In an interview with the New York Times, former Republican congressman David Trott of Oakland County recalled the moment when, after just 2 ½ years in office, he decided to exit the House because of President Trump’s iron grip on his GOP colleagues.
In the summer of 2017 Trott criticized the president, mostly over Trump’s attempts to eliminate Obamacare, in a closed-door meeting with fellow GOP lawmakers.
The Times reports this:
The response was instantaneous — but had nothing to do with the substance of Mr. Trott’s concerns. “Dave, you need to know somebody has already told the White House what you said,” he recalled a colleague telling him. “Be ready for a barrage of tweets.”
Mr. Trott got the message: To defy Mr. Trump is to invite the president’s wrath, ostracism within the party and a premature end to a career in Republican politics.
Trott’s comments were published within a story that details how thoroughly the president controls the Republican Party, little more than four years after starting from scratch with an attempt to ingratiate himself with the GOP.
Incredibly, 40 percent of House Republicans who held office when Trump was inaugurated are gone –either due to election defeats in primaries or general elections, or because of a decision to call it quits. Those remaining, and essentially all of the newcomers, constitute a House Republican caucus that is thoroughly beholden to the president.
With Trott’s departure, the outcome turned sour for the Republicans as Democrat Haley Stevens won his suburban, pro-GOP Oakland/Wayne County district in the 2018 elections. Trott had concluded that he could not run “as a Trumper” but could not survive the ire of Trump and his minions in the House Republican leadership for daring to go against the president on some issues.
Here’s more from the Times report:
There is no market, (Trott) said, for independence. Divergence from Trumpism will never be good enough for Democrats; Mr. Trump will target you among Republicans, Mr. Trott added, and the vanishing voters from the political middle will never have a chance to reward you because you would not make it through a primary. That will be ensured in part by the megaphone the president wields with the conservative news media.
“Trump is emotionally, intellectually and psychologically unfit for office, and I’m sure a lot of Republicans feel the same way,” Mr. Trott said. “But if they say that, the social media barrage will be overwhelming.”
– The GOP RlNO Establishment of Oakland County MI viciously and disgustingly promoted the RINO David Trott to run against Kerry Bentivolio, because Kerry wasn’t going to wallow in their RINO Swamp, which also highly included the late County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
We see you swallowed the KOOK Aid (not misspelled) – Talk about a swamp….you fools follow a Russian tool TRAITOR, a cowardly draft dodger, a foul mouthed, foul tempered PERVERT (appeared in 3 porn flicks – check it for yourself) a serial adulterer, a compulsive liar, a misogynist and idiot who can’t and won’t READ anything, a racist, a bigot, an accused child rapist and so evil he spews acid every time he utters his putrid hate. He has been controlled by PUTIN for years and you are a TRAITOR for supporting the SWAMP CRYPTOID.
jesus christ you are insane.
obviously you don’t think for yourself and you let the establishment media create your thoughts for you.
wasnt there like no proof Russia did anything? didnt the steel dossier get discredited? and you are still spouting off lies and propaganda created by the ruling class?
we have evidence that other countries influenced our election, but not russia. random people buying ads on facebook isnt a crime, collusion or treason.
just put your head back into the sand and do what they tell you to do and believe in their lies and propaganda
Swamp does as it wants, it protects its own and pushes for more of its own.
honestly if the MI GOP wasnt this swampy and corporate conservative, and if SNYDER wasnt just like those swampy GOP members of this state, maybe we wouldnt have this current obstructionist governor.
Voters need to vote these swampy RINO’s out of office, they need to be challenged. they need to be Boo’d off of stages, we have to be vocal about all of this.
Honestly the Michigan Republican party is swampy as all hell. they would have ALOT to gain from abandoning their usual BS to co-opt the Nationalism and Populism that Trump and John James have successfully used. why do you think so many MI GOP lost reelections? their voter base was sick of their BS, they are sick of the RINO’s, they are sick of a Republican party that lies and manipulates voters as much as the Democratic party does in this state.
If they want to lose elections, then fine support big government establishment status quo corporate conservatism and lose elections.