Trump Renews His Vows With the Republican Party
At CPAC, the ex-president showed he has no intention of quitting the GOP. But are party insiders and conservative activists equally committed?
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Ten years ago, Donald Trump gave a speech at CPAC that electrified his fans and teased a future run for the presidency. On Sunday, he did it again. An extraordinary decade in American politics and American life perfectly bookended. Somehow, despite all that’s happened, we’re back where we started—wondering what Trump will do next. But it’s the wrong question, and Trump knows it. His rise as a political figure depended first upon Republican ambivalence and then upon their willingness to embrace and stand by him as a candidate and as president. Now that he’s cost them Congress and the White House and given the party further reason to abandon him, the real question is what Republicans will do with Trump.