SIOUX CENTER, Iowa –
Stunning new revelations about former US President Donald Trump’s fight to cancel the 2020 election have exposed growing political vulnerability just as he eyes another presidential bid.
A former White House aide this week described Trump as a steadfast leader who had no regard for the safety of elected officials in either party as he clung to power on Jan. 6, 2021. Testimony to a congressional panel investigating the attack on Capitol, provided a road map for prosecutors to potentially charge Trump with a crime, some legal experts say.
Republican voters — and Trump’s future rivals in the 2024 presidential race — took notice.
Here in Iowa, the state expected to host the first presidential nominating contest in about 18 months, several voters signaled Thursday that they are open to another presidential candidate, even if Trump runs again. At the same time, some conservative media harshly rebuked the former president. Aides to multiple GOP presidential candidates have also indicated, publicly and privately, that they feel increasingly emboldened to challenge Trump in 2024 after the explosive new testimony.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, drew about 350 conservative activists to a congressional fundraiser barbecue Thursday in Sioux County, where Trump won 82 percent of the vote in 2020. There was ample evidence of Trump fatigue. Interviews with a dozen attendees revealed strong interest in an alternative for 2024, even if Trump is on the ballot.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find people in this field who support the idea that people aren’t looking for someone else,” said Dave Van Wyk, a trucking company owner. “To assume that conservative America is 100 percent behind Donald Trump is simply not the case.”
For some Republican voters, that was the feeling even before this week’s stunning new testimony.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday offered previously unknown details about the extent of Trump’s anger in the final weeks of his administration, his awareness that some supporters had brought weapons into the city on Jan. 6 and his ambiguity when insurgents later laid siege Capitol.
Upset by the size of the crowd at his Stop Theft rally — many supporters avoided entering because they were armed and didn’t want to go through metal detectors — Trump said things like, “I don’t care, they have guns. They’re not here to hurt me,” according to Hutchinson. She recalled hearing about a separate incident after the rally in which Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the president’s car to go to the Capitol to join his supporters.
This detail caused some backlash. The agent who was driving the car and another employee were reportedly prepared to testify under oath that Trump never threw himself at the wheel.
But the renewed concern was evident,
The editorial board of the conservative Washington Examiner said Hutchinson’s testimony “should be the death knell” for Trump’s political career. “Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power again.”
The often Trump-friendly New York Post exploded with a headline: “Tyrant Trump.” And the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote: “Just when it looks like Donald Trump’s behavior after his 2020 loss couldn’t get any worse, comes a wild new piece of testimony.
To be sure, conservatives have shared serious concerns about Trump repeatedly in recent years. And in each case, the former president emerged largely unscathed, sometimes stronger. He was caught on video bragging about sexual assault; he instigated a violent attack on the Capitol; and was impeached twice.
Still, Trump has campaign funds that exceed $101 million and remains very popular with many Republican voters. To be sure, Republican candidates from Arizona to Pennsylvania to Georgia are vying with each other this midterm season for his support.
“The American people continue to crave his leadership,” said Trump spokesman Taylor Budovitch, citing Trump’s strong approval ratings and fundraising success. “And as yet another witch hunt blows up in the Democrats’ face, President Trump is in a stronger position now than ever before.”
But even before this week’s revelations, a new poll by the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs Research and NORC found that 48 percent of American adults say Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Views on Trump’s criminal responsibility break down predictably along party lines, with 86 percent of Democrats and 10 percent of Republicans saying Trump should be impeached. Still, the fact that nearly half the country thinks he should be prosecuted is a remarkable position for the former president, pointing to the difficulties he could face if he runs for the White House again.
Meanwhile, Trump’s fundraising has fallen dramatically over the past two months. He reported raising just over $19,000 in May and June, after taking in nearly $9 million in March and April.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is hoping to run for president in 2024, says he heard concerns about Trump from both donors and voters ahead of testimony this week, adding to the “cumulative weight” of the former president’s political shortcomings.
“People are worried that we could lose the election in ’24, and they want to make sure that we don’t nominate someone who is seriously flawed,” Christie said.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is also considering a run in 2024, said he sees Trump as beatable in the GOP primary, even if Republican voters don’t pay much attention to the congressional hearings, as he suspects.
“His approval among Republican primary voters is already down somewhat,” Hogan said in an interview. “Trump was the least popular president in American history next to Joe Biden.
Aides to other Republican presidential candidates said privately this week that Trump may still be the overwhelming favorite to win the next GOP presidential nomination, but they believe his standing among Republican voters is in steady decline. There was a broad sense — or at least hope — that Hutchinson’s testimony would accelerate that decline among voters and donors in a way that would open up opportunities for others.
Mark Short, a senior adviser to former US Vice President Mike Pence, another likely 2024 presidential candidate, was blunt when asked about Trump’s political power.
“Republican activists believed that Donald Trump was the only candidate who could beat Hillary,” Short said. “Now the dynamic is reversed. He’s the only one who lost to Joe Biden.”
Indeed, Trump’s GOP rivals are leaning toward it.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who has served on the committee since Jan. 6 and has not ruled out a run for president in 2024, called Trump a direct threat to American democracy in a speech Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“Republicans cannot be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution at the same time. We have to choose,” she said.
Haley, who has said she will not seek the 2024 GOP nomination if Trump does, declined to say Thursday whether the testimony gave her reason to rethink that plan. Instead, she sounded upbeat.
“If it looks like there’s a place for me next year, I’ve never lost a race, I’m not going to start now,” Haley told reporters. “I’m going to put in 1,000 percent and finish it. And if there is no place for me, I will fight for this country until my last breath.”
Farmer Bob de Koning said he remains committed to Trump. He plans to support him in the Iowa caucuses, regardless of who runs.
But his wife Kathy de Koning said: “We can do better.”
“I just don’t know if it’s electable anymore,” she said.
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People reports from New York. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
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