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Not My Party: A Dynasty of Trumps

Can any Republicans beat them?
February 25, 2021
Not My Party Ep. 203 The GOP's Celebrity Apprentices

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The media and the Washington establishment want you to think that the Republicans are embroiled in a “Civil War.” But that ain’t the truth.

Out in America, Republicans continue to be MAGAfied in an Orange Trumpian Glow.

We’re a ways out from the 2022 midterms. But so far, every Republican running for Senate, besides Lisa Murkowski . . . thanks Lisa . . . is sucking up to Trump

The power of the Trump brand in the GOP is so strong it’s spawning him an army of apprentices that are overpowering the old Republican guard.

In Arkansas, his former press secretary Sarah Sanders announced she was running for governor and immediately two Republicans who had been working for years in state politics dropped out.

The old days of being kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant for lying too much are long gone. She’s being welcomed with open arms by Republicans in Arkansas.

You once had to pay your dues in politics. You’d run for lower office, build a policy agenda, actually try to accomplish something, and then run on that experience.

Not anymore!

Sarah big-footed a former congressman and lieutenant governor just by the power of her lib-owning!

She has what it takes to succeed in the Trumpian Digital Age: hot fire tweets and endless invites to Hannity.

What other experience do you need as a governor?

Definitely not the ability to keep the heat on and the water running, right Greg Abbott?

And over in North Carolina, a Trump family member might call dibs on a Senate seat.

Lara Trump, if you don’t know, is the dynamic wife of the very undynamic Eric Trump—who might just be the villainous time traveler, Biff from Back To The Future.

As for Lara, her resumé includes experience as a reporter for Inside Edition and the host for the Donald Trump Campaign’s Facebook show!

Her Trumpian celebrity is all that matters to Republican voters. And if she gets in the race, she’ll be the favorite to beat a bunch of traditional conservative politicians.

So until Republican voters get sick of all this, there is no Civil War and the Trump Train will keep chuggin’ along.


The Republicans aren’t the only ones who have elevated brash politicians who do well on TV and bring a family pedigree.

Consider Andrew Cuomo.

The son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and brother of CNN’s Chris Cuomo had more experience than Lara, of course, but still has shown the limits of the political celebrity hype machine.

Back when Andrew and his brother were doing the cable news buddy comedy hour at the start of the pandemic, he was being lavishly praised in the press for what a great job he was doing!

He even found the time to write a book about how awesome he is . . . while people were still dying . . . in the middle of the pandemic. And he had celebrities asking: “Can I say that I am a Cuomosexual?”

So yeah, Andrew Cuomo was dealt a bad hand with COVID, but he also played it horribly!

New York was slower to lock down than other states that were hit early by the virus like California and Washington.

And we recently learned that Cuomo covered up the death count from his disastrous decision to cram high-risk COVID patients into nursing homes.

Meanwhile, quiet, boring, nerdy governors like Jay Inslee in Washington did the right thing from the start. And as a result, Washington has 4x fewer deaths per capita than New York.

So where’s his book deal?

Tim Miller

Tim Miller is The Bulwark’s writer-at-large and the author of the best-selling book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump and communications director for Jeb Bush 2016.