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US President Donald Trump’s firm grip on Republicans in Washington is beginning to unravel, leaving him more politically isolated than at any other time in his turbulent administration.
After irritating a crowd that later staged a violent siege of the United States Capitol, Trump appears to have lost some of his strongest allies, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Two cabinet members and at least half a dozen aides have resigned. A handful of Congressional Republicans are openly considering whether to join a renewed push for impeachment.
A Republican senator who split with Trump in the past asked her to resign and asked if she would stay in the party.
“I want him out,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Anchorage Daily News. “It has caused quite a bit of damage.”
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The insurrection that followed a resounding electoral defeat in Georgia accomplished what other low points of the Trump presidency failed: forcing Republicans to fundamentally reevaluate their relationship with a leader who long abandoned tradition and decorum.
The result could reshape the party, threatening the influence Trump craves while creating a divide between those in Washington and activists in swaths of the country where the president is especially popular.
AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, finds himself increasingly isolated politically in the wake of the riots on Capitol Hill.
“At this point, I will not defend him further,” said Ari Fleischer, former George W Bush press secretary in the White House and Republican strategist who voted for Trump. “I will not defend him by stirring the pot that incited the crowd. He is alone “.
When the week began, Trump was arguably the most dominant political force in Republican politics and a kingmaker in 2024, if not the next GOP presidential candidate. On Friday, there was a growing feeling that he was tarnished forever and that he could be forced to leave office before his term expires in 12 days.
In the absence of a resignation, calls for a second impeachment on Capitol Hill grew louder on Friday (Saturday, NZT). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would proceed with impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves office “imminently and voluntarily.”
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Trump has lost powerful allies in American politics, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
President-elect Joe Biden is not yet endorsing the effort, suggesting that there is not enough time between now and his January 20 inauguration to seek impeachment or any other constitutional remedy.
“I’m focused now, on us taking control as president and vice president, on the 20th and getting our agenda moving as quickly as possible,” Biden told reporters.
Trump still has a following, especially among the many grassroots Republican voters and conservative activists beyond Washington.
Thursday morning there was loud applause and shouts of “We love you!” when Trump telephoned a Republican National Committee breakfast meeting in Florida.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Washington is cleaning up after the riots and is turning its attention to preparations for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“The vast majority of the committee is in complete denial,” said Republican National Committee member Bill Palatucci of New Jersey, who attended the breakfast. “They are willing to condemn the violence, but without any reference to the role of the president in any of that.”
The president insists that he did nothing wrong. He continues to tell his assistants, at least privately, that his election was stolen. Republican officials in critical battlefield states, their recently deceased attorney general, and a number of judges, including those appointed by Trump, have rejected those claims as unfounded.
Trump had to be persuaded to record the video released Thursday night in which he finally condemned the rioters and acknowledged his defeat in November for the first time, while initially rejecting the prospect of speaking negatively about “my people.”
Andrew Harnik / AP
People take refuge in the gallery of the House as protesters try to break into the House of the House in the United States Capitol on January 6. Five people have died as a result of the chaos.
Finally, he agreed to record the video after White House attorney Pat Cipollone warned that he could face legal danger for inciting the riot. Others, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his daughter Ivanka Trump, urged Trump to send a message that could stifle talks about his forced removal from office, either through impeachment or through constitutional procedures outlined in the 25th Amendment. .
And while Trump acknowledged in the video that a new administration would take over on January 20, he also said Friday that he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration. That makes Trump the first outgoing president since Andrew Johnson 152 years ago to skip the swearing-in of his successor.
Trump has no plans to disappear from the political debate once he leaves office, according to his advisers who believe he remains wildly popular with the Republican base.
For the avoidance of doubt, Trump’s false claims about voter fraud in his November defeat resonated with hundreds of thousands of Republican voters in the Georgia Senate runoff elections this week. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false claim that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to the AP VoteCast, a poll of more than 3,700 voters.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Incoming US President Joe Biden says he has spoken with Utah Senator Mitt Romney.
Top Republican pollster Frank Luntz has had extensive conversations with grassroots voters and Republican officials about Trump’s position since the siege.
“Professionals are fleeing a sinking ship, but their own supporters have not abandoned it, and indeed they want to keep fighting,” Luntz said. “He has become the voice of God to tens of millions of people, and they will follow him to the ends of the earth and over the precipice.”
And because of the continued loyalty of voters, elected officials in dark red areas must also remain loyal to the outgoing president, even if their own cabinet does not. In the hours after this week’s riots, 147 Republicans in Congress still voted to reject Biden’s victory, including eight senators.
Susan Walsh / AP
President-elect Joe Biden will take office in a few days.
The dramatic split in the party is reflected in the divergent paths taken by the early stages of the 2024 Republican presidential outlook.
Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas accepted Trump’s calls to reject Biden’s victory before and after the mob attack. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton resisted Trump’s wishes and received an angry tweet from the president earlier in the week.
Those attacks did not carry as much weight at the end of the week as before, given Trump’s weakened political state. On Thursday, Cotton berated fellow Republicans like Hawley and Cruz, who had given voters “false hope” that Trump’s defeat in November could be reversed.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats appear to be moving forward with a second impeachment trial.
Nikki Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, tried to respect the line by condemning Trump’s actions this week during a closed-door meeting with the Republican National Committee.
He praised some of Trump’s accomplishments, but predicted that “his actions since Election Day will be harshly judged by history.”
Meanwhile, there is no clear path for the Republican Party without Trump. Speaking to reporters on Friday, even Biden expressed concern about the health of the Republican Party.
“We need a Republican Party,” Biden said, noting that he spoke with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a leading critic of Trump. “We need a strong and principled opposition.”
Patrick Semansky / AP
Donald Trump is already speaking privately about a 2024 run for the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump has been hatching ways to retain his political clout once he moves out of the White House to his Florida property, Mar-a-Lago, at the end of the month.
Believing that his followers will stick with him no matter what, he has continued to discuss encouraging primary challenges against Republicans who have not been loyal enough to him.
And he’s hinted publicly and privately that he will likely challenge Biden in a rematch in 2024, though losing his powerful Twitter account, which the company permanently shut down on Friday, could complicate his efforts to rule the Republican party out of fear.
Doug Deason, a Texas-based donor who served on Trump’s campaign finance committee, said this week’s events have done nothing to weaken his confidence in the Republican president.
“He has been the best president of my life, including Reagan,” Deason said.
