"After his 2024 victory Donald Trump claimed he had an unprecedented and powerful mandate, that his mandate was massive, and that his Maga movement was irresistible, the wave of the future. It lasted 10 months, in which he had betrayed his chief promise to lower inflation, turned the public against him on every issue and Republicans at last faced a battering by voters."
"Trump's image of omnipotence has rested upon a pyramid of dread. His ability to maintain the servility of the Republican Congress, whose members are intimidated by the danger that if they defy him he would support primary opponents to run against them, has been the political foundation for all the other forms of fear he incites throughout American institutions. Trump could not have leveraged himself as dictator on day one without congressional abdication."
"But within two weeks of the 4 November elections, only one Republican in the House voted against the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files which Trump had called a hoax before he felt compelled to bend in the cyclone to sign the bill and yet still suppresses the files. The Republicans in the Congress now have another fear that places them in a terrible tightening vise."
The 4 November elections ended the illusion of Trump's invincibility. After his 2024 victory he claimed a massive mandate and an irresistible MAGA movement, but ten months of broken promises, including failure to lower inflation, turned public opinion and led to Republican losses. Trump's power rested on fear and the servility of a Republican Congress intimidated by his threat to support primary challengers. Congressional abdication enabled his consolidation of power. Even after the elections most House Republicans backed releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, and the party now risks being punished in next year's midterms for his actions.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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