According to three people familiar with the planning, Trump will soon begin judging candidates on Mar-a-Lago who are eager to fulfill his promise to take revenge on the current Republicans who despised him, and for every open GOP- to secure a seat in 2022. midterms has a MAGA-approved competitor competing for it.
Trump has already received dozens of requests from prospective candidates who want to introduce themselves and get his approval, and formal meetings with them could begin as early as March. Now that Trump has survived his second Senate prosecution trial, he has shifted his focus to post-presidential activism – a venture funded mostly by his new leadership, Save America, which raised $ 31 million in its earlier this month. had closet.
Earlier this week, Trump met with his former campaign manager Brad Parscale to discuss online fundraising events to support his efforts and how he can leverage social media despite his ban on popular sites like Twitter. Trump also met with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) And his eldest son Don Jr. earlier this week.
“We are putting together a more formal schedule for candidates who want to come and approve,” said senior Trump adviser Jason Miller, noting that Trump’s meetings so far have been limited to golf friends, members of Mar-a-Lago. and “people with the ability to contact him himself.”
Planning for Trump’s upcoming revenge campaign comes as other top Republicans try to encourage him to work with the party’s apparatus ahead of next year’s midterm elections, rather than recruiting rival candidates whose candidacies could complicate the primary election and can cost the critical seats of the IDP. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) is expected to meet with Trump over the weekend to discuss his upcoming plans, including the former president’s desire to be reformed at a time when the topic of electoral integrity is a major rift among elected Republicans.
Others in Trump’s lane encouraged him to wait and see if the Republicans who crossed him and will fall again next fall, such as governments. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Brian Kemp of Georgia, try a peace offer before embarking on a serious search for potential primary challengers.
‘I’m more worried about 2022 than I ever was. “I do not want to eat our own,” Graham told Fox News on the heels of a scathing statement released by Trump this week accusing Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Of running GOP candidates endangered by his’ lack of political insight, wisdom, skill and personality. ”
In the statement, Trump promised to recruit rebellious candidates “putting America America Again and our policies of America first” wherever he feels such challenges are needed. The former president has already set his sights on representing Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican of House no. 3, and Fred Upton of Michigan, to resign if he were to retire. Both Cheney and Upton voted to accuse Trump after the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Rep. Peter Meijer, a second Michigan congressman who voted for accusation, is already facing a primary challenger to an Afghanistan veteran and self-proclaimed Trump supporter.
Whether Graham can become a team player of the bitter former president largely depends on who Trump still has contact with, and how often. He still talks weekly with his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and still seeks advice from a number of former assistants and political confidants whose appetite for revenge and contempt for the political institution reflects his own. Trump recently hosted former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former campaign advisers Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie for dinner, all of whom remain influential contenders within the MAGA movement.
‘If you’re Trump, you don’ t have to play with these people anymore. “You do not have to do the whole fake political thing where you pretend to like people you do not really like,” a person close to the president said, suggesting that Trump is unlikely to seek feedback from Republicans who do not his approach does not agree.
Some Republican Republicans have urged party leaders to tread carefully as they try to distance themselves from Trump’s party while remaining extraordinarily popular among GOP voters. A POLITICO / Morning Consult poll conducted after Trump’s acquittal in the Senate found that nearly six out of ten Republican voters want him to maintain a powerful role in the party.
“A Republican party that wants to wipe out President Trump and does not understand his appeal to working class voters is doomed to lose elections in 2022, 2024 and beyond,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Chairman of the Conservative Republican Study. Committee, tweeted on Wednesday.
So far, Trump’s support has gone to two of his trusted allies, Arizona Republican Party chairwoman Kelli Ward, who received a notable approval for her re-election offer, and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. a candidate for governor of Arkansas who received a glowing stamp of approval via his Save America PAC. Since then, he has used the political arm to bash McConnell, share a ballot box calling for his popularity and give a lecture at his recent meeting with Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House of Minorities.
He refrained from approving other Trumpian candidates who had already taken part in races, and instead waited to introduce a series of endorsements later this spring and summer, according to a person familiar with the timeline.
In the meantime, it seems that Trump is enjoying moving on to his life after the presidency. According to assistants, he rejoiced at the newsletter that made his rare statements, but otherwise spends his days like many of his wealthy Palm Beach counterparts: catching up on the news, calling, making leisurely meals and hitting the golf course with friends.
“He really does what all the other guys his age do with that kind of net worth,” a Florida Republican operating relative close to the Trump family said. But then, according to the person, Trump was spotted on his golf course with Kid Rock on Wednesday.