Last Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill, he was inciting an attack on it. When he returned on Thursday after more than three years, because meetings with congressional Republicansit will serve another, slightly slower-moving danger to democracy: one that may be uncharacteristic bear spray And hit the window of Jan. 6, but that could end up being more devastating.
Former president – who was impeachment the second time, indicted four timesAnd sentenced on 34 counts since he was last on the Hill—will meet with House and Senate Republicans this week to discuss November’s election and plans for 2025 if he wins, with the goal of running as fast as possible if he returns to power. That thing “strategic management agenda” will of course include plans to cancel the policies of its successor, promulgated Tough immigration restrictionsand significantly expand executive power, which he has made clear he will use to seek “retribution” on behalf of himself and his supporters.
“When this election is over, based on what they did, I will have every right to go after them,” Trump said. speak Sean Hannity President’s last week Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, whom he falsely accused of using the justice system against him.
It’s a grim outlook for the country, one that could put the United States in a difficult position. the road to extremism there’s no brake slow him down during his first term. “Americans do not understand how far down the road to a dystopian, right-wing theocracy we are currently on,” the Democratic Congressman said. Jared Huffmanleader of the campaign against the Republican Party’s sweeping “Project 2025” agenda, speak Hill recently. “In the unlikely event that Trump wins the presidency, things will happen very quickly.” (“Project 2025 will not be ‘stopped’” Kevin Robertspresident of the Heritage Foundation, who drafted the blueprint for Trump’s still-hypothetical second term, speak Associated Press on Tuesday. “We will not give up and we will prevail.”)
Trump’s visit Thursday will highlight some intra-party divisions over that authoritarian agenda: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowskiwho voted to impeach Trump in 2021 and refused to endorse him in 2024, will not attend because of a “conflict.” Others, like Indiana Sen Young Todd, have said they won’t vote for him this fall. But for the most part, the meetings will likely feature a Republican Party with a notably close relationship with their leader. “We are all on the same team,” West Virginia Sen Shelley Moore Captain told Politico, “and we need to unite as we enter the fall.”
Indeed, the Republican Party that welcomes him on Thursday will look sadly similar to the party that parted ways with him three and a half years ago: a party under his control and eager to carry out his dangerous agenda. grandfather. That thing include Mitch McConnellSenate Republican leader, who has not spoken to Trump since December 2020. Although his already frosty relationship with the former president has only grown more tense. colder in the years since—as Trump attack him And his wifeformer administrative official Elaine Chao—McConnell again support him ran for president in March and will attend a Senate meeting with him on Thursday.
McConnell’s capitulation speaks to the shamelessness of the GOP conference, which enabled Trump’s ambitious authoritarianism in his first term and his attack on democracy as it came to a close. end. Now, the group seems committed to helping him wreak even more havoc this time around. “I think this will be a very good meeting,” Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson speak Wednesday.
