The Republican Party will be trapped in Trumpworld even if the former president loses his reelection bid in November, a New York Times columnist argued Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump's political hold will not be loosened even as he trails in swing states, treads water on the Sun Belt and transforms his party into a personal vehicle for "vendettas and fantasies," Jamelle Bouie writes.
"The anticlimactic truth is that in the wake of a third Trump nomination and a second Trump defeat, the Republican Party would simply stumble along, stuck in his orbit and too weighed down by his gravitational pull to escape," Bouie argues.
"If Trump does lose in November, the Republican Party will still be his, for as long as he wants it to be."
Bouie bases this analysis on a comparison to past Republican leaders who accomplished what Trump has so far proved unable to do: deliver victories as they defined their party.
Former President Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — both of whom won reelection bids — were able to build the party up with strong organizational skills and consistent political messaging, the columnist argues.
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In comparison,Trump — who lost his reelection bid and saw his era defined by electoral Republican underperformance in 2018, 2020 and 2022 — has torn down crucial barriers within, Bouie writes.
"As striking as the relative electoral weakness of the Trump-era Republican Party is its total inability to either govern or police the boundaries of its coalition," he writes.
"Trump himself has no program beyond his own prejudices and impulses. 'Build the wall' and 'mass deportation now' reflect a deep-seated hostility to nonwhite immigrants that has no basis other than rank bigotry."
Despite Trump era lackluster Election Day results and what Bouie characterizes as Trump's blatant self interest, Republicans might decide to hold onto the New York City-born landlord and convicted felon in attempt to wield a subversive sort of power, he writes.
"A defeated Republican Party ... would still control at least half the nation’s governor’s mansions and may well control either the Senate or the House of Representatives," Bouie writes. "If you can hold power through the counter-majoritarian structures and institutions of the American system, why would you work to build a broader coalition than the one you already have?"
But ultimately the New York Times columnist believes the party is too weak and the decision is Trump's to make.
"He has no reason to loosen his grip on the party and every reason to keep it in hand," Bouie writes. "The real question is whether there are Republicans who could pry it away from Trump...The answer is no."