On Wednesday, veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove warned his fellow Republicans that they are “in trouble” if President Donald Trump persists in believing the flattery of his advisors. According to Rove, there is a “real possibility” Trump thinks he’s winning, even in the wake of the GOP’s historic midterm trouncing. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rove laid out what he thinks Republicans must do if their party is going to survive the age of Trump.
After he was appointed the new White House chief of staff last Friday, Stephen Miller credited Trump with having “saved the Republican Party from the ash heap of history,” asserting he had “made it stronger, more popular, and more resilient than ever before.” Rove, however, had a different takeaway from the midterms, responding, “Come again? The GOP has just lost seven, probably eight and maybe nine Senate seats, at least 44 House seats, and five to seven governorships. Mr. Miller’s comments baffled many Republicans and probably angered some. Perhaps he felt he had to flatter Mr. Trump. Worse — and a real possibility — is that he and the president actually believe it.”
Now, with Democratic majorities on the way, Rove predicts that the administration will be further damaged by investigations into some of Trump’s most unpopular actions. “Investigations into grift and self-dealing could hurt,” writes Rove. “So could hearings on the administration’s moving beyond targeting violent criminal aliens by sending poorly trained, armed ICE agents after construction workers, waiters and farmhands. Images of their children being swept up too cost the GOP, especially with suburban voters.”
To “recover its standing with voters,” Rove advises Republicans, the party should reject the bad strategy coming from the administration. GOP lawmakers, he warns, “make a mistake if they play follow-the-leader and wait for direction from the West Wing. After all, those are the same geniuses whose principal idea for lowering the cost of living was to promise every adult a $5,000 check if Republicans won the midterms.” And while the White House has signaled that it will attempt to push its agenda through executive orders, as Rove notes, the courts have repeatedly struck down such actions. What’s more, Rove points out, “Trump has only two years left in office. He’s unlikely to grow more popular in that time.”
With Trump’s political era coming to an end, argues Rove, “Republicans must recover a neglected political habit: treating governing as serious work rather than performance art.” In his estimation, that means focusing on issues like lowering prices, making healthcare more affordable, expanding the housing supply, and addressing actual voter concerns rather than becoming preoccupied with “expensive remodeling plans.”
“Failing that, the Republican Party’s time in the wilderness could last far longer,” Rove concludes. “The GOP can’t return to some past bright era. It has to chart a course for the future. Republicans should draw on timeless conservative principles to meet America’s challenges. As Lincoln said, ‘as our case is new, so must we think anew, and act anew.’ The party of Lincoln should heed this sage advice.”