What’s new about the Vance endorsement and win is that they didn’t come with Trump as president, at the zenith of his political power and influence.
They came, instead, after Trump became the first incumbent president since George H.W. Bush to lose his bid for a second term. And after his party had, in quick succession, lost its majorities in the House (2018) and Senate (2020), due in large part to Trump’s unpopularity in the country at large.
“A party that lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections, and that couldn’t even beat Joe Biden, is desperately in need of a course correction,” he said.
Any — and I mean any — objective analysis of the state of the GOP in the wake of Trump’s presidency leaves you with this: The party needs change — and fast.
Yet Trump remains — and not just remains, but prospers! — in spite of the fact that he both oversaw and bears responsibility for the fact that Republicans are shut out of power on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue!
Hogan’s plea to change course, then, is very likely to fall on deaf ears. If he does run for president, he would do so as a massive long shot against Trump (assuming the former President runs again).
The Point: It’s a remarkable trick Trump has pulled. And I still don’t totally understand how he did it.
Read More: The 1 thing I still don’t get about Donald Trump’s continued dominance of the GOP