Donald Trump holds grudges; that’s just who he is, and now in an attempt to remain relevant within his party, the twice-impeached one-term former president that left office in disgrace is seeking revenge on leading families of the GOP. Politico reports that “Trump has reserved a special fury for the scions of the GOP’s leading families in his attempt to exercise full dominion over the Republican Party.” And yet, it’s odd because Republicans that fall in line behind Trump don’t seem to mind that he has started a civil war within their own party.
“Whether it’s the Cheneys, the Bushes or the lesser bloodlines — such as the Romneys or the Murkowskis — Trump has been relentless in his efforts to force them to bend the knee,” the outlet reports. “Even Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain — who herself has never run for office — has been knocked down, censured by Trump allies who run the state Republican Party in Arizona.”
“It’s the clearest sign that the modern Republican Party hasn’t just broken with its traditionalist past,” the report continues. “It’s shredding every vestige of it.”
“It’s a tragedy,” Arne Carlson, a former two-term Republican governor of Minnesota said. “The problem with the revolution is they continue to get more and more extreme. Whereas Liz Cheney was on the right, she now finds herself being pushed into the middle and, ultimately, off the cliff.”
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“Even so, Trump’s feats of political engineering — his felling of family legacies that once defined the party — are remarkable. He has almost single-handedly managed to sever the Bush family line, brutalizing “low energy” Jeb Bush, then the Florida governor, in the 2016 primary and depriving the Bush dynasty of a third presidential nominee,” the report continues. “Once in office, Trump even described himself as a “far greater” president than Reagan.”
“He shits on everybody, even former presidents,” said Mark Graul, a Republican strategist in Wisconsin who oversaw George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign in the state.
Cheney, he said, just “happens to be the daughter of the [former] vice president.”
Trump has publicly criticized Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan, and the Bush family. And now he wants retaliation for Republicans who refused to go along with his attempted coup, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted with six other Republican senators to convict Trump at his impeachment trial. Trump has vowed to travel to Alaska ahead of the 2022 midterm elections to campaign against “a disloyal and very bad Senator.”
Trump has continued to lash out at Liz Cheney, and in response, Republicans will likely oust her from leadership next week. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has bowed down to Trump, of course. But, Carlson said that McCarthy could be Trump’s next target.
“What [House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy] doesn’t realize is he may be the next one to go,” Carlson said. “The people who set the guillotines in motion ultimately have their necks under it, as they get into these endless battles about who’s more loyal, who’s more pure.”
Trump still hasn’t conceded the race he lost to President Joe Biden six months ago, and because he sustained a public narcissistic injury, he’s hell-bent on revenge. And Republicans are falling in line behind the man that cost them the House, the Senate, and the White House.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Michael Vadon/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
