Rep. Dan Crenshaw said former President Donald Trump appeared to be “happy in retirement” when he saw him recently.
Crenshaw, who said he ran into Trump in Florida, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday the former president was “as friendly as ever” during their conversation. The congressman also noted that he views Trump not as a cult figure or a source of antipathy but rather as a “human being.”
“He’s an ex-president. You can’t just excommunicate him. He’s an ex-leader of our party, and trying to excommunicate him in an aggressive fashion will never work [because] he does have a large base of support within our party, but what also won’t work is this belief that he will continue to be the leader of our party in the future,” he said.
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The Texas Republican said he views Trump as a former party leader but feels the 45th president still deserves a degree of reverence.
“I think he deserves an amount of respect from our party, and I think that’s what people were reacting to this week,” he said of Wednesday’s vote to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership position over frequent remarks criticizing the former president. “You know … I think a large majority of Republicans are looking towards what the next leadership looks like, but they also don’t want this disrespect of our former leader, either.”
Crenshaw aligned himself with Trump during his four years in office, defending his COVID-19 response, applauding Trump’s “tactical patience” in dealing with Iran, and praising the Trump administration’s border policies.
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Since departing office on Jan. 20, Trump has remained an active figure within the Republican Party. Due to his enduring popularity among the GOP base, several candidates for public office have courted his support, and he has endorsed both incumbents and challengers in races across the country ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump, who also created a one-way communicative platform to share his thoughts with supporters, has teased several potential ventures in the next few years, stirring speculation that he will start a social media platform allowing for more robust user engagement and signaling that he may run again for the White House in 2024.
