Walking the crooked and narrow path
“We’ve reached the part of the campaign where Trump destroys Nikki Haley’s career and she then thanks him for it,” LOLGOP (Jason Sattler) posted this morning at Blue Sky. The former South Carolina governor has gained ground on Donald Trump in recent polling but has checked herself from launching direct attacks against TFG.
Politico’s Burgess Everett is also pondering the how swiftly 2024 Republican presidential also-rans and other Republican Trump critics will have their come-to-Donald moments. With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary held within the month, it will happen faster than the demon made Linda Blair’s head spin.
Trump has already contacted Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) about an endorsement. Hoeven had endorsed fellow North Dakotan Gov. Doug Burgum before Burgham dropped out:
The Hoeven call shows how Trump’s campaign for Capitol endorsements is accelerating as he nears the first GOP nominating contest in Iowa. He won five endorsements from Republican senators during December alone, after snagging just three of them over the preceding four months. So far, Trump’s secured 18 endorsements from the Senate GOP, a group that ranges from establishment-minded Republicans to confrontational conservatives who will be vocal allies if he wins another term.
That success winning over the Hill GOP was hardly guaranteed — and comes just three years after Trump mounted a public campaign to overturn his 2020 loss that’s gotten him indicted on dozens of criminal charges. But a combination of behind-the-scenes courtships like that of Hoeven and the growing feeling of inevitability that Trump will win the nomination is peeling off Republican senators who might otherwise have longed for a new, less divisive standard-bearer. These days, many in the GOP see only upside to early support for Trump.
Haley was once Trump’s U.N. ambassador. Perhaps she imagines a promotion in a second Trump administration if she plays nice.
His recent converts include freshman Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who initially said her RNC job precluded an endorsement before endorsing Trump in December, as well as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who led a challenge to Trump’s 2020 defeat by President Joe Biden.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the second senator to endorse Trump in his 2024 bid, said the growing tide of pro-Trump senators signals that the former president’s path to the nomination is now “more clear” than ever in the days before Republicans cast their first ballots.
Graham’s head has been in a dark place for years. There was never any question how much farther up he would go.
There may be GOP holdouts, Everett explains. Republicans not facing reelection this year, for example. And men like Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The Senate minority leader secured his power long before Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) claims he will remain neutral until Republicans have selected their candidate, then offer his enthusiastic support.
There will remain only a handful of critics. Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah or Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, for example. The rest will fall in line behind Trump, however malodorous that position may be.
“He’s a weak human being,” former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger notes. What does that say about his supporters, especially elected “leaders,” that they will debase themselves to join Trump’s fraternity?
“That strength among Republican primary voters has always been there,” said Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, a Trump supporter who is running for governor. “A lot of this is [senators] seeing what folks are telling them back home.”
Trump’s elected and unelected supporters want to rule. As much as they want to be ruled. It is no accident that his evangelical supporters were raised from childhood to long for the return of their risen king. Shy of getting Him, they’ll settle.
Update: They’re falling in line.
Republican loyalty to Trump, rioters climbs in 3 years after Jan. 6 attack