Inside the Beltway: Trump to ‘retain enormous influence’ in the future

NEWS AND OPINION:

It is natural for the 71 million people who voted for President Trump to fret about the prospect that he might not return to the White House. Efforts to reverse the apparent 2020 election result could fail. But not to worry. One pollster suggests that Mr. Trump is not going to quietly leave the stage and become a kindly old ex-president on the sidelines. He is, in fact, likely to “retain his bully pulpit” — and remain a powerful force.

“President Trump will lose the official powers of the presidency in less than two months when Joe Biden takes office, a time when most recent presidents have stepped out of the spotlight to let their successors get their bearings. But with no indication that Trump is likely to fade into the background after he leaves the White House, Morning Consult/Politico polling suggests he’ll retain enormous influence over the Republican Party from outside the government,” reports Eli Yokley, an analyst for the pollster.

“A new survey shows most Republican voters choose the outgoing president over Republicans in Congress when asked who better embodies a number of key party leadership traits, and Trump is the heavy favorite to be the GOP’s next presidential nominee, according to an early, hypothetical test of 14 potential candidates,” Mr. Yokley writes.

The survey also found that 54% of Republicans say they’d vote for Mr. Trump if the 2024 presidential primary were held today. A quarter of Republican voters say Republicans in Congress also “fear” the president.

“Nearly 7 in 10 Republican voters (68%) said they consider Trump to be more in touch with the party’s rank and file, compared with 20% who said the same of Republicans in Congress. Trump was also more likely to be considered effective and committed to the country’s best interests, leading congressional Republicans on both questions by 54 percentage points, 71% to 17%. Another 56% of Republican voters say Trump is predominantly looking out for the party’s best interests,” the analyst notes.

The survey of 1,990 registered U.S. voters was conducted Nov. 21-23 and included a sample of 669 Republican voters.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

On the other hand, things could be a little subdued should presumed President-elect Joseph R. Biden enter the White House.

“The coming cable news crisis: What will the networks talk about if they’re not melting down over Trump?” asks Amber Athey, Washington editor of The Spectator, and former White House correspondent for The Daily Caller.

’SICK AND DEMENTED JOKE’

There’s a blatant double-standard at work as President Trump continues his quest for a fair election. There’s a short memory span as well.

“The leftist media is furious again, this time because Donald Trump is refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election. Norms! They scream. We need a peaceful transfer of power, an acceptance of the results, they say. Um, wait. Aren’t these the same people who cheered p-ssy hats and the chants of ’not my president’? Those of us on the right didn’t forget about all of that,” writes David Marcus, a columnist for The Federalist.

“For four years, not a few months, the Democrats and their media allies insisted first that Trump’s election was not legitimate and then that he was a Russian asset. It was abject nonsense, a lie. It was a hysterical and long-lasting undermining of our democracy. Now these same clowns, these buffoons, are lecturing us about accepting the results,” Mr. Marcus continues.

“Let me put this as plainly and cleanly as possible: We don’t want to hear it,” he states.

“For the left to demand now that we must accept the election and get behind the man Americans chose is such a sick and demented joke that it is hard to fathom. These people said Trump was ’not my president’ so often that their vocal cords have a sense memory of it. They gave Trump absolutely no chance. But now I’m supposed to embrace Joe Biden for the sake of the country? Why don’t you go — I’m sure you can fill in the blank here,” Mr. Marcus advises.

“You guys made these rules. We can play by them. In fact, I can’t wait,” he adds.

HERE COMES ANOTHER TRUMP BOOK

Mary L. Trump has already written one book about her family. The niece of President Trump penned “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” — which was released earlier this year.

A second book is now set for 2021. “The Reckoning” will be published on July 20, advised St. Martin’s Press in a statement Tuesday.

Once again, the president appears to be the primary focus.

“In short, he transformed our country into a macro version of my malignantly dysfunctional family,” Ms. Trump says in a statement.

Her new book “will examine America’s national trauma, rooted in our history but dramatically exacerbated by the impact of current events and the Trump administration’s corrupt and immoral policies,” the publisher said in advance notes for the book.

“Whether it manifests itself in rising levels of rage and hatred, or hopelessness and apathy, the stress of living in a country we no longer recognize has affected all of us. America is suffering from PTSD — a new leader alone cannot fix us,” the publisher advises.

Which is where the book comes in.

“Mary Trump is uniquely positioned, by virtue of her expertise as a clinical psychologist, personal experience, and as an American who just happens to be the niece of Donald J. Trump, to make sense of the consequences of our living through what could be the greatest mental health crisis we have ever experienced as a nation,” says Jennifer Enderlin, president and publisher of St. Martin’s.

In the meantime, the author sued Mr. Trump in September, alleging that the president and two of his siblings “cheated her out of millions of dollars over several decades while squeezing her out of the family business,” according to USA Today and other press reports.

POLL DU JOUR

• 54% of full-time workers in the U.S. received a pay raise in 2020.

• 56% of this group increased their retirement contributions after they received the raise.

• 50% of this group were “surprised” by the raise, 25% had asked for it, 25% said it was a cost-of-living increase.

• 37% of full-time workers overall received a pay cut this year; 52% of that group say their full pay has not been restored.

Source: A MagnifyMoney/Lending Tree survey of 984 full-time U.S. workers conducted Nov. 6-11 and released Tuesday.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.