After winning the Republican primary in South Carolina this weekend, Donald Trump said said he has “never seen the Republican Party so unified.”
Trump says a lot of things, few or which are true, but that one’s enough to break the LOL-o-meter.
Allow me to deviate momentarily from the steady flow of inane “Should the Democrats replace Biden?” think pieces to say this: the Trump-led Republican Party is in disarray. It’s one large tent shy of a circus. It’s a black hole into which normalcy disappears.
Here are a few facts – remember those things? – about the GOP as it enters another week of entropy.
Trump did soundly beat Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary Saturday. But he did not resoundingly beat her. Haley claimed about 40% of the vote. When you consider that Trump winning the GOP nomination seems all-but-inevitable, having 40% of your base not vote for you is, in the parlance of political strategists, not good.
As Haley said after the loss: “There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative.”
That doesn’t sound like unity. Adding to Trump’s electoral trouble, exit polls showed that nearly 60% of the people who voted for Haley would not support Trump in the November election, and 36% of all South Carolina primary voters said that if Trump gets convicted in one of his myriad criminal cases, they would deem him unfit for office.
Why not Haley?Nikki Haley dominates Biden in polls. Why are Republican primary voters so stuck on Trump?
And no, Haley's numbers weren't inflated by Democrats allowed to vote in the South Carolina GOP primary – only a tiny percentage of them showed up. But Haley did win big among a swath of voters who will be pivotal in the general election. She took 62% of the votes from people who identify as independent.
Beyond the non-juggernautish Trump, congressional Republicans march into this week with a government shutdown looming and a House speaker, Mike Johnson, who seems incapable of herding the cats that make up his caucus.
Having recently rejected a bipartisan border deal hashed out in the Senate, the House may well get hung up on government funding because of GOP lawmaker demands for ... wait for it ... a border deal.
GOP won't actually fix border:Fixing the border crisis is bad for Trump and good for Biden. That's the problem.
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds told NBC News on Sunday: “I will not be voting for any funding if the border is not secure.”
And there’s the general chaos-monsters, like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Ewwwww), who bragged to a crowd of conservatives Friday that he has made Congress “a living hell” for many of his fellow Republicans, who he kindly labeled “swamp rats.”
Haley lost her home state:South Carolina Republicans told me why they want Trump and why Haley lost her home state
The most likely path forward is for Johnson to push through another continuing resolution to keep the government open and stall for time, but that’s what drove the MAGA elements of the House GOP caucus to boot Kevin McCarthy from the speakership. Or as Trump might call it, “An act of great GOP unity.”
While struggling to accomplish the absolute basics – like keeping the government running – Republicans have recently seen their unmoored-from-reality Biden impeachment inquiry crumble into dust.
They had to reckon with an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared frozen embryos – the kind used in in-vitro fertilization – are people, causing major hospitals and clinics in the state to temporarily halt IVF services.
GOP lawmakers have rushed to defend IVF – which is exceedingly popular across party lines – but they’re struggling with this incongruity: 125 House Republicans are co-sponsors of something called the “Life at Conception Act,” which has no exceptions from IVF and mirrors the language used by the Alabama high court in its ruling.
It’s tricky to say: “We in no way support this thing we all signed on to and are trying to get passed into law!”
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, when first asked about the Alabama ruling, made clear that he doesn’t understand how much of anything works, first saying he was “for it” because “we need more kids” then, upon learning the ruling might suspend IVF services, saying, “That’s a hard one.”
It also doesn’t help dispel the “we’re turning America into ‘The Handmaids Tale’” vibe when Republicans like Rep. Donalds go on television and praise IVF by saying: “It helps them breed great families. Our country needs that.”
Alabama cares about frozen embryos.The health of children and adults? Not so much.
And of course, back to Trump, the party’s likely presidential nominee has pushed for his own daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to co-chair the Republican National Committee, and she has said the party should help pay Trump’s legal fees.
Among other legal fees, Trump now owes New York at least $454 million for committing fraud – with $112,000 in interest piling up each day – and $83.3 for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
In total, that’s about $537 million, which is about $537 million more than what Biden owes in civil penalties, because Biden has never been found liable for fraud and defamation.
All of these inconvenient facts lead Trump to one conclusion: “I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now.”
Indeed. Everything’s running like a well-oiled engine.
One that’s powering a train running right off the tracks.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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