MAGA’s 'purity purge' is tearing up the GOP: Dem strategist

13 March 2024

During an early March appearance on the right-wing "America's Real Voice," Lara Trump — who now co-chairs the Republican National Committee (RNC) — made it abundantly clear that anyone who wasn't an unwavering Donald Trump loyalist would no longer be welcome in the organization. Lara Trump declared that the RNC's #1 goal this year must be helping her father-in-law win the 2024 presidential election.

The RNC was already pro-Trump, but the makeover it is getting under its new chairman, Michael Whatley, and its new co-chair Lara Trump is intended to make the organization thoroughly MAGA from top to bottom.

But not everyone who is conservative believes their sole mission in life is to serve Donald Trump.

In an op-ed published by The Hill on March 13, Democratic strategist Max Burns argues that the MAGA movement's "purity purge" is hurting the GOP by alienating everyone from RNC donors to Republicans in Congress.

"For Donald Trump," Burns explains, "last week must have seemed like a final, crowning victory over his lingering Republican critics. On Friday, the Republican National Committee made official what Trump had already decreed weeks ago, electing Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as party co-chair…. Donald Trump's MAGA ideology can now claim the House speakership and formal control of the RNC."

Burns continues, "With Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stepping down from his role as Senate minority leader, Trump will likely soon control that post as well. But even at the pinnacle of its institutional power, the MAGA movement is already buckling at the joints."

The Democratic strategist cites Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado) as examples of prominent Republicans who have rebelled against demands that they "bow to Trump on nearly every issue."

"Colorado Rep. Ken Buck stunned Capitol Hill on Tuesday by announcing that he'd simply had enough of Trumpism and would resign in just over a week," Burns explains. "In an interview with CNN, Buck slammed Congress as “dysfunctional” and remarked that many of his constituents were sick of Trump."

Burns adds, "It isn't just Buck who's had enough of Trump's constant demands for loyalty and submission. Some of the party's biggest fundraisers are already sitting on the electoral sidelines rather than raise or donate a penny to Trump. Now, Newsweek reports that Lara Trump's RNC takeover is driving even lifelong RNC financiers out of the party."

One of the RNC donors who has rebelled is Florida-based Peter Henlein.

In a March 8 post on X, formerly Twitter, Henlein wrote, "Lara Trump is now Co-Chair of the RNC. After a lifetime of donating to every GOP nominee and multiple down ballot candidates every cycle…. I'm out. I donated to help win elections, not to maintain the lifestyle of a billionaire. No point donating now."

Burns predicts that more Republicans will be rebelling against Donald Trump in the weeks and months ahead.

"Republicans have built themselves a party whose sole purpose is to appease and gratify Donald Trump," the Democratic strategist laments. "In the process, they're quickly losing appeal to anyone else in America, including some of the party's most faithful warriors. Buck and Romney may be the first Republican leaders to walk out of Congress before being tossed, but they won't be the last."

Max Burns' full op-ed for The Hill is available at this link.

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