Trump Still In Control Of GOP? Kinda.

January 25, 2023 Glen Turpening

The prospect of a Donald Trump presidential run has frozen out many potential candidates. (Politico)

Those preparing to challenge Donald Trump in the GOP’s presidential primary are taking their time, privately discussing the prospect of waiting until spring or summer to get in, according to three Republican strategists familiar with different candidates’ deliberations. Part of it is strategic: an effort to make someone else an early Trump foil. Part of it is fear: wariness around their own ability to raise money to sustain a drawn-out campaign. “It’s very, very quiet,” said Wayne MacDonald, a New Hampshire lawmaker and former Republican Party chair in the first-in-the-nation primary state. It appears increasingly likely to stay that way for far longer than once expected. On Tuesday, one likely candidate, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told CBS News it may take a “handful of months” for him to decide whether to run.

By DAVID SIDERS and ZACH MONTELLAR, 'Politico'

Donald Trump announced his 2024 ambitions early and that appears to have forced many potential challengers to rethink jumping into Presidential contender ring. After the disastrous 2022 midterms, President Trump’s approval within the GOP was dampened but on the same token if his prominence in the party was truly that diminished more people would have come forward to challenge him. That has not happened which may point to his lasting legacy of total control over his party.