Republicans have a Trump problem. We can't keep ignoring it. | Opinion
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Everyone can see that President Donald Trump is a narcissist, but the extent to which it often works against his own interests continues to amaze me, as a conservative.
His own inability to confront unpleasant truths not only leads to poor decision-making by both him and his administration but also forces Republicans to fight with one hand behind their backs during this midterm election season.
Trump's decisions keep creating challenges for Republicans looking to navigate the November elections. They must walk a fine line, both appeasing the president’s vanity while also explaining to voters why they are different from a very unpopular administration they had a hand in propping up.
Trump is unpopular. Republicans refuse to admit it.
Trump’s narcissism prevents him from taking data seriously. He insists that he is polling very wellbecause 100% of “the MAGA people” support what he is doing. Never mind that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the people who are MAGA are, by definition, those who support what Trump is doing.
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However, what seems to be rather obvious to everyone else is that elections aren’t won by the most diehard base of a politician; they are won by persuading the middle of American politics to vote for you.
By all accounts, Trump is extraordinarily unpopular, particularly among independent voters. However, Republicans are unable to acknowledge this fact publicly because of their obligation to kiss up to the president any chance they get.
Amid Trump's tariffs, the war in Iran and the related false promises that the economy would return to its former glory, voters are fed up with all the other nonsense that comes alongside a Trump presidency. Congressional Republicans have broadly refused to assert themselves against any of this, instead either enabling Trump or simply remaining silent as he does what he wants.
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Trump will continue to insist that the polling that paints him in a bad light is either fake or somehow otherwise invalid. This wouldn’t really be a broader problem, but Republicans across the country are seemingly incapable of deviating from the party line of kissing up to the president, no matter what.
Republicans are in a bind. They have to continue to defer to what the president says out of fear of retaliation, but at the same time, that leaves them little room to differentiate from a very unpopular administration. To differentiate from Trump means alienating the base, and thus not winning in a primary. However, sucking up to him means alienating the center, which is needed in order to win elections.
It is a lose-lose.
Trump is uniquely problematic for his party
Trump is extremely unpopular – that is one problem, to be sure. However, this effect is compounded by the fact that his own party has put all of its chips on him. So much weight is given to the Trump endorsement in the Republican Party that going against the president is nearly impossible.
It has historically been difficult for members of a party to differentiate themselves from an unpopular presidency of their own persuasion. Democrats had a very difficult time doing so in the 2024 election; Republicans had a difficult time doing so in 2020. While in 2022, there was some softening of this effect, largely attributable to Roe v. Wade being overturned in the lead-up and poor candidate quality from Republicans, Joe Biden was not nearly as unpopular at this point in his term as Trump is right now.
All presidents to some extent demand loyalty and bending the knee from members of their party. However, Trump takes it to an entirely different level. So much so that he has more power over Republicans than the party does itself. Even when it is clearly against their interest to be tied to Trump, Republicans will still willingly do so because if they don’t, he will endorse a loyalist rival instead.
I’ve written a lot about Trump’s personality defects over the years, but there are few more detrimental to both him and the Republican Party than his vanity.
