(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan met with Republicans in Washington, D.C. last week and came away with the impression that they — “including those most supportive of the president” — are “beside themselves with anxiety” at the outset of President Donald Trump’s second term.
After remarking upon Trump’s ubiquity, Noonan declared that after meeting with members of both parties for four days, she found that the only subject to come up was Trump.
“Republican lawmakers, including those most supportive of the president, are beside themselves with anxiety. When you speak to them—off the record, between friendly acquaintances—and ask how it’s going, they shift, look off, shrug: You know how it’s going. A GOP senator who supports the president had a blanched look. ‘He doesn’t do anything to make it easy,’ he shrugged,” wrote Noonan, adding:
What is the meaning of the averted eyes and anxious faces? It means Trump 2.0 isn’t better. It means for all the talk of the new professionalism in the Trump operation, they have to get used to the chaos again and ride it, tempting the gods of order and steadiness. After one week they concluded the first administration wasn’t a nervous breakdown and the second isn’t a recovery; instead, again they’re on a ship with a captain in an extended manic phase who never settles into soothing depression.
The second rise of Donald Trump is a total break with the past—that stable order, healthy expectations, the honoring of a certain old moderation, and strict adherence to form and the law aren’t being ‘traduced’; they are ending. That something new has begun. People aren’t sure they’re right about this and no one has a name for the big break, but they know we have entered something different—something more emotional, more tribal and visceral.
“There is the strong man, and the cult of personality, and the leg-breakers back home who keep the congressional troops in line. In 2017, a lot of people who watch closely and think deeply, thought: We’re having an odd moment, but we’ll snap back into place,” Noonan concluded. “Now they are thinking something new has begun. American politics was a broad avenue with opposing lanes for a very long time, at least a century, and now we have turned and are on a different avenue, on a different slope, with different shadows.”
The post Peggy Noonan Declares Republicans ‘Are Beside Themselves With Anxiety’ Over Trump 2.0 — Even Those ‘Most Supportive’ of Him first appeared on Mediaite .
In a recent column for the Wall Street Journal, conservative commentator Peggy Noonan has declared that Republicans are “beside themselves with anxiety” over the emergence of Trump 2.0. Even those who have been most supportive of former President Donald Trump are now feeling uneasy about his return to the political spotlight.
Noonan writes that many Republicans had hoped for a more subdued and statesmanlike version of Trump after his defeat in the 2020 election. However, with his recent rallies and endorsements of controversial candidates, it is clear that Trump is doubling down on his bombastic and divisive style.
According to Noonan, even Trump’s most ardent supporters are starting to worry about the impact his continued presence will have on the party. Some fear that his antics will alienate moderate voters and hurt the GOP’s chances in future elections.
Noonan’s column serves as a warning to Republicans that they may need to distance themselves from Trump in order to secure their political future. As the party grapples with internal divisions and the specter of Trump’s influence, it remains to be seen how they will navigate the challenges ahead.
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