Commentary

Trump supporters just knew the former president would respond to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Senate floor speech indicating he was “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the breach of the Capitol.  And he did, forcefully.

On Wednesday, with the death of Rush Limbaugh, he was interviewed at length about his relationship with the talk show host on Fox News Channel, including a replay of Limbaugh receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the 2020 state-of-the-union address, an unprecedented event.

Commenting on Trump’s “justifiable” excoriation of McConnell and other Beltway Republican’s, Roger L. Simon predicted the party will lose in 2022 and 2024 because these elites are out of synch with the rank-and-file voters.

“Republican voters mostly despise their current leadership and favor Trump by large margins,” writes Simon in his Epoch Times commentary, “’Power to the People’: The GOP Bloodbath Has Begun.” 

It’s for the people, the “deplorables” to stay engaged, Simon believes.  “I trust them more than I trust myself,” he wrote.

SHOWING COURAGE – “I still believe that President Trump is the most powerful figure on either side,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott during an appearance on Fox News Channel Wednesday.

Citing the accomplishments of President Trump, leading to the lowest unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women in 70 years, Scott spoke of the need for more Trump policies that focus on an inclusive economy.

During a subsequent interview with Guy Benson on Fox Radio, Scott allowed that he would support McConnell in his fights with Sen. Chuck Schumer.

IN THURSDAY’S WALL STREET JOURNAL, under the headline, “The GOP Won’t Purge Trump,” perhaps the most positive news is revealed.  Columnist William A. Galston suggested that McConnell’s speech, though designed to “marginalize Mr. Trump’s influence in the Republican Party … it will be an uphill battle.”

Referring to a Quinnipiac survey released on Monday, Galston notes that only 11 percent of Republicans held Trump responsible for the Capitol assault.  In addition, a mere nine percent supported conviction in the impeachment trials, and just 16 percent were for censure, as a symbolic rebuke.

The survey also revealed that 87 percent of Republicans believe Trump should be allowed to hold office again, while 75 percent want him to play a “prominent role” in the party.

In other surveys, 68 percent of Republicans want the former president to remain the party’s leader, according to Gallup.  In an Axios-Ipsos poll, 68 percent of Republicans believe their party is better with Trump in it, while 57 percent favor him as their party’s 2024 presidential candidate.

According to NBC, 87 percent of Trump supporters have “very positive” views of the former president.

“For now,” Galson believes, “efforts to weaken Mr. Trump’s influence with the party will not succeed.”

JUST DAYS PRIOR to the second impeachment trial, during which the House managers attempted to persuade the senators that President Trump’s use of the words “fight” and “fighting” were instrumental in provoking the assault on the Capitol, Washington Examiner columnist Soltis Anderson titled her February 9, 2021 piece, “Trumpism isn’t an ideology – it’s a fighting posture,”  

Those who watched the trial saw the president’s lawyers effectively deflect the “fight/fighting” charge, playing videos of dozens of senators regularly using those words.

“I think Trump’s persistent influence is not about a person or policy,” wrote Anderson. “It is instead about how satiated and intensified the strongest hunger Republican voters have today: an appetite to fight.”  She cited that during his campaign, eight in 10 Republicans described Trump as a “strong leader.”

“When I speak with Republicans,” Anderson wrote, perhaps there are positions of his with which they disagree, “but they stick with him because he fights.

“Trump’s legacy in the party isn’t policy, and it isn’t a person.  It’s a posture … a fighting posture in a moment where Republicans think the fight is what matters most.”

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE – Former George W. Bush advisor, Karl Rove, seems to have sided with the establishment, specifically Sen. Mitch McConnell, writing in the Wall Street Journal that “the master of the Senate isn’t going anywhere, whatever the ex-president says.”

“If he (Trump) returned for another White House contest, leading a divided party at war with itself and out of power, he’d be wiped out.  Mr. Trump should now be focused not on settling scores, but on healing, uniting and expanding,” Rove believes.  Would that healing, uniting and expanding be of the strategy we see Biden following?

The party may be divided in the House and Senate, as Rove writes, but surveys tend to show support for Trump among voting Republicans is solid.

May God continue to bless the United States of America