6 NEWS Controversy of the week
CPAC: Is there a GOP without Trumpism?
“Do you miss me yet?” asked Donald Trump, emerging
from the seclusion of Mar-a-Lago to keynote last
week’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
The crowd roared in a demonstration of its
“devotion,” said Elaina Plott in The New York
Times. At the four-day event, the mood was “defi-
antly pro-Trump,” with ubiquitous MAGA hats
and fans posing for photos with a 6-foot golden
statue of Trump holding a magic wand—recalling for
many critics the Old Testament’s ill-fated golden calf.
Lest any doubt remain, CPAC attendees told report-
ers their “allegiance was to the former president far
more than to the Republican Party.” The conserva-
tive movement used to be defined by ideas, but it’s
now devolved into “reverence” for “one man.”
Trump’s speech was a tired repeat of his usual “own the libs”
grievances, said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post, with an
emphasis on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from
him. But his heart didn’t seem in his hint that “I may even decide
to run again” in 2024. He grew passionate only in demanding ven-
geance on the 17 GOP lawmakers who voted to remove him from
office, whom he took the time to list by name. “Get rid of them
all,” he snarled. All of which puts Republicans in a bind. “Party
leaders in their hearts know that they can’t win with Trump and
Trumpism,” especially after the Jan. 6 insurrection. But as CPAC
made clear, “they can’t live without him and his followers.”
Trump shouldn’t run again, said Eddie Scarry in Washington
Examiner .com, but he is still “crucial to the party’s future.” He has
“revolutionized” the conservative movement by championing an
“America First, working-class” agenda, and creating “a blueprint
for future Republicans to win national office.” At CPAC, Trump
signaled his willingness to be “kingmaker rather than
king,” said Miranda Devine in the New York Post,
disavowing rumors that he planned to start a third
party. With exciting young conservatives like Govs.
Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem waiting to pick up
Trump’s populist torch of personal liberty, economic
nationalism, and national pride, this bodes well for
the GOP’s future.As a Republican, I was heartened to hear Trump
“shooting down the idea of a third party,” said
Scott Jennings in CNN.com. Splitting our voter
base would condemn the GOP to perpetual defeat.
But we’re also not going to win if our voter base “gets
any smaller”; in both 2016 and 2020, Trump
got a smaller percentage of the popular vote
than Mitt Romney did in 2012. Trumpism, as he and his cult
made clear at CPAC, is pure “revanchism,” said Jonathan Last in
TheBulwark.com. It consists of little more than a white, largely
male minority’s grievance-driven hunger to “return to a time when
they held power.” These angry populists have zero interest in try-
ing to woo back the millions of disgusted moderates and suburban
women who emphatically rejected Trump in 2020.Republicans may run a Trumpist in 2024, said Osita Nwavenu in
NewRepublic.com, but not Trump himself. He’ll be 78 by then, if
he hasn’t already been yanked from the stage by Father Time, or
the circling prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and Washington,
D.C. Unlike his golden effigy—made in Mexico, it turns out, from
a fiberglass shell coated in gold veneer—“the man isn’t immortal.”
With his unique combination of shameless bombast and theatrical
victimhood, Trump will “be a tough act to follow.” But sooner or
later, some Republican “will have to follow him.”Only in America
QThree California boys have
been expelled from Catholic
school because their mother
posts risqué photos to an
OnlyFans channel. OnlyFans is
a nonpublic site, with access
restricted to paying custom-
ers. But when other moms
told officials at Sacramento’s
Sacred Heart Parish School
about Crystal Jackson’s pho-
tos, they told her to “find an-
other school for your children.”
Jackson says her kids “are
innocent to this whole thing.”
QThe pandemic has caused
a surge in the number of men
wearing makeup. With men
spending hours scrutinizing
their faces on Zoom calls,
Google searches for “men’s
makeup” have soared nearly
80 percent from 2019. Sales of
men’s cosmetics are booming.
“People are already saying I
look younger in my videos,”
says realtor and makeup user
Ben Dixon, 42.Diplomacy,after the Japanese government asked China to stop
testing Japanese tourists for Covid using anal swabs. The efficacy of
the tests “has not been confirmed anywhere else in the world,” said
a Japanese official, and they cause “great psychological pain.”
Redesigns, after Amazon tweaked the look of a button on its new
iPhone app following complaints it looked like a smirking Adolf
Hitler. Amazon did not address the Hitler resemblance, but said the
new icon would better “spark anticipation, excitement, and joy.”
Donald Trump,who was re-inaugurated as president on March
4, followed by mass arrests of Democrats and Deep State conspira-
tors. The prophesied “storm” had not begun as The Week went to
press, but QAnon believers were aglow with confidence. “March 4
will be our victory dance,” one Debbie Briscoe posted.Low blows, after the far-right-wing Newsmax network ran a
segment accusing Champ, President Biden’s 12-year-old German
shepherd, of looking “dirty” and “unpresidential.”
Persistence, after rock-guitar virtuoso Steve Vai needed finger
surgery because he held the same complex chord for 20 minutes in
a practice session. “I had to put my thumb in this really weird posi-
tion,” explained the former Frank Zappa protégé, now 60.
Multitasking,after Dr. Scott Green, a California plastic surgeon,
attempting to Zoom in to a traffic-court appearance, with an anaes-
thetized patient lying unconscious behind him. “I have another
surgeon right here,” Green told an unconvinced commissioner Gary
Link, who insisted on rescheduling the hearing.Good week for:
Bad week for:
GettyThe golden idol: Tough act to followIn other news
Twitter insults sink
Tanden nomination
The White House pulled
Neera Tanden’s nomination to
become director of the Office
of Management and Budget
this week after failing to
muster 50 Senate votes for her
confirmation. The move came
following a last-ditch meeting
between Tanden and Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-Alaska) in which
Tanden made her case for
support. A prolific Twitter user,
Tanden made enemies on
both sides of the aisle. In 2019,
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
accused her of “maligning my
staff “and “belittling progres-
sive ideas.” Republicans got
a chance to strike back at
Tanden for tweets in which
she personally ridiculed sena-
tors, calling Sen. Susan Collins
(R-Maine) “pathetic” and de-
riding Sen. Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) as “ Voldemort” and
“Moscow Mitch.”