I suspect even Donald Trump thought he would lose his cult-like spell over Republicans after not just losing the 2020 presidential election in a landslide (by his own definition), but inciting an insurrection to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and then costing them control of the US Senate to boot. Yet, paradoxically, his spell over them now seems stronger than ever.
No doubt the picture of Ted Cruz smiling so coquettishly as he dutifully memorialized his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, following the long line of Republicans who have done so to kiss Trump’s brass ring (or orange ass) speaks volumes in this respect. But that just puts a fetishistic twist on his notorious cuckoldry that is just too perverse for words.
That’s why the more relevant indication might be the way Republicans are openly preparing to sacrifice Liz Cheney to appease Trump.
House Republicans are poised to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership because of her confrontations with Donald Trump over the election, marking a symbolic cutting of the party’s remaining ties to the brand of Republicanism that ruled the GOP before the former president’s ascendancy.
(The Washington Post, May 5, 2021)
Of course, Cheney is right to describe the Republican Party as a cult of personality wholly devoted to Donald Trump – truth, the Constitution, and even the welfare of the country be damned. More to the point, Republican leaders pleaded with Cheney to tow the party line and tell Trump’s Big Lie about election fraud. Nevertheless, she persisted, continuing to tell the truth that the election was free and fair, and that Trump lost.
But I see no point in boring you with any commentary on its internal politics. Not least because I’m on record describing the Republican Party as such years ago in commentaries ranging from “Evangelicals Supporting Trump like Israelites Worshipping Calf,” January 18, 2016 to “Republicans Knew From Day One That Supporting Trump Was Like Israelites Worshiping the Golden Calf,” November 23, 2019, and “Trump Famously Boasted His Supporters Are So Stupid,” December 5, 2020.
I think it’s worth noting, however, that this devotion has far more to do with foolish pride than political belief. Because the simple truth is that the vast majority of Trump’s supporters will be damned if they’ll ever admit they were wrong about him. And, if that means propagating his Big Lie about the election (or anything else), they’re going to do so with zealous pride.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. America’s mayor? Ha! Try Trump’s (and Putin’s) useful idiot. But here too, the embarrassment of riches are just too, well, embarrassing for comment.
The matter of his legal bills, however, is serious and portends grave consequences for his former client/boss Donald Trump. Here is how Salon reported on this all too familiar farce yesterday:
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Rudy Giuliani’s allies are pressing former President Donald Trump’s team to help pay for his former attorney’s own growing legal bills as he faces multiple lawsuits over his efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss.
The pleas from Giuliani’s supporters come after Trump refused to pay his former lawyer for his work on his election legal challenges. Trump ‘balked’ at paying Giuliani after his associate sent a bill for $20,000 for a day of his work and told aides he did not want Giuliani to receive ‘any payment, according to the report.
The notoriously stingy former president bombarded supporters with fundraising appeals after his election loss, raising some $250 million to ostensibly fund his legal battle. But Trump spent a tiny fraction on actual legal costs as his many court challenges were quickly rejected by dozens of federal judges, including ones he appointed. Now, Giuliani’s allies are asking Trump to use the quarter-billion he raised with the Republican National Committee to help pay Giuliani’s costs in the federal probe and defamation lawsuits.
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Of course, anyone remotely familiar with Trump’s presidency knows that Michael Cohen, his former consigliere and loyal fixer, turned state’s evidence against Trump. This, after Trump refused not only to pay Cohen’s legal bills but to pardon him the way he pardoned so many other low-plains grifters.
So clearly, given that precedent, if Trump had any common sense, he would’ve already given Giuliani at least 20 percent of that $250 million. After all, it’s clearly a small price to pay to buy Giuliani’s silence – billed as attorney’s fees.
Not to mention that Giuliani and his “Kraken” lawyers are the ones who helped him fleece it from those Republican rubes. Moreover, Trump knows that Giuliani knows better than anyone that he (i.e., Trump) pocketed at least 90 percent of that haul. But there’s never been any accounting for Trump’s well-documented greed and miserliness.
On the other hand, this is the same Giuliani who spent the last year of Trump’s presidency begging for a preemptive pardon to avoid incurring these all too foreseeable bills – clearly to no avail. His rant about FBI agents raiding his home last week because they’re jealous of him indicates he’s delusional enough these days to believe that Trump might still come through with that for him.
At long last, all that can be said about Trump, Giuliani, and all the Republicans who still travel in their circles is that they’re all idiots who deserve each other.
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Trump boasted… Republicans knew from day one