Many GOP officials still privately hope prosecutors, some other outside force will make Trump go away

In 2015 and 2016, former President Donald Trump's Republican primary rivals and other GOP officials tried to dodge his withering personal insults "while hoping that external events and news media coverage would ultimately lead to his downfall," Maggie Haberman recalls at The New York Times. That strategy obviously failed. But many Republican leaders are once more hoping, mostly in private, that time or some heaven-sent deus ex machina makes Trump fade into retirement, despite his clear intention to retain control over the GOP.

Some Republicans "are privately hopeful that the criminal investigation into Mr. Trump's business by the New York district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., will result in charges that hobble him from running again or even being a major figure within the party," Haberman reports, adding that Trump is said to be "agitated about the investigation." Others say they believe he is losing relevance his own, now that he is out of office and kicked off Twitter.

David Kochel, a Republican strategist and Jeb Bush supporter in 2016 campaign, is not among them. "We've seen this movie before — a bunch of GOP leaders all looking at each other, waiting to see who's going to try and down Trump," he said, adding that Trump and Fox News are making sure the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is "being stuffed down the memory hole" for conservatives.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"It is Groundhog Day," another GOP Trump critic, Tim Miller, told Haberman. It seemed "like a rational choice in 2015," but "after we all saw how the strategy fails of just hoping and wishing for him to go away, nobody learned from it."

In the meantime, most GOP leaders and 2024 hopefuls are going out of their way to stay on Trump's good side. One reason is Trump's ability to steer huge sums of money to friendly Republicans, Politico notes. But Trump also holds sway over a sizable faction of the GOP electorate — though just how sizable is a matter of dispute — and he seems to relish savaging Republican critics.

Trump "intimidates people because he will attack viciously and relentlessly, much more than any other politician, yet somehow people crave his approval," Mike DuHaime, a Chris Christie adviser in 2016, told the Times. "Trump did self-destruct eventually, after four years in office," he said. "But he can still make or break others, and that makes him powerful and relevant."