Donald Trump's dominance in last week's primaries made it official: he has successfully defeated the Republican establishment.
Some would say, with abundant evidence, that this happened a long time ago. Particularly in Congress, the party is divided into three sometimes overlapping factions: Reaganites, pragmatists and populists, the last being Trump's “MAGA” faction. Politicians from the first two groups have been retreating, retreating or reinventing themselves in Trump's image for years.
If Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Marco Rubio of Florida aren't completely MAGA at heart, you wouldn't know it from their current public personas. Former Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), along with former Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), were either shown the door or fled themselves. And outside institutions like the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) and the Heritage Foundation have repositioned themselves as MAGA bodies.
That process has accelerated since Trump effectively secured the Republican nomination for president for the third time. In recent months, non-MAGA Republicans such as Reps. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington announced they were leaving Congress. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the last real avatar of the “Republican establishment,” declared that he would not run again to lead the Republican caucus before endorsing Trump.
The power grab is culminating in the Trumpian captivity of the Republican National Committee. There is virtually no Republican establishment left that is not synonymous with the Trump establishment.
Michael Whatley, former head of the North Carolina Republican Party, is the new national chairman, having curry favor with Trump as an unbridled reinforcement of his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law, serves alongside Whatley as co-chair. And Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, will run day-to-day operations. On Monday they began a widespread purge of staff deemed insufficiently loyal.
Trump's son Donald Jr. agrees it's official. in a interview with Newsmax On Sunday he said the old Republican establishment “no longer exists. … People have to understand that America first, the MAGA movement, is the new Republican Party. That is conservatism today.”
Now, one can argue whether a political philosophy dating back to Edmund Burke and the American founding can be transformed by the installation of Trump apparatchiks in the Republican National Committee. Trump himself might even agree with those objections.
Trump has previously described himself as a “nationalist”, and rejected at least in part the conservative label in a interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. “People say, 'You're conservative,'” Trump said. “I am not conservative. Do you know what I am? “I am a man of common sense and many conservative policies are common sense.”
Whatever we call it, what's clear is that Trump believes his team can do it alone. In a recent virginia rally, declared that MAGA “represents 96%, and maybe 100%” of the Republican Party. “We are getting rid of the Romneys of the world. We want to get Romneys and those [like him] outside.”
Typically, candidates in general elections try to expand their coalitions. Exit polls from the primary elections, and actual results, belie Trump's claim that the party is now almost pure MAGA.
“In each of the six states with entry and exit polls,” a CNN analysis found that “a sizable minority of the Republican electorate directly identified as part of the MAGA, or 'Make American Great Again,' movement, ranging from about a third in California, Virginia, and New Hampshire to nearly half in Iowa.” Put another way, between half and two-thirds of Republicans who vote in the primary No identify as MAGA. Most will likely still hold their noses and vote for Trump in November, but that's no proof that the Republican Party is entirely Trumpian.
However, the national leadership of the Republican Party is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trumpism. That befits a movement that has often been as concerned with taking over the party as it has the government. In Republican primaries, Trump has tended to back loyalists with little general election prospects over more traditional Republicans with a better chance of winning seats in the House and Senate. The MAGA movement seems convinced that a purer party dedicated to Trump is, for some reason, better than one saddled with the remnants of the old Republican coalition.
For all practical purposes, your wish has been granted. That would be good for the movement if Trump wins in November. But if he loses, they will have no one to blame but themselves. After all, they are the establishment now.
