Former President Trump
Donald Trump Gaetz Didn’t Get Meeting With Trump: CNN Federal Reserve Chairman: Economy Would Have Been ‘So Much Worse’ Without COVID-19 Emergency Bills California City Police Declare Illegal Meeting Amid ‘White Lives Matter’ Protest MORE‘s recent approval of Sens. Ron Johnson
Ronald (Ron) Harold Johnson The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden fights ‘epidemic’ of gun violence amid SC shootings, Texas Trump faces power test with early approval Trump endorses Rand Paul for reelection MORE (R-Delete), Rand Paul
Randal (Rand) Howard Paul Alarm Grows Over Impact Of States Ban Treatment Of Trans Youth The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented By ExxonMobil – World Mourns Prince Philip’s Death The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden Fights ‘Epidemic’ of gun violence amid SC, Texas shootings MORE (R-Ky.) And Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio RubioThe Memo: Biden’s Five Biggest Foreign Policy Challenges Hillicon Valley: Amazon Wins Union Elections – Says ‘Our Employees Made the Choice’ Nightly Defense: Biden Proposes 3B Defense Budget | Criticism comes from left and right | Pentagon moves to new screening for extremists MORE (R-Fla.) Expose a rift between Republicans who want to leave the Trump era behind and those who see his populist brand of conservatism as a winning formula.
By dropping a string of Senate approvals nearly 20 months before election day, Trump is fully joining the internal debate among GOP lawmakers about where they want to go as a party and how closely they want to work together. President Biden
Joe Biden Federal Reserve Chairman: Economy would have been ‘so much worse’ without COVID-19 emergency bills Biden to meet with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure Monday Jill Biden shouts at Champ, Major on National Pet Day MORE
He is also sending signals to allies that he can protect them from primary challenges next year, a potentially strong incentive for fellow Republicans not to override his legacy.
“It’s a great preventative measure to deter potential challengers,” said Jim McLaughlin, a Republican strategist who noted Trump has “very good relationships” with Senator Rick Scott (Fla.), Head of the Senate GOP. . campaign arm.
McLaughlin said Trump’s growing interest in the early machinations of the 2022 electoral cycle will similarly send a message to Republicans that “they must fight against” Biden’s agenda, which largely targets the policies of the previous administration. to be dismantled.
Some GOP senators, such as Sens. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden fights ‘epidemic’ of gun violence amid SC shootings, Texas Biden-GOP infrastructure talks rocky start Moderate GOP senators and Biden clash at start of infrastructure debate MORE (Maine), Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann Murkowski Trump Looms Big Over Florida GOP Donor Retreat Top GOP Super PAC Endorses Murkowski Amid Primary Threat Biden GOP Infrastructure Talks Rocky Start MORE (Alaska) and Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney Two sheriff’s deputies shot by gunman in Utah (Utah), say they want to work with Biden. They were part of a group that met with the president in early February to investigate a compromise package for coronavirus. But Biden was quick to dismiss their proposal as insufficient.
In the end, not a single Congressional Republican voted in favor of Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion U.S. bailout plan.
Some Republican lawmakers see Trump’s departure from the White House as an opportunity to break with certain policies that were generally unpopular at the GOP Senate conference. This included Trump’s approach to trade and foreign policy.
Republican lawmakers have not yet decided whether to renounce Trump’s trade and tariff practices, and Biden is holding them in place for now.
On foreign policy, there hasn’t been much reluctance from the Senate GOP conference over Biden’s decision to mend fences with NATO allies. The president firmly reaffirmed the US’s commitment to NATO in February, declaring, “An attack on one is an attack on everyone. That is our unshakable vow. “
But for other Republicans, Trump’s absence support is fuel to propel their own careers and expand the GOP base among workers’ voters. GOP strategists note that Johnson, Paul and Rubio all wanted Trump’s approval.
Her. Josh Hawley
Joshua (Josh) David HawleyMcConnell in awkward place with GOP, big biz Pence autobiography sourced from Simon & Schuster The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden’s infrastructure plan sparks definition debate MORE (R-Mo.) Is one of the few Republican senators to have embraced Trump’s populism and see it as the future of the party.
Hawley says he will “unveil a trust-breaking agenda [the] 21st Century ”focused this week on“ gigantic awake companies [that] keep telling Biden’s big lie about Georgia. “
That agenda does not suit all conservatives.
“I agree with the sentiments until he advocates for a policy that is an anti-free market,” said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist. “The one thing Republicans should oppose more than anything else is the urge to use antitrust laws to hit back at these companies they disagree with.”
Hawley also broke with much of last year’s GOP conference by approving $ 2,000 stimulus controls in what became a $ 900 billion compromise measure passed by Congress in December. Trump was also in favor of sending checks for $ 2,000, but many Republicans oppose the idea.
At the other end of the spectrum is Murkowski, who wants the GOP to return to the “big tent” party under President Reagan.
“If the Republican Party remains Trump’s party, I don’t know exactly where I am going,” she said in January.
She got a boost on Friday when the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellBiden to meet with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure Monday 100 business leaders discuss how to fight new voting rules: Arkansas governor report says ‘divisive’ Trump attacks on GOP officials ‘won’t help’ MORE (R-Ky.), Endorsed her for reelection in 2022.
“Alaska needs the kind of experienced representation that Lisa Murkowski offers in the United States Senate,” said Steven Law, the group’s chairman, who was previously McConnell’s chief of staff.
McConnell has broken up with Trump since losing to Biden. The GOP leader stopped speaking to the president in mid-December, denouncing his role in inciting a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 while lawmakers were counting the vote of the Electoral College.
Trump has been relatively quiet since being banned from Twitter in early January. But he’s made his presence felt in Republican politics more and more in recent days with a series of statements and approvals from his post-presidential office and his Save America PAC.
The PAC has built an $ 85 million war chest to bolster Trump’s most loyal allies, a reminder to his fellow Republicans that he intends to remain a political force.
Last week, he backed Johnson, Paul and Rubio, three of his most loyal allies in the Senate, who are facing re-election next year. Johnson, who led an investigation into Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian energy company – a favorite subject of Trump’s – has not yet announced whether he will seek a third term.
He urged Johnson, “Run, Ron, run!” although Democrats think they have a better chance of winning the seat if he’s the GOP nominee.
‘I hope he runs away. It makes it easier for the Democrats to take it up. He’s been so radical and outrageous on so many issues lately that I think it makes it easier for Democrats to join in, ”said Ben Nuckels, a Democratic strategist who is Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers
Tony EversBiden Scraps Trump-Approved Medicaid Work Requirements in Michigan, Wisconsin Wisconsin Governor Declares Wildfire Emergency Wisconsin Wants More Than 0,000 in Legal Fees Made by GOP Election Procedures MORE (D) win in 2018.
Brandon Scholz, a Republican strategist based in Wisconsin, predicted that Democrats will repeat the anti-Trump-focused tactics and rhetoric they deployed in 2020.
He said Trump’s approval “will certainly work for the Democrats who try to run the same campaign they ran against Donald Trump in the presidential race against Ron Johnson.”
Democrats did not run a problem-based campaign against Trump in Wisconsin, Scholz said, but instead they ran a campaign focused on his character and behavior.
“They hated Donald Trump – that’s what the campaign was about,” he said. “I feel like they are trying to recreate that campaign.”