Former President Donald Trump staked his claim to the Republican Party in a closed-door speech to donors Saturday night, casting his populist policies and attack-dog politics as the key to future Republican success.
Trump also reinforced his commitment to the GOP in his address, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press, which comes as Republican officials seek to downplay an intraparty feud over Trump’s role in the party, his commitment to GOP fundraising and his plans for 2024. While Trump’s advisers report he will emphasize party unity, he rarely sticks to script.
“The key to this triumphant future will be to build on the gains our amazing movement has made over the past four years,” Trump told hundreds of leading Republican donors, according to the prepared remarks. “Under our leadership, we welcomed millions upon millions of new voters into the Republican coalition. We transformed the Republican Party into a party that truly fights for all Americans.”
The former president delivered his remarks behind closed doors at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, in the final address of the Republican National Committee’s weekend donor summit in Palm Beach. Most of the RNC’s invitation-only weekend gathering was set at a luxury hotel four miles away, but attendees were bused to Trump’s club for his remarks.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to address donors Saturday night as well. Earlier in the weekend, a slew of candidates already positioning themselves for a 2024 presidential run made appearances. Besides DeSantis, the potential White House contenders included South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also spoke.
In his remarks Friday night, Cotton leaned into the GOP’s culture wars, attacking the Democrats’ positions on transgender youth, voter ID laws and Major League Baseball’s decision to move its All-Star Game to protest Republican voting laws — just as Trump does in his prepared remarks.
While a significant faction of the Republican Party hopes to move past Trump’s divisive leadership, the location of the weekend gathering suggests that the GOP, at least for now, is not ready to replace Trump as its undisputed leader and chief fundraiser.
Trump’s team reports that his remarks are intended to reinforce his continued leadership role in Republican affairs, a sharp break from past presidents.
“Saturday’s speech will be welcomed words to the Republican donors visiting Mar-a-Lago to hear directly from President Trump,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said. “Palm Beach is the new political power center, and President Trump is the Republican Party’s best messenger.”
Despite Saturday’s intended message, Trump’s commitment to the GOP is far from certain.
Earlier in the year, he raised the possibility of creating a new political party. And just a month ago, Trump’s political action committee sent letters to the RNC and others asking them to “immediately cease and desist the unauthorized use of President Donald J. Trump’s name, image, and/or likeness in all fundraising, persuasion, and/or issue speech.”
GOP officials have repeatedly tried to downplay the fundraising tensions and see Trump’s participation as a sign that he is willing to lend his name to the party. At the same time, Trump continues to aggressively accumulate campaign cash to fuel his own political ambitions.
Trump has also regularly attacked his Republican critics in recent weeks, especially Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney. Neither attended the weekend donor summit.
Trump did not attack Cheney or McConnell — or any Republicans — in Saturday’s speech, at least according to his scripted remarks.
(AP)
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4 Responses
The best chance of decimating the republican party is trumpism.
To whom are the donors giving? Yet another scam by the seditious adulterer?
No mention of Matt Gaetz? Great figure for the party of “family values”. He’s fully supported by loser trump.
Ask Mr. Perdue and Miss Kelly how it worked down here in Georgia in January. Keep throwing Red meat to the orange pitt bull and see how quick he can turn it blue.
It’s Time For Americans to Wake Up – A House Operating Behind a Razor Wire Fence from the People Cannot Stand.
November 3, 2020 was not an election. It was a coup executed by U.S. citizens, who are not Americans, aided and abetted by international financiers and hostile foreign powers.
Yes, there is now a clear distinction between Americans and those who simply possess U.S. citizenship.
Many of the latter are now in the process of destroying the United States of America from within.
If the usurpers are allowed to continue implementing their destructive policies, there will never again be a free and fair election in this country.
The 2020 election was stolen through massive and coordinated fraud by people who hate America.
It was an illegal seizure of power to create a permanent leftist, one-party, totalitarian state similar to that of their sponsor, the transnational criminal organization, the Chinese Communist Party, They have already meekly capitulated to the coup plotters and will eventually follow the path of the Provisional Government of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which was forcibly crushed by the Communists, Do not expect the current Republican Party to save the country.
The U.S. government is now hopelessly corrupt and completely separated from the American people.
Three years before the start of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said a government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free — that a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Likewise, a government separated from the American people will always function behind a razor wire fence.
Americans need to wake up.
Trump lost in a year in which the Republicans did well in the House races, won most of the Senate races, and made gains in the state legislative races. Trump’s “campaigning” in Georgia (attaching Republican officeholders when he should have been attacking the Democrats) is why the Democrats control the Congress.
While an argument can be made that Republicans should stick with Trump’s policies that go against the previous (i.e.Reagan-era) Republican policies, in such matters as trade and immigration, it is clear that the Trump methodology of mindless insulting use of social media, and attacking fellow Republicans doesn’t work and can lead to disasterous election results.