Trump is already flexing strongman power in the GOP

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump is moving to assert total dominance over the Republican Party in a harbinger of the strongman rule he envisages for his possible second term, following his twin triumphs in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The ex-president is trying to intimidate Nikki Haley into abandoning the GOP presidential race. He’s warning donors who contribute to the former South Carolina governor they’ll be ostracized. Trump’s supporters launched a bid to jolt the Republican National Committee to anoint him presumptive nominee after only two nominating races — until Trump backtracked amid concern from his allies it could backfire.

And the 45th president is now pressuring GOP members of Congress to kill an immigration deal to deprive President Joe Biden of a victory and to ensure he can exploit the border crisis on the campaign trail. Trump has also been browbeating former opponents and key decision makers in the GOP to quickly endorse him as he forces the party to genuflect before him as he did during four years in the White House.

Trump’s brisk assertion of his growing power as the likely nominee is a characteristic dismantling of constraints that echoes his behavior in office. He was twice impeached in his single term, which ended after he tried to overturn an election in which voters ejected him from office. It is consistent with Trump’s self-created persona as the strongest person in every room that sustained him through a life in business, reality television and as an ex-president.

Among Trump’s critics, his behavior is stirring fresh concerns that his potential second term could mean a dawn of autocracy in the Oval Office. And Trump’s desire to pressure Haley out of the race after only two contests – while he leads in the delegate count 32 to 17, out of the 1,215 needed for the GOP crown – is consistent with his disrespect for democratic processes.

The former president is not hiding his intent. He has frequently warned, for instance, that he would dedicate a second term to exacting “retribution” on his enemies. Almost every day he demands full criminal immunity for presidents, partly as an effort to avoid prosecution for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election but also to permit him to behave exactly as he pleases in a possible second term with no risk of consequences.

In a rally Saturday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, that pulsated with aggressive imagery, the ex-president praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a “great man.” Orbán has methodically eroded political freedoms, cracked down on the independent press, and discredited the electoral system, the courts and alternative sources of power. He’s regarded by many “Make America Great Again” supporters as a hero and a model. “Some people don’t like him because he’s too strong. It’s good to have a strong man at the head of a country,” Trump reflected. His comments cemented an impression that Orbán may be a better prototype for the authoritarian leader that the ex-president would like to become than the extreme 1930s European dictators to which his recent rhetoric, toward immigrants especially, has drawn comparisons.

Trump’s impatience is creating political risks for his campaign

The former president’s autocratic instincts are one reason why the coming election promises to be one of the most fateful in modern American history.

But there are also risks for Trump in his truculent approach. By throwing his weight around he could confirm Biden’s arguments that he’d endanger democracy if elected to a second term in November. And the bullying approach and sexist language he’s using toward Haley could alienate some of the more moderate, independent, suburban voters that she’s attracting in the GOP primary. These are exactly the kinds of voters that Trump alienated in his 2020 defeat. If he’s to win another term, he must at least mitigate his deficit to Biden among this group in November.

Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina GOP, noted the potential consequences of Trump’s behavior in an interview with Kasie Hunt on “State of the Race” on CNN International and CNN Max on Thursday. Dawson, one of the few Palmetto State GOP heavyweights supporting Haley, warned that Trump would “polarize” women in South Carolina with his “seedy little comments about what Nikki had on.” He added: “Donald Trump is running more like he wants to be the President of Cuba instead of the President of the United States.”

Haley might not have beaten Trump in Iowa or New Hampshire. But she provoked him by refusing to quickly fold her campaign and endorse him like other GOP candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Trump’s fury was revealed in a self-absorbed victory speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday night. Haley’s mockery of that performance has infuriated the former president even more.

“We did our thing and we said what we had to say and then Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum,” Haley said in Charleston on Wednesday. “He pitched a fit. He was insulting. He was doing what he does, but I know that’s what he does when he’s insecure.”

Trump has appeared deeply frustrated that Haley is defying his calls for her to leave the race, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has reported. During his New Hampshire speech, he mocked the dress she wore on caucus night in Iowa. He has been calling her “birdbrain” on social media. Trump has also warned that anyone who makes a financial contribution to her will be “barred from the MAGA camp” – which Haley has turned around into a fundraising pitch for her campaign.

It is not surprising that there have been calls for Haley to end her campaign, given the size of her defeats to Trump and the fact that New Hampshire, where independents can vote in the GOP primary, was her best shot at a win. Parties generally like to consolidate quickly behind a nominee to look ahead to a general election once the destiny of the primary race becomes obvious. But the disdain toward Haley from Trump world is remarkable.

For instance, even before all the polls had closed on Tuesday night, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, one of Trump’s top supporters, issued a statement saying Haley’s campaign “must end” after the ex-president’s “monumental” victory “for the sake of the republic.” The history of past campaigns suggests that restraint and respect might be more effective in prodding Haley out of the race than threats. And while her prospects appear grim, the idea that a candidate should abandon a campaign after just two contests in a nationwide primary season just because the front-runner says so is in itself an affront to a democratic process.

Even Trump seems to have been convinced some of this has gone too far. The former president on Thursday came out against an RNC draft resolution that would have declared him the presumptive nominee — a move that would have allowed him access to the RNC’s data and fundraising operation. It would have essentially joined the party’s forces with Trump while an election involving a rival was still taking place.

But Trump wrote on Truth Social that while he appreciated the RNC’s “respect and devotion,” he wanted to win the “old fashioned way,” at the ballot box. While the campaign had initially approved of the resolution and Trump himself was on board, that changed when a backlash ensued, a source familiar told Collins. The resolution was withdrawn later Thursday.

Trump seeks to squash immigration deal

The former president, whose business career was mythologized in “The Art of the Deal,” is more concerned currently with the art of killing a deal – one being painfully pieced together by Republican and Democratic senators to address a southern border crisis. Trump has been lobbying Republicans in both private conversations and public statements on social media to oppose the deal because he wants to campaign on the issue this year and ensure Biden doesn’t get a legislative victory that could ease pressure at the border and help his reelection, sources said.

Trump’s maneuvering has infuriated some GOP senators looking for a deliverable for their voters at a moment when Biden appears willing to accept the return of some hardline Trump-era immigration policies in a compromise. Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana called any efforts to disrupt the ongoing negotiations “tragic.” Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump antagonist who’s not running for reelection, said that if Trump sabotaged the deal just to blame Biden, it would be “appalling.” Trump and his acolytes on Capitol Hill have also made clear their opposition to Biden’s latest $60 billion aid package for Ukraine, which is running out of bullets and ammunition.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who has been heavily involved in both the immigration and Ukraine discussions, raised concerns that the looming shadow of one man – who doesn’t currently hold any governing role – could overwhelm a branch of the US government.

“I hope we don’t live in a world today in which one person inside the Republican Party holds so much power that they could stop a bipartisan bill to try to give the president additional power at the border to make more sense of our immigration policy,” Murphy told CNN’s Manu Raju.

“I would hope that one person isn’t so powerful inside the Republican Party to hand Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, but we’ll find out the answer to that.”

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