Donald Trump has all but disappeared after the dismal showing of the GOP during the midterm elections when Republicans barely took the House and failed to gain control of the Senate.
Sure, the former president did pop up last week to offer NFTs to his fans for $99 (a move that prompted the biggest MAGAman in the world, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, to declare, “I can’t do this anymore”).
“He’s one of the greatest presidents in history, but I gotta’ tell you: whoever — what business partner and anybody on the comms team and anybody at Mar-a-Lago — and I love the folks down there — but we’re at war. They oughta be fired today,” Bannon said on his podcast Thursday.
Trump’s stock has been plunging of late, to the point where Republicans are openly deriding him (something that was unheard of back when The Don was in power).
And now a few Republican senators say GOP voters are moving away from Trump because they fear he can’t win a general election in 2024. In the November midterms, moderates and independents were key, but Trump can’t draw them, they fear.
“We win general elections when we bring independents with us. We need more than simply the loyal base that understands conservative principles,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told The Hill. “That’s the reason why you’re seeing the polls suggest that we have a number of individuals who would get more votes [than Trump] in the general election and so that’s going to drive the determination who we bring as our candidate.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said Trump’s faltering campaign, which he announced November 15, is not doing well because he continues to push the claim that fraud in the 2020 election cost him the win — a charge he has never proved.
“I don’t think it was helpful when the issues he was focusing on after he announced [his 2024 presidential campaign] related to the 2020 election. I think if he’s going to succeed, he has to focus on the future. I think if he focuses on the past, he won’t succeed,” she told The Hill.
“I do believe that people are over the 2020 election, and they want to move on,” she added.
The Hill quoted one more Republican senator, but this one preferred to go unnamed.
“If Trump was winning or if we were winning Senate seats or got a big majority in the House or got the majority in the Senate, many people would judge former President Trump differently,” the senator said.
“I have those kind[s] of conversations with constituents frequently, and they say, ‘It’s probably time to move on. I like his policies but I think he killed us in Georgia twice,’” the senator said.
The senators’ views mirror what pollsters with the CNBC All-America Economic Survey found when they asked if Trump should run again. The resounding answer: No.
The survey found that 61% of the public thinks Trump should not run again (even though he has already announced his bid). A whopping 37% of Republicans don’t want him to run again; 61% of independents and 88% of Democrats agree.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.