Republican megadonors had high hopes for a weekend retreat. Then Trump took the stage – By Kerry Eleveld (Daily Kos) / April 12 2021
Wealthy Republican donors were reportedly ready for a big weekend in Palm Beach with the Republican National Committee, chock full of strategizing, power points, and a clear vision to regaining congressional majorities in 2022.
Instead, they received a weekend of misdirection and deflation courtesy of Donald Trump, who delivered the keynote address Saturday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But Trump effectively hung over the entire getaway like a dark cloud of grievance, always at the ready to rain on Republicans’ revival parade after he cost them the House, the Senate, and the White House.
In fact, the best framework for assessing the complicating factor of Trump as Republicans try to retake the House and the Senate is viewing it through the lens of the shadow he cast over the January runoff bids of Georgia’s two GOP senators. Try as they might, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue couldn’t escape the pall of Trump’s capriciousness and endless grousing long enough to generate a coherent message that stood separate from Dear Loser.
Already, Trump is serving as the same foil to GOP efforts in the midterms. He’s competing with them for fundraising, urging his cultists to send their donations to his own Save America PAC instead of “RINOS,” or Republicans in Name Only. Trump currently has $85 million cash on hand to the RNC’s $84 million. He’s bent on making his perceived detractors pay for their disloyalty and demanding primaries that could hobble the GOP in the general election. And he simply cannot get past the fact that he was 2020’s biggest loser long enough to let anyone reimagine the future because, goddess forbid, what if he didn’t dominate that vision.
