The president’s popularity, which is absolute among his voters, makes too many Republican politicians hostage to his unfounded claims of election fraud.
Two opinion polls explain the dominance that President Donald Trump has over Republican leaders, making them complicit in the baseless accusations that the election that elected Joe Biden was stolen. A majority of Republican respondents said they would support a third Trump run in 2024, 54% in a Morning Consult/Politico poll and 66% in a Seven Letter Insight poll.
In the first poll, 71% of respondents said they consider the president more efficient and committed to American interests than congressional Republicans. In the second poll, 80% of respondents doubted the legitimacy of the electoral process that denied Trump a second term.
Therefore, everything indicates that he will leave the White House in January without explicitly acknowledging his defeat to Biden and will be backed as a favorite among his supporters to run in the next election. Nearly 70% of respondents see Trump as the politician closest to the party’s base.
The president’s popularity has transformed Republican leaders and politicians into his hostages. Few dare to confront him on his unfounded claims about widespread fraud during the election on Nov. 3.
The majority remain loyal to Trump because they fear having to face the wrath of their fellow Republicans and the accumulated political capital of 73.7 million votes, 6 million fewer votes than Biden’s tally. The president uses this to his advantage, fully aware of the fact that currently there is nobody in the Republican Party capable of challenging him.
In the Morning Consult/Politico poll, 12% of respondents said that they would support a potential campaign for the presidency by Vice President Mike Pence, and 8% would back Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son. Other Republican figures, such as Senator Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, received 4%.
On the same day that three senators distanced themselves from the president, Trump finally agreed to facilitate the transfer of power, despite not admitting that Biden won the election. So far, eight Republican senators have dissented, an insignificant number considering there are a total of 53 [Republican] senators.
The other Republican politicians prefer to keep silent or neutral, at least publicly. Meanwhile the president’s attempts to delegitimize the election are becoming less and less sustainable.
However, the damage to American democracy has already been done. In the 18 days since Biden’s win, Trump went golfing six times and posted more than 550 tweets, most of which were trying to subvert the electoral process. Even if he does not become a candidate in the future, he is preparing the terrain so that other candidates may do the same in the next election: Attack the election results in case they aren’t pleasing or favorable to them.
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