How Trump Remade the Republican Party in His Image
Trump took advantage of weak glue holding the GOP together
Donald Trump is shattering our political norms, and his party is falling right into step.
Whether he is defying subpoenas, rejecting the findings of the U.S. intelligence community, or unilaterally withdrawing from international treaties, Trump has a history of breaking from the conventions associated with the American presidency. Why does Congress tolerate this behavior? Or more specifically, why don’t Republican Senators challenge the President when he defies values that have been long associated with the presidency?
While Trump remains relatively unpopular — his overall approval rating hovers somewhere in the 40th percentile and has never topped 46% — his popularity among Republicans is around 90%. With strong support from his own party, it is unsurprising that his co-partisans in the Senate would remain loyal. On the other hand, as former president Bill Clinton’s improprieties came to light, he began to lose support among Democrats, and the same is true for Republicans during the Richard Nixon impeachment (although neither lost the total support of their party). But Trump, by some standards, has already been shown to have violated more norms (or maybe laws) than Nixon or Clinton did, and remains steadfastly…
