Why Republican Politicians Do Whatever Trump Says

Published

2 years ago

March 1, 2024

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The story Donald Trump tells about himselfand to himselfhas always been one of domination. It runs through the canonical texts of his personal mythology. In The Art of the Deal, he filled page after page with examples of his hard-nosed negotiating tactics. On The Apprentice, he lorded over a boardroom full of supplicants competing for his approval. And at his campaign rallies, he routinely regales crowds with tales of strong-arming various world leaders in the Oval Office.

This image of Trump has always been dubious. Those boardroom scenes were, after all, reality-TV contrivances; those stories in his book were, by his own ghostwriters account, exaggerated in many cases to make Trump appear savvier than he was. And theres been ample reporting to suggest that many of the world leaders with whom Trump interacted as president saw him more as an easily manipulated mark than as a domineering statesman to be feared.

The truth is that Trump, for all of his tough-guy posturing, spent most of his career failing to push people around and bend them to his will.

That is, until he started dealing with Republican politicians.

For nearly a decade now, Trump has demonstrated a remarkable ability to make congressional Republicans do what he wants. He threatens them. He bullies them. He extracts from them theatrical displays of devotionand if they cross him, he makes them pay. If there is one arena of American power in which Trump has been able to actually be the merciless alpha he played on TVand there may, indeed, be only oneit is Republican politics. His influence was on full display this week, when he derailed a bipartisan border-security bill reportedly because he wants to campaign on the immigration crisis this year.

David Frum: The GOPs true priority

Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump, has observed this dynamic with some amusement. Its funny, he told me in a recent phone interview. In the business world and in the entertainment world, I dont think Donald was able to intimidate people as much.

He pointed to Trumps salary negotiations with NBC during Trumps Apprentice years. Jeff Zucker, who ran the network at the time, has said that Trump once came to him demanding a raise. At the time, Trump was making $40,000 an episode, but he wanted to make as much as the entire cast of Friends combined: $6 million an episode. Zucker countered with $60,000. When Trump balked, Zucker said hed find someone else to host the show. The next day, according to Zucker, Trumps lawyer called to accept the $60,000. (A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Contrast that with the power Trump wields on Capitol Hillhow he can kill a bill or tank a speakership bid with a single post on social media; how high-ranking congressmen are so desperate for his approval that theyll task staffers to sort through packs of Starbursts and pick out just the pinks and reds so Trump can be presented with his favorite flavors.

I just remember that thered be a lot of stuff that didnt go his way, Nunberg told me, referring to Trumps business career. But he has all these senators in the fetal position! They do whatever he wants.

Why exactly congressional Republicans have proved so much more pliable than anyone else Trump has contended with is a matter of interpretation. One explanation is that Trump has simply achieved much more success in politics than he ever did, relatively speaking, in New York City real estate or on network TV. For all of his tabloid omnipresence, Trump never had anything like the presidential bully pulpit.

From the January/February 2024 issue: Loyalists, lapdogs, and cronies

It stands to reason that [when] the president and leader of your party is pushing for something thats whats going to happen, a former chief of staff to a Republican senator, who requested anonymity in order to candidly describe former colleagues thinking, told me. Take away the office and put him back in a business setting, where facts and core principles matter, and it doesnt surprise me that it wasnt as easy.

But, of course, Trump is not the president anymoreand there is also something unique about the sway he continues to have over Republicans on Capitol Hill. In his previous life, Trump had viewers, readers, fansbut he never commanded a movement that could end the careers of the people on the other side of the negotiating table.

And Trumpwhose animal instinct for weakness is one of his defining traitsseemed to intuit something early on about the psychology of the Republicans he would one day reign over.

Nunberg told me about a speech he drafted for Trump in 2015 that included this line about the Republican establishment: Theyre good at keeping their jobs, not their promises. When Trump read it, he chuckled. Its so true, he said, according to Nunberg. Thats all they care about. (Nunberg was eventually fired from Trumps 2016 campaign.)

This ethos of job preservation at all costs is not a strictly partisan phenomenon in Washingtonnor is it new. As I reported in my recent biography of Mitt Romney, the Utah senator was surprised, when he arrived in Congress, by the enormous psychic currency his colleagues attached to their positions. One senator told Romney that his first consideration when voting on any bill should be Will this help me win reelection?

From the November 2023 issue: What Mitt Romney saw in the Senate

But the Republican Party of 2015 was uniquely vulnerable to a hostile takeover by someone like Trump. Riven by years of infighting and ideological incoherence, and plagued by a growing misalignment between its base and its political class, the GOP was effectively one big institutional power vacuum. The litmus tests kept changing. The formula for getting reelected was obsolete. Republicans with solidly conservative records, such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, were getting taken out in primaries by obscure Tea Party upstarts.

To many elected Republicans, it probably felt like an answer to their prayers when a strongman finally parachuted in and started telling them what to do. Maybe his orders were reckless and contradictory. But as long as you did your best to look like you were obeying, you could expect to keep winning your primaries.

As for Trump, its easy to see the ongoing appeal of this arrangement. The Apprentice was canceled long ago, and the Manhattan-real-estate war stories have worn thin. Republicans in Congress might be the only ostensibly powerful people in America who will allow him to boss them around, humiliate them, and assert unbridled dominance over them. Theyve made the myth true. How could he possibly walk away now?

