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.
