A wave of Republican support for a possible Trump 2024 run for president proves how broken the GOP truly is, and how Trumpism is here to stay.
I wrote back in July about how Trump and Trumpism is here to stay regardless of how the election turned out, and I was written off by the Cult of Trump as just another never-Trump conservative too blind to see that he had saved the Republican Party and, as a result, America herself.
Many of the lazy, so-called conservative sycophants who wasted the past four years fighting to save Trump and the Republican Party because “socialist Democrats are worse” also told me that my #neverTrump and #neverGOP approach to conservatism was a waste of time. “Some day, Trump will be gone,” they often told me, and when that day comes, Republicans will be forced to get their act together.
They’re wrong for two major reasons.
To begin with, Trump isn’t responsible for the GOP’s demise. Republicans have been self-destructing under the “leadership” of Mitch McConnell for a long time; Trump is just the end result of that destruction. To say the Republican Party will change after Trump is gone is to ignore how it was responsible for him becoming President in the first place.
Next, it’s simply a fact that Trump’s Republican Party has adopted the far-left’s socialist ideology and created a new conservative agenda under a Nationalist banner. Trump’s rebranded conservatism has become the identity of the Republican Party, and it will remain long after he’s gone.
One example of this reality I often refer to is Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a rising leader in the Republican Party who is considered presidential material by many — Rush Limbaugh recently gave Hawley his unofficial endorsement for 2024.
Hawley’s Nationalist credentials are well-established. You may recall that was a speaker at last year’s National Conservatism Conference (NCC) where he gave a speech that could have easily been given by Bernie Sanders. In the name of this new conservatism, he attacked the “powerful upper class and their cosmopolitan priorities,” and called for “a new consensus” to address the “discontent of our time.”
However, when it comes to Trump 2024, the Josh Hawleys of the Republican Party appear to be willing to put their presidential ambitions on hold because the party doesn’t appear ready to let go of Trumpism just yet.
Politico.com is reporting that Trump’s stranglehold on his rebranded Republican Party is so strong that if he decides to run again in 2024 as he has indicated he might, he will enjoy plenty of support on Capitol Hill — even from some of the Republicans who are considering a run of their own.
“If he were to run in 2024, I think he would be the nominee. And I would support him doing that,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “He’d have a lot of support out in the country.”
“It’d be great if he ran. He’s done a good job. I think he ought to run if he wants to run. Who knows what’s going to happen in ‘24?” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said he is not focused on a presidential run at the moment. “He can sell the things he accomplished.”
Still, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of Trump’s fiercest allies on Capitol Hill, said Trump “should run and would have the support of the party.”
“The president is very popular in the Republican Party, and he would be very tough to beat,” added Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the incoming chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“I would encourage him to keep that option open. I would personally support him if he did,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who ripped Trump while running in the 2016 GOP primary and then became a close ally. “Most Republicans believe he’s done a very good job and that his presidency from a conservative’s point of view has been very consequential.”
“If President Trump runs in ‘24, I support it. That will be his decision, he’s come off a tough election,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who added that most congressional Republicans would be likely to back Trump.
“The country benefited tremendously from the first four years of President Trump and it would benefit tremendously by a second four-year term from President Trump,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who said she hopes Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election is successful. “People in Tennessee are very enthusiastic about a second Trump term.”
Republicans have expressed little reservation about putting their support behind the freshly-defeated candidate in their effort to win back the White House, arguing Trump has defied the odds — and the polls — once before.
“Here you have a gentleman that won in 2016 and then in 2020, he not only outperforms, but overperforms by 15 million votes? That’s unheard of,” said conservative Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who noted Trump won a larger share of Black voters than he did in 2016. Trump, of course, also bled support in the suburbs — including in Arizona and Georgia, states Democrats hadn’t won in decades.
If Trump fails in his bogus attempt to invalidate the 2020 election — and assuming he doesn’t steal the election by suspending the Constitution and declaring martial law — he’s already indicated he will run again in 2024. If he does run, Trumpists in Trump’s bought-and-paid for Republican Party are ready to support him. But even if Trump chooses not to run in 2024, there’s already an army of nationalist Republicans ready to run on a Trump 2.0 platform — all of the Trumpism without the baggage that comes from being Trump.
Regardless of who runs on the Republican ticket, the party that destroyed conservatism to embrace Trumpism will continue completing the socialist agenda of the far left.
As long as there’s a Republican Party, Trump and Trumpism will be with us long after he’s out of office. And if the party has its way, it will be back in the White House in 2024 regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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