The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday.
How much influence does Donald Trump wield over the Republican Party? The obvious answer is a lot. But the details suggest a more complicated reality. Trump's endorsement record, for example, is mixed. His support clearly propelled venture capitalist JD Vance and North Carolina Rep. Ted Budd to victory in their Senate primaries. But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp—one of several Republicans who resisted Trump's pressure to overturn the presidential election—appears poised to smash Trump's chosen candidate, David Perdue, in today's gubernatorial primary. While it seems likely that Trump's pick Dr. Mehmet Oz will prevail in Pennsylvania, establishment candidate David McCormick came within spitting distance of an upset, and far-right influencer Kathy Barnette surged in the final stretch despite Trump's repeated disavowals. It might be too early to draw any concrete conclusions from what's admittedly inconsistent evidence, but lately, the MAGA monster has displayed flickers of independence, a willingness to split from its creator on key issues where the former president isn't considered "Trumpy" enough. This cuts a contrast to early Trumpism, which was, at any given time, more or less whatever Trump said it was, with Republicans bending over backward to shoehorn Trump's contradictory statements into coherent policy stances. But don't get your hopes up for a return to sanity anytime soon. What seems clear is that the Republican Party is still fully dominated by Trumpism in all the ways that count. Even establishment figures like David McCormick, Vance's challenger Josh Mandel, and Rep. Elise Stefanik have leaned into explicitly Trumpy rhetoric as a means to placate the base, which seems just as devoted to whitewashing January 6 and endorsing the big lie as ever. What could be possible, though, is that Trump will enter the 2024 primary more beholden than before to an extremist movement that not even he can fully control. — Noah Y. Kim |
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Barring critical race theory wasn't enough. |
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"What we want is to be a model for the nation," says a resident of Golden Gate Village. "You're always going to have poor people, and we deserve a right to safe, decent, and sanitary housing." |
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Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. |
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