It is dawning on Republicans eager to turn the page on President Trump that neither he nor what some have called “Trumpism” may be going anywhere anytime soon.
The Electoral College voted to elect Democratic challenger Joe Biden president on Monday, setting him up to take office on Jan. 20, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged his GOP colleagues not to block congressional certification of these results. But Trump hasn’t conceded, and many rank-and-file Republicans remain convinced he should fight on.
“I suspect most believe that humoring him keeps them safe with Republican primary voters and doesn’t do any significant lasting damage with what remains of the center-right,” said a former Republican congressional leadership aide. “The problem is that they don’t have any more steps to wait for.”
One prominent Republican who hasn’t hesitated to criticize Trump is Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who was the party’s unsuccessful presidential standard-bearer in 2012. Romney has acknowledged that even if Trump passes from the political scene — in addition to saying the current election fight is not over, Trump has also teased a 2024 presidential campaign if he does end up vacating the White House — the president’s populist politics will not.
“Well, I think President Trump will continue to have substantial influence on the party,” Romney told CNN. “And I think if you look at the people who are rumored to be thinking of running in 2024, besides the president, those are people who are trying to appeal to kind of a populist approach, so I don’t think Trumpism is going away.”
“Populism isn’t over even if Trump is,” said a Republican strategist. Freshman Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2024, has embraced this mantle. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, once much admired by neoconservatives who disproportionately formed the ranks of Never Trump Republicans, has also gravitated in this direction while being seen as harboring White House ambitions. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has ridden the new populist conservatism to the highest-rated prime-time cable news show.
Some of these Republicans are more skeptical of foreign military interventions like those launched under the previous GOP administration’s watch. Others would like to take a harder line on immigration, with stepped-up border enforcement and a reduction in the number of new foreign workers admitted into the United States. A few, like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, hold both of these views. Still, others want tougher trade deals or a firmer stance toward China.
Hawley has teamed up with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to promote $1,200 direct relief payments to individuals as part of a new COVID-19 economic rescue package. “Why would Congress bail out Big Government; why would we shovel billions of dollars to corporations and government and not help individuals?” he asked, according to a local news station. He has urged Trump to veto stimulus legislation that doesn’t include such payments.
This could become a tougher haul as congressional Republicans shift toward opposing new federal spending proposed by the Biden administration and Capitol Hill Democrats, as happened after the elections of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump has cost the party once-reliable suburban voters and may have helped turn Georgia and Arizona bluer, which will possibly deter Republicans from continuing to imitate him. But even Republicans who tend to disagree with Hawley would like to see the focus be on policy rather than Trump-style combativeness.
Romney described this as “disagreements over policy and the vision of our respective parties” versus “continuing to promote a narrative which puts democracy itself in jeopardy.”
“And when you tell people that voting doesn’t work and that democracy can’t work because we don’t have legitimate elections, that’s a very dangerous thing to be saying,” he continued.
Others have protested that the GOP has become too much about Trump personally over the past four years, which has led the party into the fight over the 2020 election results.
“I wish more elected Republicans would tell the truth because this shameful episode is going to have long-lasting damage to our elections, and especially to Republicans’ ability to win elections,” said the former leadership aide. “As we’ve seen for four years, there’s just not much loyalty to the truth or the republic, only him.”
Trump, rebuking McConnell on Twitter for accepting Biden as president-elect, takes a different view. “Too soon to give up,” the president wrote. “Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
