After President-elect Donald Trump swept all seven swing states and the popular vote on November 5, the Republican Party has largely fallen behind his MAGA mandate.
Although Trump has become the face of the Republican Party, some defectors have required the shepherding of the president-elect in order to effectively implement this MAGA mandate.
While Republicans control both the executive and the legislative branches, the narrow majorities in the House and Senate have left the GOP with very little wiggle room to implement Trump’s policy agenda. But where pressure is needed, pressure has been applied, and it has worked.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump is the only Republican with the Midas touch of political viability.
One of the earliest examples of Trump’s effective pressure campaign was when Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa withheld from formally endorsing Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran who was nominated to head the Department of Defense. Ernst, who focuses much of her advocacy towards victims of sexual abuse in the military, privately expressed reservations about Hegseth, who was facing several allegations, including sexual misconduct. Importantly, Hegseth and many of his former colleagues have firmly denied these allegations.
After the pair first met on Capitol Hill, sources close to the Senate confirmed to Blaze News that Ernst had begun lobbying against Hegseth’s nomination. One source told Blaze News that Ernst lends her ear to the old guard, establishment Republicans in the Senate, serving as a “useful proxy” for former leader Mitch McConnell.
Once reports shed light on Ernst’s disapproval of Hegseth, the Trump world launched an online pressure campaign to sway the senator. Trump even threatened to primary Republican senators who withheld support from his Cabinet nominees. Ernst quickly caved to the pressure, warming up to Hegseth and leaning into more of the MAGA message.
At the same time, this was not an isolated incident. During the December funding fight on the House side, Trump put his thumb on the scale to produce a more favorable outcome.
Speaker Mike Johnson initially introduced a bloated 1,547-page continuing resolution just days before the government was set to shut down, prompting outrage from fiscal conservatives in the Republican conference. MAGA allies like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy also chimed in and criticized the funding bill. However, Trump’s condemnation of the CR was the final blow.
Johnson quickly returned to the drawing board and made as many amendments as Trump demanded. The amended CR went up for a vote but was struck down due to a provision that raised the debt ceiling, one of Trump’s demands. Despite this, the House eventually passed the slimmer 116-page CR that omitted the debt ceiling provision, averting a government shutdown.
Despite some blunders, Johnson has secured Trump’s blessing.
Shortly after the end-of-year spending fight, Johnson was facing a challenging reelection to the speakership. Ahead of the January 3 election, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky vowed to vote against Johnson, who could only afford one “no vote” given the GOP’s historically slim margins. Despite Trump’s endorsement of the Speaker, several other fiscal conservatives also expressed hesitancies about reelecting Johnson.
While the election was taking place, seven Republicans initially refrained from voting for Johnson altogether. Among them was Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a staunch fiscal conservative who, along with Massie, endorsed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary. Although Roy had previously defected from Trump, he eventually changed his vote to Johnson because of his “steadfast support of President Trump.”
This left Johnson with a total of three defections. Massie voted for Majority Whip Tom Emmer, which remained unchanged in the final vote tally. Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina officially voted for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Rep. Keith Self of Texas voted for Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.
At this point, Johnson had come up two votes short of securing a second term. Rather than moving on to a second round of voting, which has historically lost votes for candidates, Johnson, Norman, Self, and other Republicans huddled in a room off of the House floor.
In order to secure another political victory, Trump reportedly called Norman and Self in order to sway their votes. Just minutes later, the two defectors approached the clerk and voted for Johnson, securing his speakership in just one round of votes.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump is the only Republican with the Midas touch of political viability.
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The post How Trump’s ‘Midas touch’ shepherds the Republican Party appeared first on TheBlaze.
