Dem
53
Ties
3
GOP
44
We have written a couple of times about Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding after-party, which was primarily funded by a Russian oligarch that Junior barely knows. It could not be more obvious that the oligarch, who is close with Vladimir Putin, was buying influence with the White House.
The odor is strong enough that even some Republican senators are calling for an investigation, with two of them even going on the record with their support. The first of those is Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), who doesn't like being a U.S. Senator, is almost certainly one-term-and-done, and who comes from a state that is red but leery of Trump. The second of those is Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is a normie Republican who only pretended to be MAGA when he felt he had to, and who is now giving an object lesson in why it's better to keep party members you don't like inside the tent, pissing out, rather than having them outside the tent, pissing in.
Also note that while he hasn't quite gone so far as to call for an investigation, another tent-pisser, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), said that Trump Jr.'s actions raise "serious questions" and that he'd be OK with starting an investigation once the election is over. It appears that all three Republican senators are still Team GOP enough to not want to get this started before the election (and besides, the Senate is barely in session between now and then). However, once the election is over, particularly if there is going to be an incoming Democratic majority, then all bets are off. And note that Tillis and Cornyn are both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so those two, plus the Democrats on the Committee, are enough to get the ball rolling, no matter what the other Republicans think.
Every time we write about this, we hear from a few folks who point out that Trump Sr. will just pardon Trump Jr. This may be true, but it does not mean that an investigation is without value. First, if someone can find a civil violation here, then a pardon cannot erase that. Similarly, it is possible that Trump Jr. committed some sort of state-level crime. For example, he lives in New York, which has a very expansive RICO statute. A presidential pardon cannot erase that, either. And finally, an investigation serves notice that the corruption is not going unnoticed, and that anyone who decides to indulge could find themselves on the wrong end of a subpoena at some point in the future.
Note also that these blanket presidential pardons have never been tested in court, and it could eventually end up
being the case that "Get Out of Jail Free" does not actually mean "Get Out of Jail Free." Just yesterday, Katie Miller,
wife of Astaroth Stephen, was
worrying
about the legal costs that her family will bear if the Democrats begin a bunch of investigations. Either she is not
persuaded that a presidential pardon is forthcoming, or she is not persuaded it's a panacea for all of their potential
legal problems.
Also, since we are a full-service site, let's play Pollyanna for a moment. We suspect that many Republican officeholders know that MAGA is not the future, in part because Trump is (once again) increasingly toxic, and in part because he is not going to be able to pass the crown to someone else (even if he's willing to try, which he might not be). If the Democrats start a bunch of investigations, with even a little Republican buy-in (from people like Curtis, Cornyn and Tillis), this might be cover for other Republicans to defect from MAGA. "We really had no idea the extent of the lawbreaking/corruption," they might say. That would be a lie, of course. But people might overlook it, under the circumstances.
We will also note that "Republicans are fleeing Trump" pieces have become something of a cottage industry this week. Here's a selection, all from the last 48 hours:
And, while we're at it, let's note a bit of the data reported in the latest poll from Echelon Insights. They asked Republicans which they support: Donald Trump or the Republican Party. And 56% said they support the Republican Party first and foremost, while 34% said they support Trump more than they support the Party. We're not sure what that means, since the Republican Party and Trump have become one and the same. However, that certainly looks like a signal that supporting Trump is not a requirement for the majority of Republican voters, at least not anymore.
We have sensed the end of Trumpism before, and have obviously been wrong. But if his disastrous foreign and tariff policies lead to a shellacking in November, and if Republican officeholders believe that Republican voters are drifting away from MAGA as Trump enters his lame duck period and draws ever closer to the end of his career, then this really could be when people start to say that the emperor has no clothes. (Z)