US

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s received threats over Trump feud

Published

30 mins ago

November 16, 2025

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Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's received threats over Trump feud

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s facing threats following a barrage of personal criticism from US President Donald Trump on social media.

The former MAGA ally posted on X, saying she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety as a hotbed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”.

She went on: “As a woman, I take threats from men seriously.

“I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.

“As a Republican, who overwhelmingly votes for President Trump’s bills and agenda, his aggression against me, which also fuels the venomous nature of his radical internet trolls (many of whom are paid), this is completely shocking to everyone.”

Calling her “wacky,” a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) and swapping her surname from Greene to “Brown” (“Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!”), Donald Trump rescinded his support for the Georgia representative and suggested he could back a primary challenger against her.

Ms Greene claims the president’s “aggressive rhetoric” is in retaliation for her support for releasing files about disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

After the US government shutdown ended, a petition to vote on the full release of the files about Epstein received enough signatures – including that of Ms Greene – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.

Ms Greene claimed text messages she sent to Mr Trump over the Epstein files “sent him over the edge,” writing on social media: “Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.”

She went on: “It’s astonishing really, how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”

High-profile figures, including Mr Trump, have been referenced in some of the documents.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” were an attempt to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”, who has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Mr Trump has called the Epstein files a “hoax” created by the Democrats to “deflect” from the shutdown.

Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner clash with Taylor Greene earlier this year…

In another post on X, Ms Greene wrote: “I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are.

“And it truly speaks for itself. There needs to be a new way forward.”

Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking charges and was accused of running a “vast network” of underage girls for sex. He pleaded not guilty.

Following a conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, he was registered as a sex offender.

Mr Trump has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Business

Interpath-owner to kick off £900m sale of Claire’s administrator

Published

2 hours ago

November 16, 2025

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The restructuring firm drafted in to advise Sir Jim Ratcliffe on a radical cost-cutting programme at Manchester United Football Club will this week be put up for sale with a £900m price tag.

Sky News has learnt that advisers to HIG Europe, the majority shareholder in Interpath Advisory, will on Monday begin circulating information about the business to potential buyers.

City insiders said on Sunday that HIG had received a large volume of inbound enquiries from prospective suitors since it emerged that it was in the process of appointing bankers at Moelis to handle an auction.

Blackstone, Bridgepoint, Onex, PAI Partners and Permira are among the buyout firms expected to show an interest in buying Interpath, according to banking sources.

Interpath was spun out of KPMG UK in 2021 in a deal triggered by the changing regulatory climate in the audit profession.

Growing concerns over conflicts of interest between accountancy giants’ audit and consulting arms had been exacerbated by the collapse of companies such as BHS and Carillion, prompting a number of disposals by ‘big four’ firms.

Interpath has advised on a string of prominent restructuring and cost-saving mandates for clients, including acting as administrator to the UK and Ireland subsidiaries of Claire’s, the accessories retailer which collapsed during the summer.

Sources said that Interpath had doubled its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation since HIG Europe acquired the business four-and-a-half years ago.

It is also said to be on track to record a 20% increase in annual revenues in the current financial year.

A sale of Interpath is expected to be agreed during the first quarter of 2026.

HIG declined to comment.

World

Three men and two women in their 20s have died in car crash in Co Louth, Irish police say

Published

2 hours ago

November 16, 2025

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Three men and two women in their 20s have died in car crash in Co Louth, Irish police say

Three men and two women died in a road crash involving two cars in Co Louth on Saturday night, Irish police said.

The collision happened on the L3168 in Gibstown, Dundalk, shortly after 9pm.

Police said the five victims were all aged in their 20s and had been in the same vehicle, a Volkswagen Golf.

They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Another man, also in his 20s, was “removed” from the car and taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where he was treated for “serious non-life-threatening injuries”, said Superintendent Charlie Armstrong.

The Golf was in a collision with a Toyota Land Cruiser.

A man and a woman in the second vehicle were also taken to the same hospital.

Their injuries are described as “non-life-threatening”.

‘A shocking, devastating event’

Superintendent Armstrong said an investigation into the road crash was under way, as he praised the emergency services.

He said: “The scene was very difficult, in adverse weather conditions, and the professionalism shown by all first responders and the care and respect shown to the five deceased was exemplary.

“This tragedy, with the loss of five young adults, will have a deep impact on families and local communities in Carrickmacross, Dromconrath and in Scotland.

“This is a shocking, devastating event for these families, their communities and the community here in Dundalk.”

He said family liaison officers have been appointed to each of the families and police will keep them updated.

Superintendent Armstrong urged anyone with information about the collision to contact the investigation team.

He said: “I am appealing to any person who was on the L3168 between 8.30pm and 9.15pm, last night Saturday November 15 2025, to contact the Garda investigation team.

“I am appealing to any person who might have any camera footage or images from the L3168, Gibstown area, between 8.30pm and 9.15pm last night, to give that footage or images to the investigation team at Dundalk Garda Station.”

The L3168 was closed between the N52 and the R171 as forensic experts investigated, and traffic diversions were in place.