In 2022, Donald Trump raised close to $200 million. He spent most of that money on himself and his legal fees even though he raised that money claiming it would go to help Republican candidates.
Instead, Trump spent more money trying to defeat incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp than he spent on literally any other race — including Liz Cheney.
In fact, Trump has spent more money attacking Republicans while also having the Republican Party pay part of his legal fees than he has spent attacking any Democrat in the past two years.
Trump raised money to help Herschel Walker in Georgia but spent a pittance of what was raised. The money went to aid Trump personally and attack Republicans.
Now, Trump has spent upwards of $10 million attacking Ron DeSantis — again, more than Trump has spent against Biden or any Democrat.
As my friend Dan McLaughlin pointed out at National Review, DeSantis has helped the GOP nationally raise over $4 million for local parties across the nation that will go to get out the vote and voter registration programs. Trump has not only not helped local parties raise money but has actually made the GOP cover his costs even as he raised $160 million.
It is not just that Trump is taking small-dollar donors to the cleaners for his vanity; it is how he is attacking.
Suddenly, Trump is opposed to a six-week abortion ban. He does not even appear to support a fifteen-week ban nationally, which polls with majority national support.
Trump is also opposed to any reform of entitlements, from social security to Medicare to Medicaid, which puts him to the left of Joe Biden.
Likewise, just yesterday, Trump again attacked Republican governors for not having been more aggressive in fighting COVID.
Twenty-five percent of the GOP is 100% for Trump and only Trump. That was what happened in Georgia with Brian Kemp. Kemp still beat David Perdue by fifty points and then trounced Stacey Abrams, with many of the voters saying they’d only vote for Perdue and whoever Trump told them to.
The seventy-five percent of the GOP that is open to other candidates needs to do some serious reflecting. Across the nation in 2022, Republicans did well unless Trump backed them. Even in places like New York, where abortion could have mattered, Republicans cleaned up congressional seats. In the very swing state of Georgia, Trump’s endorsement was more likely to kill a candidate than voting for the fetal heartbeat legislation. In fact, the only Republicans in Georgia who really lost were those Trump supported.
In Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and more, Trump endorsed candidates, helped them get party nominations, fundraised for them, then used that money for himself, not them. He funded his lawyers, settled his scores, and let his candidates twist in the wind, costing the GOP the United States Senate for the second election season in a row.
Now he’s staking out leftwing positions against life, against entitlement reform, and against successful policies against lockdowns and school shutdowns. A Republican candidate does not make a conservative candidate, and a Republican candidate running to the left of Biden on entitlement issues and left of John McCain on abortion issues should be a wake-up call to the conservative movement.
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