{"id":28459,"date":"2024-07-21T02:33:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T23:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=28459"},"modified":"2024-07-21T02:33:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T23:33:01","slug":"trump-and-the-return-of-the-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/21\/trump-and-the-return-of-the-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Return of the Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asharq Al Awsat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, Republicans were back under the Republican Party\u2019s convention limelight in Milwaukee. This time they looked as determined to send Donald J Trump to the White House in November as they were in 2016.
\nEight years ago, Trump looked like a bolt out of the blue that though threatening the serenity of American political sky would prove a passing nuisance.
\nThen Trump didn\u2019t fit the mold shaped over almost two centuries of American nationhood. He was the first businessman to enter the inner circle of aspirants to the presidency.
\nUnlike the previous 44 presidents he had no record of public service, civilian or military and had never held any public office. Nor was he a graduate of the IV League elite universities and a winner of many chic scholarships.
\nBy all accounts Trump\u2019s four-year tenure was a breathtaking if not nerve-wracking rollercoaster which, to everyone\u2019s surprise, led to none of the disasters predicted by professional doomsters. The economy did well as unemployment dropped and inflation remained under control. When leaving the White House after four years, Trump was the only US president in over a century, not to have involved the US in a war.
\nTrump\u2019s \u201cMAGA revolution\u201d didn\u2019t lead to the palingenesis promised; But nor did it trigger the Apocalypse that the ruling elite had warned against.
\nFast forward to Milwaukee this week!
\nThis time Trump, wearing the halo of the one who was saved, led his cheering supporters to presumption of sailing to victory next November.
\nThe \u201cMAGA\u201d slogan remained but the post-assassination attempt Trump also presented a 16-page program further backed by a 922-page Project 2025 prepared by over 230 \u201cthinkers, experts and specialists\u201d from over 100 think-tanks and lobbying outfits.
\nTo such un-Trumpian novelties one might add the presence this time of scores of \u201cregular\u201d Republicans many of whom had sworn they would never join his dance. He even chose one of them Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his vice-presidential running-mate
\nTrump set aside the \u201chumdinger\u201d text he had prepared for the convention and came out with a speech that though fiery had a soothing undertone.
\nPundits are already speculating about the possibility of a Trump-II model that might soften his rougher edges, act in a more disciplined way, accept a larger measure of teamwork and, even name a token Democrat as part of his putative Cabinet in a tradition respected by several presidents since the 1960s- in short, become less-Trumpian.
\nWill such a transformation increase Trump\u2019s chances winning back the White House?
\nMy answer is: no. Eight years ago millions of Americans voted for Trump because he didn\u2019t look or sound like regular politicians. Many called that a protest vote, which certainly was to some extent.
\nThis time, however, Trump is able to attract a vote of adhesion to an agenda which, although chaotic, at least hints at some of the reforms the US political system needs. These include a rebalancing of the powers of the federal government and the states and the authority of the president as head of the executive power in the context of a debate that started at the birth of the new nation.
\nPromising to end the war in Ukraine and designating China as a potential foe may be headline-catching but do not amount to a coherent foreign policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asharq Al Awsat Last week, Republicans were back under the Republican Party\u2019s convention limelight in Milwaukee. This time they looked as determined to send Donald J Trump to the White House in November as they were in 2016. Eight years ago, Trump looked like a bolt out of the blue that though threatening the serenity …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28461,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28459\/revisions\/28461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}