USA: In Virginia, Republicans are more divided than Donald Trump admits — politics

They stood behind Donald Trump's lectern, clapping obediently as Republican senators, among them a handful of female senators, praised him for the “tremendous unity” he has brought to the party. It will be the presidential nominee's first visit to the U.S. Capitol since he sent his supporters to storm Washington on January 6, 2021. Last weekend, Trump wanted to show more than anything else where he says he wants to go now.

Months of bitter primary battles, particularly those that have plagued the leader of his rival, Nikki Haley, must now come to an end. Now it's all over, Trump signals, and now even Haley has said she'll vote for him in the fall, though she's argued for months that the country can't expect someone like him again. In the House of Representatives, MPs serenaded him on his 78th birthday during their meeting.

Close allies are suddenly enemies in the state

Even in these extraordinary Trump times, such placid scenes are hardly the backdrop for the notoriously chaotic collection of mavericks who call themselves the Grand Old Party. Republicans face another primary election on Tuesday, a reminder that myriad conflicts are running through the party.

Trump has brought large parts of the machine under his control. But in Virginia he suddenly finds himself facing close allies as enemies as he opposes a far-right candidate in favor of a challenger backed by the party establishment.

The chairman of the influential “Freedom Caucus,” the far-right group in the House of Representatives, once Trump's most important standard-bearer in the Capitol, must fear his position. Bob Goode won his House seat in deep-red Virginia in 2020, and after a bitter intra-party dispute. At the time, Good had expelled a member of the Freedom Caucus who, to the consternation of the party and voters, had married two gay staffers, a Christian conservative.

Now Bob Goode will face a similar fate. It is also a question of how far to the right the party's representatives will position themselves. Should voters fear that radical Republicans could freeze Congress after the November elections more than they already have since they won a majority in the House in the midterm elections? Because of threats from the Freedom Caucus, Congress delayed a decision on weapons for Ukraine and debated the funding budget for months. Right-wing MPs threw out their own Speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

“We have to fight fire with fire.”

Goode was one of eight rebels who turned against McCarthy. California has long since left Washington, but has exerted its influence in the background while collecting donations for expensive election campaigns. He is behind a campaign that has built another candidate against Goode, John McGuire, a former member of the elite Navy SEALs unit and now a senator in the Virginia Legislature. Many Republicans expressed their support for him in order to weaken the extreme right wing of the party. said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska Politics, otherwise he would not participate in such activities. But: “We must fight fire with fire.”

However, the hand of the party establishment is no longer what it once was. Recently, for example, South Carolina failed to defeat Representative Nancy Mays in the primary; She also belongs to the rebels. However, the important difference in favor is that Mays supported Trump.

Good, on the other hand, dared to take on the strongest man in the party at the start of the presidential campaign and endorse his rival, Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, Goode came to his senses and spoke in support of Trump, to which he responded with the words, “Too late.” Now Trump is campaigning for the establishment candidate, despite having other close allies Freedom reasonMPs like Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds are standing up for the benefit.

Establishment candidate John McGuire is now the favorite. It's unclear who will win as Republicans head to the ballot box for the first time in Virginia. However, it is predictable that Donald Trump will appreciate his party's massive unity after Tuesday's primaries.