The Republican Party has a leadership problem. For years, GOP candidates have had to toe the line laid down by Donald Trump. Failure to do so meant a primary challenge against a rival who had the backing of the president, and therefore, of the MAGA voters. Now that the primary season is over, many Republican candidates are trying to move away from the president. For almost all of them, it will prove to be too little too late, but watching them scramble for cover is rather amusing. On a serious note, it marks the beginning of two years of lame duck-ery for Mr. Trump. He will only get weaker from here.
In Michigan, Senate candidate Mike Rogers posted a statement filmed at a grocery store where he was pressing the flesh, “The war with Iran needs to end — and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet.”
“Michigan families can’t afford to wait,” he added. “Here’s what we can do now: place a temporary embargo on Diesel exports. American energy should provide relief to American families first.”
Politico observed, “Earlier Monday, Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, expressed frustrations similar to Rogers’ about the war’s impact on Iowans’ pocketbooks. Both Rogers and Hinson called for a suspension of the state and federal gas tax in their statements.”
The war is not the only issue that is causing reactionary politicians to lean away from Fearless Leader. Donald Trump Jr. got a wedding party paid for by a Russian oligarch. Olivia Diaz, writing in the New York Times, stated, “In a three-page letter, Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah, urged the Judiciary Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., after it was revealed that a Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the festivities on an island in the Bahamas this year.”
The president is even losing on immigration, the issue that got him the second term Caligula and Nero never had. The New York Times also reported,
Last week, Representative María Elvira Salazar of Florida — who represents a district Mr. Trump won with 57 percent of the vote — released an ad breaking with Mr. Trump on immigration. It was seen as a sign both of Mr. Trump’s collapsing support in Hispanic communities and the degree to which districts he carried by 10 percentage points or more in 2024 have become swing districts in 2026.
In Florida, Republican candidate for governor Byron Donalds went so far as to scrub all photos and references in text to the president from the website byrondonalds.com.
What is interesting is these politicians are not operating in Berkeley, California, nor the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They are in the red parts of the red states. The interpretation of that here is the American right is just a little tired of the Donald Trump show. Owning the libs has been fun for them, but diesel is at $6.50 a gallon and the interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is 7%. Voters may not understand the nuances of the capital gains tax, but they do understand that ground beef is up 20% since Mr. Trump took office. He is a drag on the party.
The election is going to go badly for the Republicans, and most of those who keep their jobs will be at sea because their leader is departing. This suggests that the GOP is going to have a bad 2028 and 2030. Mr. Trump will complain from the sidelines, but his voice will be less and less relevant.
One hesitates to compare today to 1929, but after a huge economic disaster under the Republicans, the Democrats won the White House for 24 of the next 32 years. The right in America will need to rebuild, and that is always messy.