t this week’s solemn swearing in of the Senate, Vice-President Mike Pence worked his way along a line that included Mitt Romney, a Republican stalwart, Bernie Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, and Kyrsten Sinema, the first openly bisexual senator. Just this once, Pence may have felt more at ease with Sanders or Sinema than with his fellow conservative.
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, added: “The world is also watching. America has long been looked to for leadership … Trump’s words and actions have caused dismay around the world.”
Much was striking about the column, not least the way in which Romney bluntly made reference to “Trump” rather than “President Trump”. It was a rare stirring of rebellion in a party that has all but reshaped itself in Trump’s image. The voice of dissent raised the question of whether the president will face a challenge in the Republican primaries ahead of the 2020 election.
Romney’s timing was a surprise, said strategist Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to and spokesman for his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.
“The big question is, is this part of larger plan he has to build a broader coalition of voices that are going to confront the president on policies and rhetoric?” he said. “Some of the backlash was a testament to the fact that there is a fight in the party, but right now Trump is winning it.”
Donald Trump is the manifestation of this era of Republicanism - Michael Steele
The party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan is now the party of Trump. A former Democrat with few ideological positions, Trump hijacked the primaries in 2016 as the ultimate outsider, tearing into the Bush family, House speaker Paul Ryan, Senator John McCain and Romney himself. Trump defeated 16 more conventional candidates with a mix of nationalism, populism, xenophobia and celebrity, then repeated the trick to beat Hillary Clinton to the presidency.
He has arguably given Republicans bangs for their buck: two conservative justices on the supreme court, huge tax cuts for the rich, business regulations slashed. In return, many have turned a blind eye to his contempt for the free market, his willingness to run up the national debt and his embrace of foreign despots at the expense of allies.
This week, for example, Trump randomly declared: “The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.” The statement would have been shaken to Reagan to the core but there was barely a murmur from a party that has something approaching Stockholm syndrome.
Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “Donald Trump is the manifestation of this era of Republicanism and, by and large, Republicans have bought into that narrative, that storyline, that style of leadership. They just have to await the fate of the voting gods, otherwise known as citizens, who will cast the final judgment.”