How the Republicans want to get rid of Trump Amsterdam bans smoking weed in the streets of the old city

The Grand Old Party finds itself in a political version of the well-known ‘Too much to die, too little to live’ dilemma. Donald Trump presents the Republicans with a difficult dilemma: he has a good chance of winning the primary, but with him they cannot beat the Democrats.

Something like panic is spreading in the ranks of the Republicans. Eric Levin, a major fundraiser for the party, compares Trump to a rampant cancer in the “politico” news portal and laments, “He’s probably the only Republican, yes, the only person in the country who can’t beat Joe Biden.”

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Word of this insight is also beginning to circulate among the GOP’s top patrons. The Koch brothers’ foundation and their affiliated organizations such as “American For Prosperity” and the “Club of Growth” have already indicated their willingness to support a candidate against Trump. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of BlackStone, a powerful investment fund that has donated $3.7 million to Trump in recent years, said: “It’s time for Republicans to turn to a new generation of leaders, and I intend to be one of them. to support.”

Ken Griffin of the hedge fund Citadel, who even donated $60 million for the GOP candidates for the 2022 midterm elections, is also blowing the same horn. “I wish the Republicans wouldn’t pick a candidate who’s been a loser three times in a row.”

Getting rid of Trump is easier said than done. The ex-president still has a solid base in the GOP that would follow him even if he lost the primary and entered the race as an independent. That would screw up the election of any Republican nominee.

However, Trump also has a good chance of winning the primary. If there is a whole series of Republican candidates running, the votes are split and the ex-president can swing on top thanks to his solid base. GOP strategists therefore fervently hope that the anti-Trump candidates will take the Democrats as their role models and ultimately support whoever has the best chance of being elected.

That’s what the Democratic candidates did in 2020, when they set aside their ambitions in favor of Biden. One influential adviser told Politico, “Does Mike Pence really want to go down in history as the man who helped Trump win with a 4 percent share of the vote? The same goes for Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo.”

Currently, Ron DeSantis would probably be the one the others should rally behind. The Florida governor is the only one who can keep up with Trump in the polls. But while DeSantis has been successful in Florida, he has yet to prove himself nationally. He is considered a bad election campaigner and is said to have a “glass jaw” – as boxers call it.

Republicans, too, must watch helplessly as their skins swim away. Joe Biden is carrying out what Trump only promised. The president has found his own version of Make America Great Again. In his “State of the Union” speech, he announced an economic program to win back workers in the old industrialized countries. And while Trump continued to chatter about an “infrastructure week,” Biden pushed a corresponding bill through Congress and can now regularly smile for the cameras at the groundbreaking ceremony for new bridges, roads and tunnels.

Biden cleverly parries right-wing populism with a progressive alternative. He railed against the powerful tech companies, threatened banks, hotels and airlines to ban unjustified fees, and most importantly, promised to leave Social Security untouched. Meanwhile, Republicans are fooling themselves with hearings against Twitter and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Henry Olsen, conservative columnist at the Washington Post, pulls his hair out over it. He complains that Republicans are still peddling old stereotypes of neoliberalism instead of offering alternatives. “Working-class voters want a government that is strong, active and protects them from economic hardship,” Olsen laments. “(…) Biden is betting the GOP is too blind to see that. Republicans who want to take back their country need to wake up.”

It is currently impossible to foresee how the Republicans can escape the Trump trap on their own. Perhaps the hated Attorney General Merrick Garland and his special counsel Jack Smith will help them, of all people. He needs to clarify whether charges should be filed against Trump, either for his role in storming the Capitol or for the classified paperwork affair.

It has just been announced that Smith has called Trump Vice President Mike Pence as a witness. Pence declined such an invitation from the committee to clarify the events of January 6, 2021. Whether he can do the same with the special investigator is considered unlikely. He has already published a book in which he described his role on that day in detail and therefore cannot claim executive privilege. In addition, two of his key associates – Marc Short, his chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, his attorney – have already testified.

The likelihood that Trump will actually be impeached is increasing. If he is also convicted, the ex-president can no longer compete – and the GOP is relieved of their worries.