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Trump’s out-of-power agenda: Retribution against foes, commanding the spotlight and total domination of GOP - The Washington Post
May 07, 2021 3 mins, 18 secs
Former president Donald Trump is moving to handpick members of the House GOP leadership team — relentlessly attacking Rep.

Six months removed from his Election Day loss, Trump has emerged from his West Palm Beach hibernation — refashioning himself as the president of the Republican States of America and reshaping the party in ways both micro and macro.

The defeated ex-president is propelled primarily by a thirst for retribution, an insatiable quest for the spotlight and a desire to establish and maintain total dominance and control over the Republican base, said several former senior White House advisers.

This portrait of the 45th president in this moment is the result of interviews with 13 former White House officials, advisers, Republicans and allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid details.

Instead, as he has since Election Day, Trump obsessed over his loss, baselessly claiming the election had been stolen, and was especially reluctant to focus on a library — seeming to fear that any talk of his legacy would signal he is not running in 2024, the two advisers said.

So far, much of Trump’s focus has been on “revenge endorsements,” one of these advisers said — with Trump specifically targeting Cheney and nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach him, as well as other elected officials he believes were insufficiently supportive of his baseless claim that the election was stolen.

Otherwise, Trump largely spends his days watching — and occasionally appearing on — cable news, calling allies and his small cadre of remaining political advisers, welcoming Republicans to his private club, dining to standing applause, playing golf and fulminating against the 2020 election results.

“The tradition of ex-presidents has been to leave their political careers when they leave the White House, but as with many things, Donald Trump is different because he is at the end of the beginning of his political career, not the beginning of the end,” said Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to the president.

In a House special election in Texas earlier this month, Trump supported Susan Wright, who was initially trailing in early voting but surged to the front after the former president’s endorsement and advanced to a runoff.

Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), as well as Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Sanders — a former White House press secretary under Trump — have all held fundraisers there, while the Republican National Committee relocated part of its spring donor retreat to the location. 2

Trump has repeatedly griped to visiting senators about McConnell, asking who could be a new Senate Republican leader; many demur or just allow Trump to rant, one adviser said.

Advisers have also urged Trump to stop criticizing former vice president Mike Pence for certifying the 2020 election results, arguing that the invective hurts Trump more than his previous No.

One adviser said some have urged Trump to withhold his support for McCarthy to be the next speaker of the House if Republicans retake the chamber in 2022, and the former president has appeared intrigued by the idea.

“Why not focus on the biggest, brightest brass ring in politics and the Republican Party between now and 2024, which is who should be speaker when, with Donald Trump’s help, Republicans take the House?” this person said, speaking anonymously to share private discussions.

Others close to both Trump and McCarthy, however, said they believe Trump will ultimately have little choice but to support McCarthy for speaker should Republicans regain the House.

On Monday, Trump held a lengthy meeting with advisers at Mar-a-Lago about endorsements and which races he should get involved in and when, two people with knowledge of the discussion said.

His team has held meetings with potential social media start-ups, one of these people said, adding that any social media effort could be separate from a Trump media group.

This coming week, the former president is expected to decamp from Mar-a-Lago, which was dubbed the Winter White House during his presidency, to his summer one in New Jersey, two advisers said

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