One question for 2018 is how many GOP candidates think Freedom of the Press is disgusting.
And who are Trump’s “more reasonable advisors”?
Or like even Moore-Strange in Alabama, it is shallow-boxing … WWE dramaturgy.
Bannon’s “war on the GOP establishment” is only meant to rile a reactionary base against the giant orange stalking horse, enabling members of the establishment to … run “against the establishment”. Thus helping the 2020 re-election campaign. Scumbags will out.
Flush with cash from well-heeled donors, Trump’s former campaign chairman and chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is committed to continuing his war on the “Republican establishment.” Don’t think too hard about the fact that the titular head of the Republican Party, the very personification of the establishment, is the man Bannon once served in the White House.
Trump’s more reasonable advisors are trying to communicate to the president that, no matter how much they might irritate one another, his presidency hinges on keeping GOP members from losing their seats.
Even unsuccessful primary challenges can weaken incumbents and keep their base voters from turning out enthusiastically for the general election. Bannon and his donors are, therefore, a problem Trump must confront.
This is why Trump’s gambit (of a joint photo-op with McConnell) on Monday is ultimately doomed.
Republican voters aren’t fools. They know when Trump is doing something he feels forced into—like, say, endorsing an appointed senator in Alabama at Mitch McConnell’s request—and when his heart is in it. Alabama Republicans knew who the truly Trumpian candidate in the race was.
Similarly, the grassroots Trump supporter has no reason to believe the president has a stronger ideological bond with the Senate majority leader than he does with his former campaign manager.
Donald Trump has lost control of the movement he briefly commandeered, but he hasn’t lost its affections. That can change. If Trump becomes an obstacle to the perpetual insurgency, he may yet become just another of its targets.