No one should underestimate former president Donald Trump’s standing within the Republican Party, especially the passionate allegiance of a substantial part of the GOP base. But there are signs that, since the assault on the Capitol last year, his support within the party may not be quite as robust as it once was.
The suggestion that he has slipped comes with a sizable caveat. Majorities of Republicans have bought into Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey, completed at the end of last year, found that more than 6 in 10 Republicans said there is solid evidence that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Nearly 6 in 10 say President Biden’s election was not legitimate.
More Republicans say they want Trump to run again in 2024 than say they want another candidate. It’s not clear how widespread the enthusiasm for another Trump presidential campaign really is. But it’s even less clear that there is any Republican who could deny him the nomination, at least as things now stand.
Still, the Donald Trump of 2022 does not look quite like the Donald Trump of old. One indication of this change came with the release of a new poll from NBC News. Over the course of Trump’s presidency and since he left office, the poll has tracked attitudes of Republicans, asking them whether they see themselves mainly as supporters of Trump or mainly supporters of the party itself.
On the eve of the 2020 election, 54 percent of...
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