President Trump is not often thought of as a uniter, but he is the common thread that ties together disparate speakers at the Republican National Convention.
Republicans with widely divergent views on how the party should move forward are bound together in loyalty to Trump and try to present their arguments in ways that appeal to the president’s most loyal supporters. But those differences are sure to take on renewed importance as 2024 approaches, whether Trump wins or loses this November.
“I’m supporting President Trump because he believes as I do that a strong America cannot fight endless wars,” Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said in his Tuesday convention speech. “We must not continue to leave our blood and treasure in Middle East quagmires.
“President Trump is the first president in a generation to seek to end war rather than start one. He intends to end the war in Afghanistan,” Paul continued. “He is bringing our men and women home.”
Speaking later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lauded the more hawkish elements of Trump’s record. “When Iran threatened, the president approved a strike that killed Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani, the man responsible for the murder and maiming of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Christians across the Middle East,” Pompeo said. He later added, “The president exited the U.S. from the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran and squeezed the ayatollah, Hezbollah, and Hamas.”
Both Republicans framed the policies they championed as consistent with Trump’s “America First” doctrine. “You will all recall that when the president took office, radical Islamic terrorists had beheaded Americans and ISIS controlled a territory the size of Great Britain,” Pompeo said. “Today, because of the president’s determination and leadership, the ISIS caliphate is wiped out, its evil leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, is dead, and our brave soldiers are on their way home.” Note the emphasis on the troops coming home.
Paul had voted against confirming Pompeo for director of the CIA. The Kentucky lawmaker was originally going to do the same when Pompeo was tapped for secretary of state, but Trump prevailed on Paul to cast the deciding vote in favor of the nominee.
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and Trump ally who is considered more hawkish, is scheduled to speak on Thursday night, when the president delivers his own formal acceptance speech. Both Donald Trump Jr. and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz spoke of ending “endless wars” in their Monday convention speeches.
All of the above Republicans are considered possible 2024 candidates.
Also notable were rhetorical distinctions on criminal justice reform. Gaetz warned that Democrats would “empty the prisons.” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in his keynote address that Democratic nominee Joe Biden “led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars.”
“I would argue that the diversity of the speakers at the convention, including gender, race, and ideological diversity, is a big part of why Trump is broadening his coalition this week,” said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak.
But 2024 considerations will eventually fracture that coalition, at least during the primaries. As former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke Monday night, praising Trump’s foreign policy as tough and quoting Jeane Kirkpatrick against “blame America first” Democrats, some conservative detractors were tweeting the hashtag #NeoconNikki.
Once Trump is no longer the candidate, Republicans will resume arguments over trade, immigration, deficit spending, criminal sentencing, and foreign policy that have largely been paused during his administration.
Trump was seen as rejecting Republican orthodoxy on some of those issues when he first secured the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. Since then, some congressional Republicans have watched uneasily as he imposed tariffs on Chinese goods or issued expansive executive orders, but few have actively worked against these initiatives.
How much, and how permanently, Trump may have remade the party in his image will not become clear until his presidency is over. For now, he remains overwhelmingly popular with rank-and-file Republican voters and has the support of most GOP elected officials. While a handful of Republican dissidents spoke in favor of Biden at the Democratic convention, other former GOP skeptics, such as Utah Sen. Mike Lee and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, are now in the president’s corner.
