PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) – Donald Trump has lost his megaphone on social media, the power of the government and the unequivocal support of his party’s elected leaders. But a week after leaving the White House in disgrace, a large-scale Republican apostasy that would eventually remove him from the party seems unlikely.
Many Republicans refuse to publicly defend Trump’s role in the deadly uprising at the US Capitol. But while the Senate is preparing for an indictment for Trump’s incitement to riot, few seem willing to hold the former president accountable.
After the Republicans of the House, who supported his accusation, suffered an intense setback – and Trump’s lieutenants indicated that the same fate would befall others who joined them – Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly. Tuesday for an attempt to fire his second indictment. Only five Republican senators have rejected the challenge of the trial.
Trump’s conviction was seen as a real possibility a few days ago after lawmakers whose lives were threatened by the mob weighed the appropriate consequences – and the future of their party. But the Senate vote Tuesday is a sign that while Trump may be taken into account in the wake of the riots, much of the Republicans are keen to cross over to his supporters, who still hold the majority of the party’s voters are.
“The political winds within the Republican Party have been blowing in the opposite direction,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a Trump ally. ‘Republicans have decided that even if one believes he made mistakes after the November and January 6 elections, the policies that Trump advocated, and the victories he achieved from judges to direct rebates to tax cuts , was too big to allow the party to leave him on the battlefield. ”
The vote comes after Trump, who pulled off his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last week, began to retreat into politics between rounds of golf. He took an early step in the race for the governor of Arkansas by endorsing former White House assistant Sarah Huckabee Sanders and supporting Kelli Ward, an ally who, after his approval, was re-elected chairman of Arizona’s Republican Party. won it.
At the same time, Trump’s team gave allies an informal blessing for the campaign against the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of the indictment.
Nadat mnr. Peter Meijer, Michigan, backed the accusation, Republican Tom Norton announced a primary challenge. Norton appeared on Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s longtime podcast in an effort to increase contributions to the campaign.
On Thursday, another Trump loyalist, Rep. Matt Gaetz, to travel to Wyoming to condemn Home State Representative Liz Cheney, a leader of the GOP of the House, who said after the riot in the Capitol that ‘there has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the. United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. ”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. – a star with Trump’s loyal base – encouraged Gaetz on social media and took calls to remove Cheney from the House leadership.
Trump remains adamant with Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has refused to support Trump’s false allegations that the election in Georgia was fraudulent. Kemp could be re-elected in 2022, and Trump has suggested that former Representative Doug Collins take action against him.
The decision by Republican Senator Rob Portman in Ohio not to try 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 of whom support the former president much less, are also considering running.
Trump’s continued involvement in national politics so shortly after his departure points to a dramatic breakup of former presidents, who have usually stepped out of the spotlight at least temporarily. Former President Barack Obama was spotted surfing kite surfing with billionaire Richard Branson on vacation shortly after leaving office, and former President George W. Bush began painting.
Trump, longing for the media spotlight, was never expected to leave the public eye.
“We’ll be back in some form,” he told supporters during a farewell event before leaving for Florida. But exactly what form it will take is a work in progress.
Trump remains very popular with Republican voters and puts in a large pot of cash – more than $ 50 million – that he can use to tackle the primary challenges against Republicans who supported his accusation or refused his failed attempts to get the election results to challenge, to support. false allegations of mass voter fraud in states like Georgia.
“POTUS told me after the election that he was going to be very involved,” said Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union. ‘I think he’s going to stay engaged. He’s going to keep communicating. He will continue to express his opinions. I think it’s great, and I encouraged him to do it. ”
Aides says he also plans to dedicate himself to reclaiming the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022. But for now, they say their sights are on the trial.
“We’re getting ready for an indictment – that’s really the focus,” said Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Trump aide has also been trying for the past few days to reassure Republicans that he is not currently planning to launch a third party – an idea he has driven – and rather focus on his influence in the Republican Party to use.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said he received a call at home on Saturday from Brian Jack, the former White House political director, to assure him that Trump has no plans to disappear.
‘The main reason for the call was to make sure I knew from him that he was not starting a third party, and that I would be helpful in rumors that he was starting a third party. “And that his political activism or whatever role he would play going forward would be with the Republican Party, not as a third party,” Cramer said.
The calls were first reported by Politico.
But the stakes remain high for Trump, whose legacy is a point of contention in a Republican Party struggling with his identity after losing the White House and both chambers of Congress. Only three weeks after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Trump’s political position among Republican leaders in Washington remains low.
“I do not know if he incited it, but he was part of the problem, put it this way,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville, a strong Trump supporter, when asked about the siege of the Capitol and its allies. indictment.
Tuberville did not say whether he would personally defend Trump in the trial, but he underestimated the prospect of negative consequences for the Republican senators who eventually voted to convict him.
“I do not think there will be consequences,” Tuberville said. “People are going to vote anyway how they feel.”
Trump maintains a strong base of support within the Republican National Committee and in the leadership of state parties, but even there, Republican officials in recent days have dared to speak out against him in ways they have not done before.
In Arizona, Ward, who had Trump’s support, was narrowly re-elected over the weekend, even as the party voted to condemn a handful of Trump’s Republican critics, including former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain.
At the same time, Trump’s prospective accusation sparked a bitter 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 every Republican senator to oppose what she calls an “unconstitutional indictment” of accusation, motivated by a radical and reckless democratic majority. “
Bill Palatucci, a Republican committee from New Jersey, struck back.
“His act of rebellion was an attack on our democracy and deserves accusation,” Palatucci wrote.
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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press author Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.