For their future, the Republicans are turning to Trump

After 100 days for Biden, Republicans are turning their attention to Trump as their next presidential candidate.

AFP

Nearly 100 days after Joe Biden took office as President of the United States, his predecessor Donald Trump remains a powerful player in the Republican Party and a potential spoiler in the 2024 presidential election.

Well-established at Mar-a-Lago, his opulent Florida resort, the billionaire Republican has recently sent a flurry of press releases to express his views on issues such as immigration and his party's political future.

He's been using this tactic to attack Republicans who haven't backed up his claims that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."

The real estate magnate lends his support to conservative candidates, including those who defy the establishment's edicts, and builds his base by criticizing Biden and the Democrats, whom he calls "radicals."

Donald Trump, who had been banned from Twitter for good, reappeared last week on the conservative Fox News channel for an appearance in which he said he had been accused of wrongdoing before Congress despite the fact that he had done "nothing wrong."

After the billionaire's departure from power, Republicans have flocked to Mar-a-Lago to seek his advice and support.

Upon his return to civilian life, the former commandant in chief must now deal with a slew of legal issues, including financial investigations and potential charges of tax evasion and bank fraud.

For the time being, Donald Trump shows no signs of wanting to get rid of the projectors.

In late February, the septuagenarian made a triumphant return to CPAC, the annual conservative meeting, where he made it clear that he would continue to represent the Republican Party's future.

Since losing the presidency and the Senate, and failing to retake the House of Representatives, Donald Trump left the White House with a 34 percent approval rating, the lowest of his presidency, and left behind a Republican Party in a worse electoral spot.

However, it remains a power that some politicians neglect at their peril and risk.

«Does it represent just a branch of the Republican Party, or is it a powerful force?», asks Elaine Kamarck, a Brookings Institution researcher who studies the American presidency, in an interview with AFP.

In the context of a possible new presidential campaign in 2024, she and other analysts are keeping a close eye on those battles in the primaries where Trump's dominance could be tested.

«If there are fewer primaries, politicians who experience this type of thing can conclude that it isn't as alarming as it appears], says Elaine Kamarck.

«And if he wins them, he'll be a power to be reckoned with,» she said.

Dissensions within the Republican Party are rife, and in the aftermath of the milliardaire's partisans' assassination of the Capitol on January 6, some Republican leaders want the party to distance itself from Trump and trumpism.

Liz Cheney, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, has sent an alert to her colleagues, urging them to reject the idea of a personality cult, especially in light of the events of January 6. In response, Donald Trump said that he would support any conservative candidate who ran in 2022 against the re-election of Wyoming's governor.

However, through the efforts of some elected officials to silence the party's more extreme voices, those voices continue to be heard.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Democrat, gave a speech at a rally called «America First» («l'Amérique d'abord», a motto used by Donald Trump), in which she reaffirmed her support for the ex-president and his allegations of electoral fraud.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the most prominent Trump supporters, and she is fighting with some of his supporters to have the billionaire represent the Republican Party in the presidential election of 2024, or if not him, one of his acolytes, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

According to Elaine Kamarck, Republicans are locked in an internal struggle between "pro-Trump" and "anti-Trump," with those inside the party "hiding and hoping not to be labeled in one faction or the other."

«We'll know more in 2022 about how powerful (Donald Trump) is,» the researcher concludes.

Source: AFP