DeSantis told Trump and Stepien that he thought Wiles had lied and leaked to the press. “Fair enough,” Stepien replied. “But you won, and so did Donald Trump in Florida in 2016.”
Trump made the final decision. “We’re going to hire Susie.” She returned to work in early July.
The most immediate prospect of reasserting control over his party—and a test of the loyalty of grassroots members to him and his MAGA movement—would be to pick and choose among the GOP candidates who announce their candidacies in 2022 and issue a series of his trademark “total and complete” endorsements. But without any process for Trump to make endorsements, he has begun to endorse candidates at random, distributing his support to Republicans. Donald Trump Jr. and some of his aides were seen as “weak” or not MAGA enough, like Kansas senator Jerry MoranThose who follow their views have been too critical of Trump’s trade policies and not loyal enough.
In late February, his closest remaining political advisers were summoned to Mar-a-Lago to begin mapping out how they would approach issues like endorsements.
It’s a strange and empty time at Trump’s club. COVID-19 has scared off some members (the club will temporarily close next month due to the coronavirus outbreak). Others left after Trump’s 2020 defeat and January 6, when they realized that the hefty membership fee was only worth it while Trump was in power. Being associated with a man who inspired a bloody attack on the Capitol doesn’t have the same social clout as being associated with a president.
The meeting was held in the empty Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago, a dining room adjacent to the main living room. Former Trump campaign managers, Brad Parscale and Bill Stepien; Justin Clarka White House lawyer and deputy campaign manager; Dan Scavino; Jason Miller; And Corey Lewandowski seated in banquet chairs around a table covered with a white tablecloth. Having worked in the White House and on Trump’s 2020 campaign, they found the arrangement somewhat informal.
There was no agenda set. No one was in charge, and—unusually for Trump world—no one wanted to be. Trump wanted to be a political Godzilla, but at that point he could barely send an email, let alone raise money. Among the top priorities they discussed that afternoon were figuring out who would do the letter and some kind of process for making endorsements, to prevent people from promoting their friends against Trump. Word had been passed to Trump Jr. that Sen. Lindsey GrahamTrump’s ally and golfing buddy, has been lobbying for support.
For those who have worked for Trump since 2016, the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities is a novel concept — a welcome change, indeed.
And even if there wasn’t much information from the meeting beyond the online process for candidates to ask for confirmation and the weekly call, there was a sense within the group that if Jared Kushner While Donald Trump Jr. ran things in 2020, it’s Donald Trump Jr. who will take on a bigger role going forward.
Kushner and Trump’s son are both wealthy, Ivy League-educated men born just three years apart, but they have very different views of the world. After Kushner became Trump’s top White House adviser, he and his wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, were eager to move on and curry favor with the New York elite, while Trump Jr. was eager to disappear into the Pennsylvania wilderness to hunt deer and make his own mark on the MAGA movement.
Don Jr., as he is often called, has made it clear that when it comes to his father’s political capital, they need to be very careful: Unless Trump gets something in return, or unless the candidate proves they are true believers or allies, Trump will not offer his support.
An idea comes from Andy Surabiana Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign as war room director under Steve Bannon and continued to work closely with Don Jr. He proposed that candidates answer a one-page questionnaire about their positions on issues like immigration and foreign policy, and whether they would support Trump if he ran again in 2024. Everyone liked the idea, and the questions were drafted. But then Trump himself canceled the idea.
Trump’s small team of advisers also needs to find fundraising vehicles that can funnel money into the upcoming midterm races. Save America, a leadership PAC, was formed shortly after the election, and Trump planned to use it to pay staff salaries and political expenses. In addition to Save America, a new super PAC, Make America Great Again Action, was formed to raise and spend an unlimited amount of money on advertising in the upcoming midterm races.
Trump just announced his first endorsements—for Sarah Huckabee SandersWhite House press secretary became a gubernatorial candidate in Arkansas, and for Moran in Kansas—but he was eager to start campaigning more and was determined to overthrow Republican campaigns that supported his impeachment or that he felt were working against him in the 2020 election.
