Disloyalty Is Trump's Secret Weapon
March 2, 2021 at 8:01 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Jonathan Bernstein: Ive seen a number of perfectly fine articles about why and how former President Donald Trump still wields influence over the Republican Party, but cmon! The main reason that Republican politicians feel stuck with Trump is that they know that hes capable of turning against their party at the drop of a hat.
Yes, Trump is good at tapping into resentment, but plenty of Republican politicians are good at that. Yes, hes popular among Republican voters, but most politicians are popular among their own partys voters. Yes, hes willing to take sides in primaries, but he doesnt actually have a particularly impressive record of swaying primary voters.
No, whats different about Trump is that unlike any other former president really, any former nominee in living memory, its that easy to picture him telling his voters to stay home and handing elections to the other party. And thats why hes been an impossible dilemma for Republican politicians ever since he emerged as a major
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https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/02/disloyalty-is-trumps-secret-weapon/