Former President Donald Trump‘s power over the Republican Party is proving to be as strong as ever as he bends the GOP to his wishes on his way to a third presidential nomination.
Just this week, Republicans in Congress killed a Senate border deal at his behest, the head of the Republican National Committee appears likely to step down after Trump cast doubt on her position, and Nevada voters soundly rejected his top primary foe.
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Trump took a victory lap Tuesday after former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley lost the Nevada GOP primary to the “none of these candidates” option by double digits early Wednesday morning.
Earlier on Tuesday, Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), admitted defeat on a $118.3 billion bipartisan immigration bill after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the bill “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will reportedly step down from the position following South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary to pave the way for Trump-backed Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, according to the New York Times.
All of this signals that despite Haley’s defiant stance in remaining in the 2024 GOP primary, Trump is once again remaking the party in his political image and largely ignoring long-held Republican policies and beliefs.
“As has been the case for the better part of a decade, the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump,” national Republican strategist Brian Seitchik said. “And those who have tried to resist that power have done so unsuccessfully.”
McConnell, a frequent foe of Trump, has borne the brunt of resisting Trump over the failed border deal. The Senate minority leader had called for any Ukraine aid to be paired with a border security deal. But despite deputizing Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) to negotiate a deal, Trump’s opposition was enough to thwart any chance of it passing in the Senate, much less the House.
The legislation, which Lankford spent four months hammering out, called for $60.1 billion in military funding for Ukraine, $14.1 billion to Israel as it battles Hamas, $10 billion in humanitarian aid, and $20 billion to secure the border. It crashed 24 hours after it was unveiled.
In the aftermath of the failure, some Republicans, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), have called for the longtime leader to step down. “I’ve had a small group of persistent critics the whole time I’ve been in this job. They had their shot,” McConnell told Politico in response to the attacks.
Haley, the only candidate standing between Trump becoming the GOP nominee, suffered a stinging defeat when 63.2% of Nevada voters chose “none of these candidates” compared to the 30.5% who opted to vote for her during the Tuesday primary.
“I think what’s astounding here about Nevada is that Trump won a race he didn’t file for by an astounding 2-to-1 margin. I mean, that’s a spectacular embarrassment for Haley,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based Republican strategist.
Trump is competing in Thursday’s Nevada caucuses run by the state GOP and did not appear in Tuesday’s primary. Yet Trump largely eschewed encouraging supporters to vote for “none of these candidates” when he stumped in the Silver State.
Republican voters did so anyway, opting to vote “none of these candidates” on Tuesday and then will vote for Trump on Thursday. At least one voter told the Washington Examiner they were doing so to “make a statement,” a sign that Trump’s popularity is unabated.
The former president took to social media to gloat over Haley’s loss. “A bad night for Nikki Haley. Losing by almost 30 points in Nevada to ‘None of These Candidates.’ Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Joseph Vargas, a veteran Texas GOP consultant, attributed Haley’s loss to a lack of true Republican supporters in the primary.
“The people that are supporting her are not so much supporting her, but it’s really like a vote against Trump,” Vargas said. “I think she’s going to lose South Carolina, and I think her donors are going to ask her to step down then.”
The former president currently leads Haley in the Palmetto State, 60% to 20.3%, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average. Haley often touts beating President Joe Biden in a hypothetical general election matchup on the campaign trail, largely ignoring the advantageous lead Trump has over her.
Many lawmakers appear unwilling to wait and see if Haley can achieve traction in her uphill battle against Trump after losing Iowa, New Hampshire, and now Nevada.
“Trump is firing on all cylinders with the GOP grassroots, and elected officials have recognized it’s time to fall in line if they want to win the White House and possibly both chambers of Congress in 2024,” O’Connell continued, pointing to McConnell’s recent troubles. “McConnell, who is not always a fan of Trump, has recognized the inevitable is coming.”
McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman, became the latest victim of Trump’s dominance of the GOP as she appears to be stepping down within the next month. The RNC faced its worst fundraising haul in 2023 since 2013, as Federal Election Commission filings showed the committee having only $8 million in cash on hand after raising $87.2 million.
Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had repeatedly criticized McDaniel and called for her to step down in November, but she had largely resisted his efforts. She couldn’t resist Trump, the de facto leader of her party.
“You have to understand, I have nothing to do with the RNC. I’m separate,” Trump said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, distancing himself from McDaniel.
“I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me. I think she did OK, initially, in the RNC,” he said when asked about McDaniel’s future. “I would say right now, there’ll probably be some changes made.”
Two days later, McDaniel seems to have heeded Trump’s warnings to step down. However, the RNC pushed back against the reports in a Tuesday night statement to the Washington Examiner. “Nothing has changed. This will be decided after South Carolina,” RNC spokesman Keith Schipper said.
Grant Reeher, professor of political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that Trump’s dominance over the GOP should be attributed to his role as a candidate and not to an ideological reshaping of the party.
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“This is kind of typical for Trump’s effort and influencing the party because it does seem to be more about him as a candidate or as a president than as a point of view or a set of policies or any ideology,” Reeher said. “It’s an aggressive version of normal party politics surrounding presidential candidates and the influence that they have on a party … which marks it with Trump’s signature.”
But Seitchik, the national GOP strategist, argued that excluding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the GOP belongs to Trump. “It is his party again. Outside the first and second quarter of 2021, Trump has been the dominant figure since June of 2015,” he said.
