President Donald Trump may struggle to overcome challenges posed by Iran or secure a win against the Democrats this coming November, but on Tuesday, he demonstrated his ability to outmaneuver his own Republican Party.
As the President’s political team takes a celebratory round on X, one might wonder: Do they truly regard this as the triumph it appears to be?
Candidates endorsed by Trump succeeded in advancing in the Senate and gubernatorial races in Georgia and Alabama. Congressman Andy Barr, a supporter of Trump’s MAGA agenda, leveraged the President’s endorsement to compete for the Kentucky Senate seat currently held by Mitch McConnell. Moreover, in what became the most closely watched and costly House race to date, Trump’s chosen candidate, Ed Gallrein—an ex-Navy SEAL, farmer, and political newcomer—defeated seasoned Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie.
Massie, a seven-term House representative, had built a reputation as a libertarian icon and frequent critic of Trump. Recently, he has spoken out against the Iran conflict, questioned America’s alliance with Israel, and accused the White House of concealing sensitive information regarding Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliates spending over $9 million to unseat Massie, the narrative pushed by Massie and his newfound Democratic supporters, as well as the mainstream media, does not hold water. AIPAC didn’t determine the outcome of this race.
Trump did.
Tuesday’s run of White House victories comes after a broader conquest that should make even hardened anti-Trump Republicans admit that this man still runs the GOP with the dominance of a newly minted president elected in a landslide.
Trump has not merely influenced the Republican Party. He has repo’d it.
Massie (pictured at May 19 concession speech) has rallied against the Iran war, America’s alliance with Israel and accused the White House of withholding damaging government files on Jeffrey Esptein
Trump’s handpicked candidate, a farmer, former Navy SEAL and political neophyte Ed Gallrein (pictured), dispatched veteran Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie
Recent Trump wins in Indiana’s legislature, redistricting advances blessed by the Supreme Court, successes in Virginia and South Carolina and the dispatching of Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, in Saturday’s GOP primary, all point in the same direction.
More than a decade after gliding down the golden escalator in Trump Tower, this president remains the one Republican figure capable of vaporizing (or rescuing) careers with a single social media post.
Republican politicians – many of whom have spent years assuring donors, reporters, spouses, and bartenders that ‘the fever will break’ – now operate as vassals nervously awaiting word from the king’s hunting lodge. Those who don’t yield to the Trumpian feudal system usually get sent into early retirement.
There are no meaningful ideological factions anymore inside the GOP. There are merely levels of proximity to Trump. The old Republican establishment keeps discovering this the hard way.
Every cycle, someone emerges believing there remains a constituency for old school, Chamber of Commerce-style, donor-friendly, low-drama Republicanism with tax cuts, entitlement caution, and a fondness for Aspen conferences. Every cycle, that candidate ends up politically taxidermied.
Senator John Cornyn may join the display case next.
The President stomped all over the wishes of the Senate Republican establishment on Tuesday by endorsing Texas attorney general (and scandal magnet) Ken Paxton over the incumbent Cornyn in their May 26 primary run-off. The winner will go on to face Democratic nominee James Talarico in the general election.
Paxton v. Talarico is a match-up that Dems are salivating over.
Trump is following his head, his heart… and his own counsel.
Texas could now indeed become competitive. Georgia certainly could. North Carolina, where Trump chose the party’s Senate candidate, looks doomed.
The President stomped all over the wishes of the Senate Republican establishment on Tuesday by endorsing Texas attorney general Ken Paxton (Pictured: Senate Majority Leader John Thune on May 19)
Paxton v Talarico is a match-up that Dems are salivating over (Pictured: Trump and Ken Paxton)
Texas could now indeed become competitive. Georgia certainly could. North Carolina, where Trump chose the party’s Senate candidate, looks doomed (Pictured: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico)
Mark Halperin is the editor-in-chief and host of the interactive live video platform 2WAY and the host of the video podcast ‘Next Up’ on the Megyn Kelly network
A Trump-backed primary winner is often excellent at winning Republican primaries, but that appeal does not always translate to suburban general elections where voters do not consume politics as blood sport, where independent women tend to regard chaos the way normal people regard a kitchen fire and where everyone detests high prices for gas and food.
When the microphones are safely tucked away, Republicans that I speak with fret about GOP candidate quality, the toxic political climate created by the Iran conflict and Trump’s cruddy poll standing.
The President also complicates the fragile balance of power in Washington, DC.
Senator Cassidy, now liberated from any remaining obligation to appease Trump voters back home, could become a genuine headache for the White House agenda. He joined four other Republicans and nearly every single Democrat on Tuesday to advance a resolution that would end the Iran war unless Trump obtains Congressional approval. The measure has little hope of final passage, but it’s another blow to the President, even as his approval rating slumps.
If Senator Cornyn loses his run-off election against Paxton, then he, too, becomes a free agent with little reason to spend his remaining political life carrying Trump’s water uphill.
Recent Trump wins and the dispatching of Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy (pictured), in Saturday’s GOP primary, all point in the same direction
MAGA-friendly Congressman Andy Barr (pictured) rode Trump’s endorsement in the race to replace Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell
Senate history is full of wounded incumbents suddenly discovering ‘institutional concerns’ once they no longer fear the electorate.
In practical terms, the President’s grip on Republican primary voters remains one of the most formidable forces in American politics. No modern Republican president has enjoyed this level of sustained emotional authority over his party’s base. Not Reagan. Not Bush.
The question now is not whether Trump owns the Republican Party. The question is whether owning the Republican Party is enough to win everything else.
As always with Trump, the answer is mutable and fluid: let’s see how this one plays out.
