What is Donald Trump’s future with the GOP? For the first time since the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, it’s a question without a clear answer. The former president has a giant Scooby Doo sandwich of problems right now: lawsuits, investigations, money problems. He just had the one-two punch of helping snuff the Republican’s desired “red wave” and having dinner with two outspoken anti-Semites. The last two have been enough to cause one campaign to beg him not to help.
Next week Georgians will vote in a runoff between incumbent senator Raphael Warnock and challenger Herschel Walker. It’s a tight race. If this was happening in an earlier time, they would have asked Donald Trump to hold one of his deranged rallies for him (where he’d mostly talk about himself, of course). But as per The New York Times, the opposite is happening: Both Trump and Walker teams agreed he should stay in Mar-a-Lago:
Instead of holding one of his signature campaign rallies, Mr. Trump is planning a call with supporters in the state and will continue sending online fund-raising pleas for Mr. Walker, two people with knowledge of the planning said.
The decision to keep Mr. Trump out of the spotlight was a response largely to the former president’s political style and image, which can energize his core supporters but also motivate Democratic voters and turn off significant segments of moderate Republicans.
As of this writing, Trump has not publicly flipped out about the decision. But it has to hurt that the party he dramatically altered is effectively telling him he’s poison. Should this trend continue, should the GOP continue to treat him like a skunk, he’s likely to take them down with him. Then again, Walker doesn’t need any more help torpedoing a campaign that’s already more successful than it should be.
(Via NYT)