Tea Party pioneers sound off as 'the very thing we feared is in office'
President Donald Trump rose to power on a wave of anger from many of the same voters and politicians who, a little over half a decade before him, organized the "Tea Party" movement of the early Barack Obama years.
But while many of the original Tea Partiers became avid MAGA figures, some others ended up horrified, or at least a bit uncomfortable, with where their movement ended up, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
One of the most prominent examples is former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, who went from a brash and fiery Tea Party activist to a disillusioned independent over the MAGA GOP's disdain for civil liberties, and then went on to join the Democratic Party.
“We feared government tyranny. We feared a strong executive. We feared oppressive government, any president who would take a flamethrower to the Constitution,” Walsh told The Post. “Now, the very thing we feared is in office.”
But even some Tea-Party-aligned politicians who didn't leave the GOP and back Trump on a number of issues have misgivings about some of his agenda — and certainly don't think it represents what their protest was originally about. A key example, said the report, is Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has repeatedly picked fights with Trump over his imposition of tariffs without congressional approval.
“I think it’s largely been supplanted by something else,” said Paul in recent interview remarks. In particular, he said, “We aren’t organized around ideas anymore. We’re organized around a person.”
Despite these voices of dissent, much of Trump's administration is staffed with people who got their start in the Tea Party uprising, the report noted.
"A number of people who were tea party stars in 2010 — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy — are firmly ensconced in Trump’s Cabinet," said the report. "And some Republicans insist that the MAGA movement is a successor to the tea party, not a rejection of it, arguing that both tout free markets and individual freedom."
This argument from GOP figures persists despite Trump not only imposing massive new taxes on imports, but moving to seize control or stake in a number of private businesses, and create a police state to crack down on immigrants.