Before August 8 in USA there were those who saw, or wanted to see, a certain erosion of the Donald Trump’s weight in the Republican Party. The devastating public sessions of the special congressional committee investigating the assault on the Capitol had made a dent in his popularity. In certain polls and according to the analysis of various observers and strategists, part of the conservative voters had an appetite for change.
Some of the candidates that the former president has been supporting in primaries for the legislative elections on November 8 also suffered defeats. None of those defeats was more significant than that of Georgiaa state that will be vital in determining control of the Senate and that was central to Trump’s push for the generalization of “the great lie” about the non-existent electoral fraud of 2020, which could lead to potential and dangerous changes in the authorities in charge of the elections.
The erosionIf there was, it was a mirage. Following the search conducted by the FBI last Monday at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Trump has revalidated and even strengthened their dominance of the Grand Old Party. And as Sean Noble, a Republican political adviser from Arizona, a state where candidates backed by the former president have had significant victories, has said, “we are in uncharted territory with a former president having this level of control over the party.
Political and voter support
Although the operation of the Department of Justice was judicially authorized and, as has been shown, had legal base by the indications of various crimes related to the irregular handling of classified documents, has served to relaunch Trump, surrounded by other civil, criminal and political investigations. It has become a useful and sought-after tool for fundraising. And despite the fact that some cracks, light and in no case in the highest echelons of the party has Trump achieved a almost complete closing of ranks around his figure and his message, so marked by personal interests as usual but, if possible, more incendiary.
That closing of ranks is palpable among its most faithful voters. A survey conducted among conservatives after the politically thorny registration raised the number of primary voters who said they would support Trump in the face of a potential presidential candidacy in 2024 to 57%, four points higher than in July. And already a few days before the operation at Mar-a-Lago, in the conservative conclave of the CPAC, where 99% of the attendees gave their approval, in an informal poll to see which candidate they want in 2024, Trump obtained the 69% of the votes10 points more than in the February meeting. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida who for now is the one who makes him the most shadow as a potential candidate for the White House, was left with 24%. “Trump is more popular than ever“, assured the person in charge of the vote.
The closing of ranks is also political. And precisely DeSantis was one of Trump’s potential rivals who spoke earlier and more forcefully against the FBI record, something that other almost certain candidates for the White House also did, from Senator Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to former Vice President Mike Pence.
DeSantis launched some of the same messages that have come out of Trump’s own mouth search or typing on the Truth social network, determined to talk about a “politically motivated witch hunt“and what affects your apocalyptic and anti-government vision from USA. Both they and the conservative media now repeat descriptions of the country as a “Banana Rebublic“, and is urged to oppose the “regime”. The FBI and the Department of Justice have been demonized. Comparisons are being made with the Nazi Germany or with the Gestapoinvestigations are threatened and, in the most extreme cases by the most radical voices, defunding of the police agency is urged.
The registry, in addition, is being linked to other political elements with which the Republicans intend to campaign for the legislative elections, in which, in addition to important state elections, the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are renewed. “If they go for Trump they will go for you“, said recently, for example, Pompeo.
He pointed out, as many other Republicans are doing, the reinforcement with 87,000 Treasury inspectors approved in the Inflation Reduction Act, a law with fiscal, health and climate change measures that has culminated a series of legislative victories of Joe Biden, that added to the progressive popular mobilization against the decision of the Supreme Court to repeal the constitutional protection of the right to abortion have improved the Democratic prospects of maintaining at least control in the upper house.
Candidacy?
One of the objections that some Republicans show is that Trump uses the registry to announce his presidential candidacy imminently, as some close advisers want. Because no one doubts that the 76-year-old Trump will run (“if there was a 99% chance that it would show up now it’s 100%“, he said to Political a source close to the former president’s operation). But there are those who fear that this announcement will have a negative effect in November, once again turning the elections into a referendum on him and diverting the focus of attention that many Republicans want to put on citizen frustration with the high inflation or the price of gasoline.
Violence
The Trump who now dominates the Republican Party is, if possible, more explosive that when he was a candidate for the first time or when he held the presidency, when the messages racists they were adding incitements to violence, culminating in the assault on the Capitol. Now, under the shadow of investigations, unleashed in its challenge to norms and institutionsneither does anything to calm the waters that most radical voices They are shaking dangerously after check-in. “The country is in a very dangerous position, there is tremendous anger, like I haven’t seen before, over all the scams,” he told FoxNews on Monday.
Related news
On Friday the Department of Homeland Security distributed a memorandum in which he warns that the agency and the FBI have identified since last Monday a increased threats “especially online and on multiple platforms” against federal charges and facilities and calling on “the civil war and armed rebellion“.
Last week an armed man, who ended up dying in a confrontation with the police, stormed an FBI office. Early Sunday morning, another armed man committed suicide after crashing his car into a barricade near the Capitol and after firing several shots into the air.