Trump the kingmaker — but at what cost to the GOP?
But there also are signs that a Trump endorsement is no guarantee of victory in general elections and can even be a handicap. Even before the tragic riot of Trump supporters in the Capitol that led to five deaths, Trump’s endorsements failed to deliver two seats in Georgia’s special election, losses that cost the GOP its Senate majority.
That’s a dramatic example of how, as powerfully as Trump’s endorsement works in favor of Republicans, it can work just as powerfully against them among Democrats.
Nevertheless, the twice-impeached ex-president may well be able to whip up enough fear of primary challenges among nervous Republican senators to prevent the two-thirds majority that would be required for his conviction in the Senate.
Without that verdict, he remains free to run for office again or turn into whatever other future “form” he might have in mind, provided he is not constrained by ongoing federal investigations of his financial affairs, now that he decided against attempting a preemptive pardon.
For now he remains an aspiring kingmaker, a role that enables the publicity-loving ex-prez to stay in the spotlight as a relevant political force while his party’s leaders and voters decide whether his divisive gifts are worth the cost.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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