We can assure everyone, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are as sick of hearing about Trump as any Democrat. The problem is that the fight for control of near one-half of the country is happening right now and it’s an ugly type of control that can cause a lot of damage and violence in the fight.

Axios reported on Monday morning that Trump intends to use his speech at CPAC as a “show of force” as the GOP’s presumptive nominee in 2024, to “take total control of the GOP.” According to the article, Trump wants to establish that he is still the head of the party. According to the man who is, apparently, still managing Trump’s “campaign,” Jason Miller, the GOP is Trump and Trump is the GOP:

“Trump effectively is the Republican Party,” Trump adviser Jason Miller crowed to Axios. “The only chasm is between Beltway insiders and grassroots Republicans around the country. When you attack President Trump, you’re attacking the Republican grassroots.” Trump’s goal will be to establish that he is still in charge of the GOP, even though he no longer has the Oval Office or his Twitter account.

In other words, Trump wants to intimidate the Cruz’s and Hawley’s, or any other uppity GOP pol who believes that he has a right to even ask voters anything.

We wonder if Miller even knows what he’s saying with his “Trump effectively ‘is’ the Republican party.” It is fascism, pure and pureed. But he’s not just saying Trump is the Republican party, he is now out front saying that attacking Trump is an attack on the voters in the party. This is gross. At some point, there will be an “attack” on Trump that will include ugly lawsuits, possible criminal charges, all of it, and if 74 million voters see those charges as an attack on themselves this country is lost.

Fortunately, as per usual, Miller is full of shit. It is true that the vast majority of Republican voters see Trump as “the Republican party.” Perhaps 66% to 75%. We saw a poll released over the weekend in which at least half of Republicans would follow Trump to a new Trump party. There is another half. But for presidential purposes, on a national scale, he would be done. That “74 million” figure is outdated. Those people voted prior to hearing Trump rave like a lunatic for two months and then lead an insurrection. It would be smaller today.

But a lot is going to happen between now and then. A smart adviser would probably tell Trump to make the crowd come to him, begging. Act like he doesn’t really want to run “but will if the country drafts him.” The show of force is just as likely to turn people off for four years as invite them in.

Of course, all of that presumes that Trump is a regular person who can think further out than “next week.”

****
Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak