Dems 'slept-walked into Armageddon' as Trump coalesced GOP into 'wholly owned subsidiary of MAGA'

15 July 2024

Editor's Note: This story and headline has been updated.

Some Never Trump conservatives have long since left the GOP, while others are still registered Republicans but are no longer influential in their party. And some conservatives who were critical of former President Donald Trump in 2022 and 2023 have given him lukewarm endorsements, including House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

According to Politico's Jonathan Martin, the assassination attempt that Trump survived in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon, July 13 is likely to quell the small amount of opposition to Trump that remains in the Republican Party.

Martin warns Trump's "GOP critics have retired, lost, died, capitulated or fallen silent as the former president has all but made the Party of Lincoln a wholly owned subsidiary of his MAGA movement."

"The complete and total, to borrow a phrase, realignment of the GOP into the Party of Trump was nearly complete after he avoided being seriously challenged, let alone defeated, through the primaries," Martin explains in an article published on July 15 — the opening day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. "But it was cemented in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Trump escaped death and seconds later rallied his stunned audience to forge a bond few American presidents have enjoyed with their supporters."

Martin adds, "With that instant moment of political iconography, Trump is well-positioned to stifle what little intra-party dissent remains in the GOP. More worrisome for his opponents, and perhaps the country, the shooting and his defiant response will strengthen his case for a brand of strongman politics to which our democracy had mostly been immune."

Two days before the assassination attempt, Trump hosted far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — often described an authoritarian strongman by critics — at Mar-a-Lago.

The Politico reporter notes that previously, Haley said she wouldn't be attending the convention — but following the assassination attempt, has indicated that she will be there.

"Haley was not only the former president's last standing GOP opponent this year, she was also a symbol of opposition from the pre-Trump party," Martin explains. "For months after she dropped out of the race, she still claimed tens of thousands of votes in state after state, as Republican holdouts registered their discontent with the presumptive nominee."

"Instead of spending Biden’s first term determining who could block Trump’s return, they slept-walked into Armageddon," Martin said. "Democrats are now attempting to compress what should have been a three-year-long conversation into three weeks, the summer of the election. And they’re speaking in existential terms about the stakes."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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