Lindsey Graham and Other Republican Senators Avoid Endorsing Trump

Yesterday, Trump said his announcement today would be “one of the biggest days in the country’s history.” He will probably announce an exploratory committee. Regardless, Trump would’ve certainly expected top Republicans to get in line and endorse him as he makes his grand announcement. It isn’t happening.

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From Politico:

Trump is keeping a careful watch on who in GOP leadership has endorsed him, even before he has officially announced he is running for president again, which he’s expected to do on Tuesday night. But if he is expecting an avalanche of support, he’ll be waiting a while.

After Trump assures himself of a primary win.

Even his staunchest allies declined to offer an endorsement on Monday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has stood with Trump through thick and thin since his onetime rival became president, said, “let’s see what he says … I’ll tell you after Georgia.”

No, it is doubtful that Lindsey will. What is going to change “after Georgia”? Back to Politico:

South Dakota’s John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, had no qualms on Monday about declaring he wouldn’t endorse Trump in a contested primary. Neither did Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), saying: “No. I’m sure I’ll support the nominee of the Republican Party, but I think there’s likely to be a competitive primary election.”

They are no longer afraid of him. All he can do is yell, and right now, that doesn’t seem to hurt most Republicans. One can argue it’s a positive. They’re intentionally trying to keep Trump out of Georgia.

If the midterms were anything, they were a mix of indignation over the subjugation of women and abject horror that Americans were watching their democracy stolen out from under their feet. The guy who promised to appoint the justices that would “put women in their place” and the leader of the autocratic movement is obviously Trump and will be target number one as the “cause” of the breakdown.

The message was sent, and no one missed it. It was and is strong enough that “only hours before one of the biggest days in U.S. history,” top GOP Senators, including some of Trump’s biggest and least apologetic supporters, like Lindsey Graham, aren’t falling in line.

But the non-endorsements aren’t sitting squarely in a midterm or even indictment vacuum. There was one state that was entirely impervious to the rejection of “Trumpism,” heretofore known as the America First movement. If the rest of the country looked like Florida, we’d be well on our way to autocracy without Trump. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that Florida’s example is lost on those Senators. “America First” is the GOP’s future, and DeSantis, Hawley, Cotton, or several others may carry that banner.

Jason Miciak

@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact with any concerns.