Fox News:
Despite his comparative silence since the inauguration, there's no doubt Trump still has a stranglehold on the Republican Party. With him stripped of his biggest platform will that influence hold long enough to mount a significant attack on anti-Trump Republicans into 2022 and 2024? Will he ultimately win the fight for the GOP's soul?
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Former president Donald Trump will claim he is the leader of the Republican party and its "presumptive 2024 nominee" when he makes his first public appearance since leaving office during the Conservative Political Action Conference next weekend in Orlando, according to a report.
A longtime Trump adviser told Axios his CPAC speech will be a "show of force," and said the message will be: "I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I'm still in charge." The source reportedly added that "payback is his chief obsession."
Trump's advisers will reportedly meet with him at Mar-a-Lago this week to plan his next political moves, and to set up the framework for kingmaking in the 2022 midterm elections.
According to Axios, Trump is expected to go after the 10 House Republicans who voted to convict him in his impeachment trial, spurred by the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and the seven GOP Senators who voted with Democrats to convict.
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Trump has found support from state Republican officials who censured some members of Congress who voted against him. Meanwhile, his leadership PAC, Save America, has $75 million on hand to help set up primary challenges to sitting Republicans who went against him, as well as a database of tens of millions of names.
Despite his comparative silence since the inauguration, there's no doubt Trump still has a stranglehold on the Republican Party. With him stripped of his biggest platform will that influence hold long enough to mount a significant attack on anti-Trump Republicans into 2022 and 2024? Will he ultimately win the fight for the GOP's soul?