Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: He may be down but not out, yet.
A week after Donald Trump left the White House to his successor Joe Biden, the former US President continues to breathe down the neck of both his Republican Party as well as the new Administration.
He may have lost an election, his power of government, and his social media accounts, but none of his fighting spirit nor the funds at his disposal, for which he has been known.
Even at 74, he is pulling the right strings. His support base at the grassroots level remains intact. This has forced his own Grand Old Party’s elected representatives to remain in his tent, willingly or otherwise. As the Democrats-dominated Senate prepares for his second impeachment trial on Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection on the US Congress, most Republicans, fearing backlash from their own support base, are not openly supporting the move.
Only five Republican Senators rejected the challenge to the trial, according to media reports. Even if he made mistakes, the policies Trump followed and the victories he won were too big for the party to leave him alone on the battlefield, they say, hinting at the direction wind is blowing.
“We will be back in some form”, Trump told supporters at a farewell event before he left the White House on January 20 for Florida. He remains hugely popular among Republican voters and is sitting on cash well over $50 million that he could use to prop up primary challenges against his rival Republicans, media reported.
His trial during a second possible impeachment is expected to keep him in the limelight, something Biden does not want for obvious reasons: the 46th President has just begun work, his failures may pile up sooner than expected, which may give Trump a handle to fix him.
Trump’s aides have tried to assure Republicans that he is not currently planning to launch a third party, an idea he has floated, and will instead focus on using his clout in the Republican Party.
So ambivalent the Republican Party is about Trump’s next move that Ronna McDaniel, Chairperson of the Republican National Committee (RNC), on Wednesday, said the GOP would “stay neutral in the next presidential primary.”
“What I really do want to see him do, though, is help us win back majorities in 2022” when the Republicans hope to break the Democrats’ monopoly on Congress since 2020, she said.
Moving forward, she said that voters, not Trump, are the head of the Republican Party, although Trump continues to maintain a huge, huge presence with his base.
But to keep her options open, McDaniel mentioned former Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, as potential 2024 presidential contenders.
She also downplayed reports that Trump is considering leaving the GOP and starting a new party, warning that such a move would divide Republicans and “guarantee Democrat wins up and down the ticket.”