Trump purges enemies and reshapes party in his image
The president wins short-term victories with the retirements of Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, but the cost to the GOP agenda could be steep.
By ALEX ISENSTADT 10/24/2017 10:35 PM EDT Updated 10/25/2017 12:07 PM EDT
President Donald Trump is squeezing out his enemies in the Republican Party — diminishing the power of the GOP establishment and reshaping his party in his own image.
With the looming exits of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Trump will rid himself of his two most outspoken Republican detractors. What happens before they depart in 2019 — Flake and Corker demonstrated Tuesday they are fully emboldened now to take on the president without fear of consequences — could determine the success or failure of the GOP-controlled Congress through the 2018 midterms.
But in the short term, there is no question: Trump, and his former strategist and now-Breitbart chief Steve Bannon, are winning.
The casualty list of Trump critics is bleeding over to the House, where a swelling group of anti-Trump lawmakers from the mainstream wing of the GOP — including Washington Rep. Dave Reichert, Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen — are ditching their reelection plans. While the circumstances of each departure are unique, the end result is the same.
With other establishment-aligned members of Congress eyeing the exits, the president’s backers are envisioning 2018 as an opportunity for Trump to steamroll the party establishment, much as he did in 2016.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/24/trump-republicans-corker-flake-purge-244139
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