By Caroline Mimbs Nyce The Atlantic
As Congress and the courts pick up the pieces from Donald Trump’s first presidency, the country is already wondering whether it might see a second. The former president is flirting with a 2024 bid—and may have a shot at winning fair and square if he does. But his command of the GOP may be weakening: Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia last month appeared to open a path for Republicans that does not include the former president.
Not that Trump is standing aside. “His status within the GOP helps him command the boundless attention he craves, and he’s not about to lose that dominance without a fight,” Peter Nicholas, who covered Trump as a White House reporter, points out.
- Will Trump run? One GOP insider told Peter that they plan to discourage him from doing so. “The mere fact that someone who worked to elect Trump the first time is rehearsing arguments to stop a comeback suggests that the former president’s tight grip on the Republican Party may be slipping,” Peter writes.
- Will Mike Pence? And if so, why? The former vice president is, Peter writes, “acting as if the old establishment party that gave rise to Bob Dole and Howard Baker is still intact and his to reclaim.”
- David Brooks is terrified for the GOP’s future. “The idea that the left controls absolutely everything—from your smartphone to the money supply to your third grader’s curriculum—explains the apocalyptic tone” that dominated the National Conservatism Conference, he writes in his dispatch from the event.
