Loyalty to Trump
A basic definition.
Back when Trump was choosing his cabinet, I (and others) noted that he wanted loyalists. Some readers commented that, of course, a president would want a loyal set of advisors. But, of course, there is a difference between being trustworthy and being loyal to a person above one’s loyalty to a broader organization. And there is also the question of how loyalty is measured. From the aforementioned Atlantic piece:
Wiles saw that one thing that had held Trump back in 2020 was that he had not finished taking over the Republican Party during his first term. Part of Trump’s leverage had been his ability to endorse in Republican primaries—influence he was eager to reprise. “When I endorse somebody, they win,” Trump told us on the phone. “But even when I endorse them in the general election, mostly they win. It’s important.” (Now when Trump calls to pressure a fellow Republican about an issue or a vote, they are almost always grateful for his past support, or feel that they owe their seat to him.)
The Wiles process for evaluating potential endorsees—which she undertook with James Blair, now a deputy chief of staff in the White House, and Brian Jack, now a congressman representing Georgia—involved researching how they had spoken about Trump in the past. “The basic thing was their loyalty and their political viability,” one adviser told us. “So we were looking for things like: So, what did they say on J6? What did they say during the Access Hollywood tapes? What is their voting record with us?” Trump was building a coalition of loyalists, something he hadn’t sufficiently done during the first term.
Note that this is not about loyalty to a policy vision (although I will note that he throws in the voting record metric).** It certainly isn’t about loyalty to the office or the Constitution. No, it is how you reacted when Trump was admitted to being a sexual predator and when he was supported by a mob.
On the first point, for those who have forgotten, here is the key bit from the Access Hollywood tape.
Trump: “Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Bush: “Whatever you want.”
Trump: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
For those willing to dismiss this as mere “locker room talk”,* I would note that this kind of behaviour is exactly what he was held civilly liable for in the E. Jean Carroll cases (yes, plural).
And, of course, J6 was a violent assault on the US Capitol in the hopes of disrupting the constitutional process of certifying Trump’s electoral defeat. I will remind everyone that Trump told the mob that he understood and loved them. And in the 2024 campaign called it a “day of love.” In reality, it was an attempt to subvert an election via violence for Trump.
But hey! Anyone who was onboard for grabbing women between the legs uninvited or storming the Capitol to subvert democracy shows their loyalty to Trump!
There are a lot of GOP voters who need to admit to themselves what they voted for. (And yes, there are GOP voters fully onboard with it all).
I know this is old news and that I am more or less shouting into the wind, but it will never not disturb me the degree to which partisanship has allowed so many to ignore so much.
*I will concede that it could very well be locker room talk. But it would be locker room talk by a sexual predator. I mean, even sexual predators have to change clothes after golf on occasion.
**While I am sure that the voting record issues are considered, the other metrics are clearly more important. Most Republicans voted with Trump in Congress. So the clear delineators are the personal loyalty tests based on his more reprehensible actions and statements.
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Gee, somehow with Biden and Obama there never seemed to be any issue with finding loyal cabinet members and other appointees.
My sense is that Trump also keeps an eye on conservative media to see what sources are loyal. For example, while the Wall Street Journal recently criticized his Tariffs, readers had to wade through the following before they actually got to see text supporting that thesis.
Looks to me like the WSJ doesn’t want to be perceived as disloyal, either. (And yes, the trains ARE still running on time, Mr. Mussolini . . . )
The Republican partisans sold out to the liable rapist are shameful. Partisanship is no excuse. I know a Republican can take a pause in voting Republican, because I did it. The sky did not cave in.
But Republicans sticking by Trump because they want tax cuts and abortion bans are less disturbing than Trump apologists who are not dedicated partisans. Rogan? Taibbi? Sullivan? Glenn “I don’t support Trump but” Greenwald? Andrew Schultz? Theo Vonn?
The podcast/Substack bros and their ilk are not old school Mr. Republican types. Yet they still in various ways normalized or rationalized an Epstein-bestie pedo who publicly sexualized his own daughter, mocked a disabled reporter, trashed fallen soldiers, called for Hitlerian generals, incited a terror attack on Congress, etc.
This speaks to spiritual sickness and moral rot. Not all Americans, but too many.
All the coulda shoulda woulda about what Biden-Harris-Democrats did and didn’t do re: Biden’s age, the “manosphere,” trans panic, Gaza, wokeness obscures Americans’ obligation to admit and address our deficit of virtue.
By contrast, dismissive dedication some have to not blaming, shaming, or criticizing voters is just so much whistling past the graveyard. Because the problem in a people that would twice elect this reprobate MAGA gang cannot be solved by Republican tax cuts and tarrifs, or by Democrats dismantling oligarchy.
Yes we need affordable housing, healthcare, etc. But politicians cannot fix hearts and souls.
Absent a come to Jesus about our ethical corruption — kin to postwar Germany’s moral reckoning — we will underperform as a nation even after Trump. I see no appetite for such reflection, just denial and defensiveness. So expect more American mediocrity and decline.
The funny thing is the loyalty is a one-way street. Trump never hesitates to denigrate people he previously praised, or to fire them if he can blame them for his own errors.Yet one new groveller after another seems to think it will be different for them.
There are a lot of GOP voters who need to admit to themselves what they voted for.
Most will not. They will continue to hump the same absurd arguments about equality being “anti-Christian/pro-trans” until ICE literally shows up at their home to deport them, because saying “holy shit I was wrong and this guy actually does mean to be a dictator” costs you face, but saying “grope that kid who ran faster than mine to make sure there’s no dick in their shorts” hurts someone else and who cares about people who aren’t meeeeee?
@DK:
You and I sometimes disagree, but you’ve never forgotten where decency and virtue lay, and how far we’ve strayed from them. We are a nation lacking in virtue. People don’t know what they believe, or should believe, they just blow back and forth, morally rootless, with nothing left inside them to fight the moral corruption.
Well, there’s a happy thought. I’m just gonna hit this joint and take another swig of Talisker 10.
@ptfe:It may not be possible to sway many of the 77 million who voted for Trump last year, but let’s not forget the roughly 90 million eligible voters who didn’t show up to vote in the Presidential election. Focus on getting them registered (if they aren’t already) and keep hitting the theme songs they want to hear.
@DK:
Good comment. And highlighting this:
And to add: our religion is “stuff”
— more “stuff.” And for the working masses, it’s more “cheaper” stuff. What happens to self-identity when cheap stuff stops flowing? American culture and society has been headed in this direction for some time. A shallow culture for shallow ambitions reinforced by a declining connection to our shared humanity. Even popular Christianity has capitulated to the altar of materialism over moral congruence.
@Michael Reynolds:
QFE.
And, yes, I’m grateful for marijuana lol
@SC_Birdflyte: Speaking as one of the 90 million you mentioned, and strictly for myself only, what do you imagine “the theme songs they want to hear” to be? And what makes you imagine the rest of the nation wants to sing along?
And while I’m here, allow me to comment on the irony of hearing someone pontificate on the moral rootlessness of others in a musing concluding with the options for self-medicating.
@just nutha:
I don’t usually self-medicate, but when I do I consult RFK Jr.
@al Ameda:
I’ve been ignoring him for years and years. I rely on advice from my old budies Jack, Jim, and occasionally my Old Grandad. Oh, and Dr Feel-good. And Capt Spaulding the famous African Explorer.