After his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump is attempting to establish complete control over the Republican Party as a precursor to the strongman government he envisions for his potential second term.
Nikki Haley is being coerced by the former president to drop out of the GOP presidential contest. He is threatening to exclude donors who make contributions to the previous governor of South Carolina. After just two nominating contests, Trump’s supporters attempted to shock the Republican National Committee by announcing him as the front-runner. However, Trump later withdrew the effort out of fear that it might backfire, according to his associates.
In order to deny President Joe Biden a triumph and guarantee that he can take advantage of the border issue during the campaign trail, the 45th president is currently exerting pressure on Republican members of Congress to veto an immigration agreement. As he compels the party to bow before him, as he did during his four years in the White House, Trump has also been browbeating old rivals and influential GOP figures to swiftly embrace him.
Trump’s quick declaration of his increasing influence as the front-runner is a typical breakdown of limitations reminiscent of his conduct in government. During his one term, which came to an end when he attempted to rig an election in which voters had removed him from office, he was impeached twice. It is consistent with Trump’s self-constructed image of himself as the person who can handle any situation, which got him through his career in business, reality TV, and as an outgoing president.
Trump’s actions are alarming his detractors, who fear that a second term for him will usher in an era of presidential authoritarianism. Furthermore, Trump’s inclination to exert pressure on Haley to withdraw from the campaign after just two rounds—during which he leads Haley 32 to 17, out of the 1,215 delegates required for the GOP championship—is consistent with his disdain for democratic procedures.
The former president is open about what he wants. For example, he has repeatedly threatened to use his second term to take “retribution” on his opponents. He calls for complete criminal immunity for presidents almost daily, in part to shield himself from punishment for his attempt to rig the 2020 election, but also to allow him to act whenever he pleases in the event of a second term without fear of repercussions.
During an intensely visual rally on Saturday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, the former president called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a “great man.” With a methodical approach, Orbán has undermined political liberties, suppressed the independent press, and damaged the reputation of the judiciary, the election process, and other power structures. Many proponents of “Make America Great Again” view him as a role model and idol. The reason some dislike him is that he’s too strong. A strong man leading a nation is a good thing, Trump thought. His remarks reinforced the perception that Orbán could serve as a more suitable model for the authoritarian leader the former president aspires to be than the extremist European tyrants of the 1930s, to whom his current rhetoric against immigrants is like.
Trump’s frustration is endangering his candidacy politically.
The upcoming election seems to be one of the most important in modern American history, in part because of the dictatorial tendencies of the outgoing president.
However, there are dangers associated with Trump’s belligerent demeanor. By using his influence, he might support Biden’s claims that, should he be elected to a second term in November, he will jeopardize democracy. Additionally, Haley’s aggressive tactics and sexist remarks may turn off some of the more centrist, independent, suburban voters that she is drawing in the GOP primary. These are precisely the voters that Trump alienated during his loss in 2020. He needs to at least lessen his deficit to Biden among this demographic in November if he hopes to win another term.
In an interview with Kasie Hunt on CNN International and CNN Max’s “State of the Race,” Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina GOP, mentioned the possible repercussions of Trump’s actions on Thursday. One of the few prominent Palmetto State Republicans who back Haley, Dawson, issued a warning that Trump’s “seedy little comments about what Nikki had on” would “polarize” women in South Carolina. “Donald Trump seems to be campaigning more in the vein of wanting to be president of Cuba rather than the United States,” he continued.
Perhaps Haley did not defeat Trump in New Hampshire or Iowa. However, she infuriated him by delaying her campaign’s fold and refusing to support him as other Republican contenders, such as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, did. In a conceited victory speech delivered in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Trump’s rage was exposed. The former president has become even more enraged by Haley’s ridicule of that performance.
Haley stated in Charleston on Wednesday, “We did our thing and we said what we had to say and then Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum.” He became agitated. He was derogatory. He was acting in his usual manner, but I know that’s what he does when he feels uneasy.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins stated that Trump has expressed extreme frustration over Haley’s refusal to withdraw from the race. In his speech in New Hampshire, he made fun of the outfit she wore to the Iowa caucus. On social media, he has been referring to her as “birdbrain.” Additionally, Trump has threatened to “bar” anyone who donates money to her from the MAGA camp; Haley has used this threat as a means of garnering money for her campaign.
Given the magnitude of Haley’s losses to Trump and the fact that New Hampshire, where independents can cast ballots in the GOP primary, was her best chance to win, it is not shocking that there have been calls for her to withdraw from the race. After it becomes clear which candidate will win the primary, parties usually seek to rapidly unite around a nominee in order to prepare for a general election. However, it’s amazing how much the Trump world despises Haley.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, one of Trump’s strongest allies, for example, declared in a statement that Haley’s campaign “must end” following the former president’s “monumental” triumph “for the sake of the republic” even before all polls closed on Tuesday night. Threats may not be the best way to force Haley out of the race, but discipline and respect may. This is supported by the history of previous campaigns. Even though her chances of winning seem bleak, it is an insult to the democratic process in and of itself for a candidate to withdraw from a race after only two events during a national primary season simply because the front-runner says so.
It appears that even Trump believes that some of this has gone too far. The former president publicly opposed an RNC draft resolution on Thursday that would have made him the organization’s presumed nominee and given him access to its financial records and data. It would have effectively united the party around Trump while a rival election was still going on.
However, Trump stated on Truth Social that although he valued the RNC’s “respect and devotion,” he preferred to prevail at the polls in the “old fashioned way.” Trump was initially in favor of the resolution, as was the campaign, but after a backlash, things changed, a source close to the campaign told Collins. Later on Thursday, the resolution was withdrawn.
Trump wants to undo the immigration agreement
The former president, whose business career was made famous in “The Art of the Deal,” is more focused on the art of dying deals right now, as Republican and Democratic senators laboriously stitch one together to solve the southern border situation. According to sources, Trump has been pressuring Republicans to reject the agreement in both private conversations and open remarks on social media. He wants to use the issue as a platform for his campaign this year and prevent Biden from passing legislation that would lessen border pressure and aid in his reelection.
Even as Biden seems ready to tolerate the return of some of the more restrictive immigration rules from the Trump administration in exchange for a compromise, Trump’s maneuvering has enraged some Republican senators seeking a deliverable for their constituents. Sen. Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, described as “tragic” any attempt to sabotage the current negotiations. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a longtime opponent of Trump who is not seeking reelection, stated that it would be “appalling” if Trump ruined the agreement just to place the responsibility on Biden. Additionally, Trump and his supporters on Capitol Hill have made it apparent that they oppose Biden’s most recent $60 billion aid proposal for Ukraine, which is rapidly running out of supplies.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who has been actively involved in the immigration and Ukraine debates, expressed worries that one man’s shadow, who is not now in a position of authority, would overrun a US government branch.
“My wish is that our current world does not consist of a single Republican Party member possessing such immense power that they could thwart a bipartisan bill aimed at granting the president more authority at the border to better understand our immigration policies,” Murphy expressed to CNN’s Manu Raju.
“We’ll find out the answer to that, but I would hope that one person isn’t so powerful inside the Republican Party to hand Ukraine to Vladimir Putin.”
