Messy Trump exit could trigger backlash against GOP populists

The rocky ending to President Trump’s term, concluding with an unprecedented second impeachment vote on the charge of inciting a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, has cast a pall over populist Republicans who seek to rebuild the party in his image.

Two of those led the charge in Congress on objecting to the Electoral College tallies of a handful of contested battleground states Trump refused to concede, citing voter fraud and other voter fraud. One was Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who has said the future of conservatism is both populist and libertarian. The other was Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican whose populism, like Trump’s, constitutes a break with the more libertarian assumptions of the GOP Right.