The former US President Donald Trump seems to have lost favor in the eyes of his party. As one of America’s controversial politicians, trump is despised for holding onto power and not accepting defeat. Since politics is regarded as a dirty game, one is bound to win or lose, but trump does not want to live with this accord.
He refused to recognize the findings of a Republican-led audit of 2020 election results in Arizona which showed he was a “loser.” He continuously pursued election reviews in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
“Trump has remade the Republican brand into one of chaos and obstruction, despite holding no official place in the party hierarchy. His contempt for norms continues and, especially among House Republicans, that is in itself a new norm”. Supporting trump might mean that one goes against the country’s guidelines and can be seen as a radical individual, especially with issues of migrants, foreign policies, international relations with China, North Korea, and Russia.
Major criticism laid against the ex-president is linked to the Capitol demonstrations on 6 January 2020. Loyal Trump followers are apologetic towards the rioters and exert a lot of effort to “normalize” the rebellious act. But some Republicans noted that those who participated in the violent act must be prosecuted because they jeopardized the nation’s peaceful political arena.
Republicans’ outcry against trump was based on forcing a significant number of voters to shift to the Democratic side due to his policies. Interviewed citizens who left the Republican party argued on how trump’s policies favored only the rich and were divisive nationwide.
It looks like trump managed to turn voters against him. His loss to Biden “was due mostly to voters in large metropolitan suburbs, especially in important battleground states,” which houses many people affected by his policies. Post-election analysis revealed that “In terms of aggregate votes in these large suburban counties, there was a shift from a 1.2 million vote advantage for Trump in 2016 to (at last count) a 613,000 vote advantage for Biden – a nearly 2 million vote flip.”
“Every time these suburban voters check out at the grocery store, pay their electric bill or finish filling up at the pump, they are reminded their paycheck isn’t going as far as it used to,” as noted by Joanne Rodriguez, spokesperson for the Republican Governors Association. This has led to a massive backlash towards the self-proclaimed economic guru.
This is a considerable margin that might become a challenge for the Republicans in future elections. Political analysts have projected that due to trump’s adamant character, he fuelled the rise of an anti-Trump group projected to take over in 2022.
Rep. Gonzales called Trump “a cancer for the country” in a New York Times interview and added that whoever is still supporting Trump is making a huge mistake.
In May, certain Republicans threatened to create a third party if their opposition party did not break away from trump. Embedded in the vision “A Call For American Renewal,” the Republicans loathe him. One of the movement organizers, Miles Taylor, said: “The Republican Party is broken. It’s time for a resistance of the ‘rationals’ against the ‘radicals”.
Notable politicians who supported this idea include former Republican Governors Tom Ridge, Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush-era Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and former House members Charlie Dent, Barbara Comstock, Reid Ribble, and Mickey Edwards. Former ambassadors, governors, congressional members, and Cabinet secretaries were among signatories who pushed for the removal of Trump-ism in the party.
However, Trump still has support from various Republicans who believe that he is the true definition of the Republican party. A survey conducted showed that the influential political leader has many loyal followers willing to back him up when he returns to the polls.
But this does not rectify the issue of a divided house with people who love him and those who want to erase him from the party entirely.
