Donald Trump is Poison For the Republican Party: Former President Donald Trump has always been a trendsetter. Along with Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Trump was elected without holding any prior public office. Yet, three of those men did have strong military backgrounds – while Trump and Hoover had neither political nor military experience.
Hoover, however, served as secretary of commerce for Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
Trump was a real estate developer who ran a chain of hotels and golf courses and later was a reality TV star. He has also been called a con man who has overstated his business savvy and the success that apparently came with it.
Election Lies
While his job as president could be debated, there is one fact that is absolutely clear: Trump has shown himself to be a sore loser, who is the only modern president not to acknowledge his loss in a general election, and who refused to concede.
Moreover, he attempted to undermine our very democracy through his narrative that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen. Those actions resulted in the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol Building, an event that is truly a dark stain on our nation’s history.
This week, the Jan. 6 House Committee announced it would make multiple criminal referrals to the Department of Justice against former President Donald Trump on multiple charges related to his actions surrounding the riot at the Capitol. Those charges include obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and insurrection.
A sweeping 160-page summary released by the committee noted, “That evidence has led to an overriding and straight-forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
As previously reported by 19FortyFive, the House’s referrals are significant as they represent the first time in U.S. history that Congress has recommended a former president be prosecuted.
Trump Defiance
Trump remained defiant as ever, and responded via his Truth Social platform, writing, “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
Trump announced another run for the White House in 2024 just last month and has described the probe as an effort to stop any campaign – as an insurrection charge could bar the former president from running for elected office again.
“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” Trump said on his social media platform.
Legal Headaches
Trump is still facing other legal woes.
His company is currently being sued in New York for business fraud, while he is under investigation for mishandling classified documents. As a result of these and other issues, Trump is no longer the political powerbroker he once may have been with many of his hand-selected candidates losing in the recent midterm elections.
Simply put, Trump has become a poison for the Republican Party – yet, he maintains enough clout that few in the party establishment will dare say, “enough is enough.” Yet, that could change if the Department of Justice (DoJ) decides to charge Trump – which would allow him to become the first former president charged criminally.
Should that happen, there is little doubt that some will rally behind him. But the charges could be enough that any hope of his returning to the White House is a fantasy at best.
Trump is done. The danger is that he and his most loyal followers can’t accept it.
Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
