This article was originally published in IPS on May 5, 2022. Access the full article here.
At regular intervals, political pundits predict that Donald Trump’s supporters are finally about to turn against him and the Republican Party will return to what it was before Trump. But they are wrong. Nothing has dented the loyalty of Trump’s political base — not his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, not his lying about it having been stolen, and not even his incitement of the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Trump is still, by far, the most popular figure in the Republican Party. His endorsement of J. D. Vance in the Ohio Republican senatorial primary elevated the ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author from a likely fourth-place finish to victory. As one Ohio voter told a reporter, ‘If Trump supports Vance, then we know he will be good.’
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