The question is whether Trump’s influence will last. The internal divisions that his team is fostering could hamper the party’s quest to resume Congress. And it is not clear whether he can transfer his personal popularity to other candidates when he is not on the ballot. Republicans lost control of the House in 2018 and withdrew from the Senate this month despite a last-minute call from Trump.
Graham, who stated just this month that he broke up with Trump – “All I can say is tell me. It is enough. “- He has since underlined the importance of keeping the party together.
“I want to make sure that the Republican Party can grow and come back, and we are going to need Trump and Trump needs us,” he told reporters.
As for the Republicans who vote to condemn Trump, “I think it depends on the state you are in and what stage of your career you are in,” he joked.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.