Trump’s Supporters Are Pressuring Colleagues to Acknowledge That the Primary
Senate Republicans who support former President Trump are calling for the rest of the GOP to support him as the party’s choice for president. They are also warning other Republicans who don’t do so that they are helping and supporting Joe Biden.
Trump’s huge lead in the polls has given him more power among Republicans in Congress. This has swung the political tide on Capitol Hill toward calls for major changes to border security and away from funding the war in Ukraine.
Republicans in the Senate are no longer as skeptical about the push in the House to impeach Biden, which Trump has told lawmakers to do. They also don’t hold out much hope that someone other than Trump will win next year’s primary.
Trump’s Senate allies are now calling for the race to end early because neither Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) nor former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) was able to show that they were a good alternative to Trump in any of the four Republican debates.
“I feel like it’s time. There are still four people in the race, but none of them have more than 10 percent of the vote. The numbers for Trump stay the same. “Look, you either love Donald Trump or you hate him, and you’re not going to change anyone’s mind now,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told DeSantis, Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
That’s what I think: they’re all trying to get second place and hurting each other, their reputations, and the party. Marshall said this after the fourth debate.
“At this point, they all had their chance.” The only thing they’re doing is hurting the GOP and making it easier for Joe Biden to win again, he said.
Last month, Marshall became the 13th Republican in the Senate to back Trump.
In September, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) backed Trump and said, “I don’t see a pathway for anybody else.”
“You’re giving Biden tacit support if you don’t stand with him,” he said.
Capitol Hill is becoming more and more sure that Trump will be the GOP nominee for president. This comes at a time when right populists are becoming more powerful in the legislature.
It looks like Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who backed Trump before Thanksgiving, now has more power in the leadership of Congress.
Johnson has led the party in demanding that any money given to Ukraine be matched by big changes to border security. This is a complicated set of issues that makes it impossible to pass any kind of foreign aid package that includes money for Ukraine before Christmas.
Conservatives in the Senate put a lot of pressure on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to fully support Johnson’s demands, which he did.
So, the effort by both parties to fund the war in Ukraine has stopped, and border security, which is a big deal for Trump, is now the main problem being talked about in Congress.
“Donald Trump has played a big role in Congress focusing more on border security and less on very large unbalanced funding measures for Ukraine,” said Brian Darling, a Republican consultant and former Senate staff member.
Trump is representing what the American people want. “Polling data shows that the American people are less interested in sending tax dollars abroad and going on international trips,” he said. “They want it to protect the border and do other things.”
Last week, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) gave their support to Trump. This came after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) dropped out of the run.
Republican leaders were told by Cramer to “consolidate” behind Trump as “the leader of our GOP and ensure a Republican victory in 2024.”
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who is on McConnell’s leadership team, backed Trump right before the debate on Wednesday.
She said that Trump’s record as president from 2017 to 2021 is the reason he is “dominating in the polls and why his insurmountable lead only continues to grow as the primary dates draw closer.”
In a piece for the right news site Yellowhammer News, she told other Republicans, “Now, let’s come together and move forward toward November 2024.”
If something miraculous doesn’t happen, even senators who have criticized Trump in the past or said they don’t think he could win a general election agree that he will be the choice.
When asked how likely it was that someone else would beat Trump for the nod, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “I think it’s a long shot at this point.”
Along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cornyn was one of two GOP senators who stopped by DeSantis’s welcome-to-Washington event in April and May and said, “President Trump’s time has passed him by,” saying that “electability is key.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has told his party many times that they need to find a new leader for 2024, agrees that beating Trump in the primary is a “long shot.”
Haley has “a shot” at getting the nod, but he also said, “It’s a very long shot.”
He said, “Donald Trump is almost certainly going to be the nominee.”
His Republican colleagues in the Senate, on the other hand, want to get candidates out of the race before the first votes are cast in Iowa and New Hampshire. He spoke out against them.
“Oh, I don’t think primaries hurt us. I think they make us stronger and give us the tools we need to succeed.” I don’t think the primary races have hurt Donald Trump in any way. He said, “His polls show that the more debates and primary opponents he has, the better he does.”
He also said, “I hope that Nikki Haley can somehow throw a Hail Mary,” which is like a player throwing the ball 50 yards downfield in the last seconds of a game.
Haley’s campaign is based on the idea that the war in Ukraine is important for U.S. national security, even though many GOP voters don’t agree with this.
At the same time that Trump has been moving quickly to become the GOP nominee, Republicans are becoming less sure that the US will back Ukraine.
Gallup found that 62% of Republicans now think the US is doing too much to provide aid to Ukraine.
In August 2022, when Trump seemed much less strong nationally, only 42% of Republicans said they thought less should be done to help Ukraine.
