For the time being, the Republican Party very much remains the party of Donald Trump.
The 45th president and his family are making maneuvers to help Trump-friendly candidates, even as some voices within the GOP want the party to separate itself from the former commander-in-chief.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, seen as a potential 2024 contender, is being helped by Donald Trump, Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, with a donor greeting organized for her next week at Mar-a-Lago.
Noem and President Trump have become allies, particularly since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak and her refusal to enact the type of restrictions common in other parts of the country.
The South Dakota governor spoke at President Trump’s July 4 event at Mt. Rushmore last year. According to financial disclosure forms, Noem on that occasion gifted Trump with a $1,100 replica of Mt. Rushmore with his own face on it.
The invitation for the March 5 Noem fundraising event says that to be a host requires a contribution of $4,000 per individual or $8,000 for a couple, which gets you a private roundtable discussion, photo-op and cocktail reception with Noem, Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. There’s a $1,000 minimum contribution merely to attend the fundraiser, which gets you into the cocktail party.
Politico previously reported that President Trump is gearing up for war against members of the Republican Party whom he feels betrayed him and will soon begin vetting candidates at Mar-a-Lago who share his vision in order to replace establishment Republicans with MAGA ones in the 2022 primary elections.
“Trump already has received dozens of requests from prospective candidates seeking to introduce themselves and nab his endorsement, and formal meetings with them could begin as early as March,” Politico notes. “Now that Trump has survived his second Senate impeachment trial, he has shifted his focus to post-presidential activism — a venture mostly bankrolled by his new leadership PAC, Save America, which had $31 million in its coffers at the start of this month.”
Last week, President Trump met with his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to discuss online fundraising and how to use social media in spite of being banned on top platforms such as Twitter. An invitation also showed that he was slated to appear at a fundraising dinner for Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) at Mar-a-Lago with guests including Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
“We are in the process of putting together a more formal schedule for candidates who want to come get his endorsement,” said senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Members of the establishment are worried and want to dissuade President Trump from his course.
Politico notes:
The planning for Trump’s coming revenge tour comes as other top Republicans try to cajole him into working with the party’s apparatus ahead of next year’s midterm elections, rather than recruiting rival candidates whose bids could complicate primaries and cost the GOP critical seats. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is expected to meet with Trump over the weekend to discuss his upcoming plans, including the former president’s desire to push for voter reforms at a time when the topic of election integrity has created a major split among elected Republicans.
… “I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to eat our own,” Graham told Fox News on the heels of a blistering statement Trump released this week accusing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of jeopardizing GOP candidates with his “lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality.”
In the above-mentioned statement, Trump said he would recruit candidates “who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America first” where he deems such challenges necessary. Among those whom he reportedly plans to try to oust are Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, and Fred Upton of Michigan, both of whom voted to impeach following the January 6 Capitol protest.
“If you’re Trump, you don’t gotta play nice with these people anymore. You don’t have to do the whole fake political thing where you pretend to like people you don’t actually like,” said a person close to the president
“A Republican Party that seeks to erase President Trump and fails to understand his appeal to working class voters is destined to lose elections in 2022, 2024 and beyond,” Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.) tweeted Wednesday.
President Trump is slated to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this weekend.
