The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative and ex-GOP strategist, has repeatedly warned that the Republican Party is showing no signs of abandoning former President Donald Trump in 2024. One poll after another bears out what Wilson has been saying. Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis among GOP primary voters in late July polls by 43 percent (Morning Consult) or 44 percent (Rasmussen).
A New York Times/Siena College survey released on Monday, July 31, according to The Bulwark's Tim Miller, shows zero evidence of the Republican Party distancing itself from Trump and returning to a traditional non-MAGA form of conservatism. In an article published on August 1, Miller — another Never Trumper and former GOP strategist — emphasizes that the poll speaks volumes about his former party and its unwavering devotion to the ex-president.
The survey, Miller argues, offers a "shot of pure blood reality for those in the GOP donor and strategist class who are still living in a fantasy world" and "laid bare just how hopeless a challenge to Trump from the non-MAGA wing of the GOP would be."
In the survey, Miller notes, "Trump leads DeSantis 54-17 with no other candidate above 3 percent. Among Trump supporters, 52 percent of respondents are considering Donald Trump only and nobody else. Among the 46 percent primarily supporting other candidates or still undecided, 34 percent of them are still considering Donald Trump."
The Never Trumper adds that "for those who hope a Tim Scott- or Glenn Youngkin-type candidate will emerge to save the day, the details are even worse than those headline numbers indicate."
"For starters," Miller laments, "71 percent of Republican likely primary voters do not believe Trump has committed any federal crimes. The same percentage believes that 'Republicans need to stand behind Trump' when it comes to investigations. Of the 71 percent who say he hasn't committed federal crimes, just 10 percent were willing to concede that he did something wrong, just nothing criminal. This leaves a comfortable majority of GOP primary voters who believe that Trump has done nothing wrong."