Donald Trump’s problem is called Kari Lake Trump Candidacy Expected – US Republicans Regroup

With the big lie, the absurd claim that the 2020 election was rigged, and that Joe Biden was an illegitimate president, Donald Trump had a firm grip on the Grand Old Party (GOP) despite his election defeat. The most effective messenger of this lie was Kari Lake. The former TV host was running for governor of Arizona and polls showed her the best chance of winning, especially since her Democratic competitor Katie Hobbs is considered a rather bland technocrat.

As such, Lake has become a rising star among Republicans in recent months. In fact, she brings it all: she is attractive and very skilled in dealing with the media. To appear in the right light, she usually appears with her own light crew for interviews. Her performances were so effective that Lake has already been traded as a possible running mate with her idol Trump.

Maybe the 2020 election is finally over

The ex-president was also madly in love with his model student. “When asked ‘How is the family’, she replies, ‘The election was rigged and stolen,'” he boasted.

Nothing comes of the dream couple Trump / Lake. Lake lost, and that ended the Big Lie. As the conservative Wall Street Journal puts it, “If even Mrs. Lake couldn’t win with the slogan ‘Stop the Steal,’ then it’s very hard to imagine anyone else could. Maybe the 2020 election is finally over .”

Kari Lake is the most prominent, but by no means the only, loser of the Big Lie faction. Despite Trump’s support, few were able to prevail. Key posts—governor, secretary of state, and attorney general—in key swing states—Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin—remain in Democratic hands or with Republicans, who have long since acknowledged Trump’s defeat.

Despite this, Trump announced yesterday that he wants to move back into the White House in 2024. That surprised no one, but it did lead to two diametrically opposed predictions about his chances of winning.

For some, the ex-president’s candidacy is a desperate attempt to regain the limelight, one doomed to fail. The Emperor, or Trump, is naked, his magic has lost its effect. Trump has become boring, even his biggest fan, Fox News host Sean Hannity, said goodbye to the confused speech in which the ex-president officially announced his candidacy, critics note.

Even Mike Pence is now criticizing Trump

In fact, things are going bad in Mar-a-Lago right now. Prominent Republicans like Chris Christie or Mitt Romney hold Trump responsible for the GOP’s disappointing performance during the midterm elections. Important patrons no longer want to support him and loyal fans beg him not to participate anymore. Even Mike Pence utters sentences about Trump that could be interpreted as criticism.

Marc A. Thiessen, a former aide to George W. Bush and conservative columnist for The Washington Post, writes, even pleads, “Mr. President. For the sake of your reputation and the good of the country, if you want to make America strong again, please don’t do that.”

The Democrats, for their part, would therefore like to see the Republicans lead Trump again. This is a false, if not dangerous, hope. Trump may be battered, but he’s not done yet. He still has a base within the GOP that is blindly devoted to him, and politics is known as a game with many unknowns.

Trump critics face well-known Trump supporters in their own ranks, such as Lindsey Graham, the influential South Carolina senator, or Congressman Elise Stefanik, number three on the Republican leadership team in the House of Representatives. All of them have already supported the ex-president.

In addition, the GOP is on the brink of civil war. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin are now being traded as potential challengers to Trump. Both have made their elections very successful, both are already under heavy attack from Trump.

A civil war could play into Trump’s hands. As Kevin Williamson of the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute writes in the New York Times, “Bitterness and blame are Trump’s main tools, and just when Republicans are at their lowest ebb — when they feel vulnerable, bullied, and marginalized — Trump in top political form.”

After January 6, 2021, the hope arose that Trump was finally done. This hope has not been fulfilled. In fact, the ex-president managed to transform the GOP into a cult movement with him as its leader in a very short time.

Failing that, even cult leaders will be in trouble, and the next test is just around the corner, the Georgia Senate by-election. If Trump’s candidate Herschel Walker leaves the field as a loser, things will slowly become tight for the ex-president.