Fahrenthold: Nothing unites the Republican Party ‘like Trump’s agenda’

When we hear that former President Donald Trump is in charge of the Republican Party — which KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross says he hears mostly from Democrats — what does that mean?

“Well, I think it means a couple of things,” said David Fahrenthold, Washington Post reporter and weekly guest of Seattle’s Morning News. “One, his endorsements are still the most important in settling intra party fights.”

“His ideas and agenda are the things that drive the Republican Party,” he added. “There’s nothing that unites them like Trump’s agenda does.”

Are they assuming that Trump is the presidential candidate in 2024?

“There are people — obviously like Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, Tom Cotton, senator from Arkansas, maybe Kristi Noem, the governor of North Dakota — there’s a lot of people out there who I think are positioning themselves to run for president, but I think the assumption is they would only really run if Trump was not in the race,” Fahrenthold said.

Trump has said he won’t announce anything until after the 2022 midterms, Fahrenthold says, which is also around the time when most presidential campaigns start.

“So I guess if we get into 2023 and … people are starting to wonder if Trump’s in or Trump’s out, then you might see some Republicans jump the gun, but anybody who jumped in earlier than that runs the risk of being basically, you know, Trump will do to them what he did to Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush. He’ll just come out and take the right out from under you,” Fahrenthold said.

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There is an active investigation into Trump’s businesses and financial records, which Fahrenthold says could impact a future campaign depending on what charges come out of it.

“To me, it depends a little bit on what the charges are. If they pull out something really, you know, that people understand, people know that it’s really bad and it changes the way we see Trump, it tells us a side of Trump that we didn’t know before, like the access Hollywood tape, that could be really damaging,” Fahrenthold said. “And if there’s a real chance Trump could be convicted and sent to jail, obviously that could be really damaging.”

“But as we talked about last week, if this turns into something where Trump faces kind of a piddly charge, or charge that seems trumped up, or he faces a charge and then beats it, then I think he does wear it as a badge of honor, and people see it as a badge of honor, and it gives him a bigger boost.”

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