Republican strategist Melik Abdul says he’s voted for President Donald Trump three times, but he now complains that Trump failed a coalition that could have realigned “American politics for a generation—not for one term, but for the era that follows.”
Abdul told a CNN panel that he regrated how Trump has squandered the alliance he built when he retook the White House nearly two years ago.
Abdul’s confession kicked off during a discussion between the CNN anchor and Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden about Trumps corrosive crusade to put his name on the Kennedy Center in spite of legal and judicial decisions against the move.
“The fact that the president likes to spend so much time and energy trying to get his name on buildings and creating a stamp for himself is just an odd distraction,” said Tanden. “I think most Americans are actually focused on how expensive gas is and the Canadian trade war that [Trump] decided to have.”
“The Kennedy Center is an important institution, and I think most Americans still see it as the Kennedy Center,” continued the former Biden Domestic policy advisor. “And it’s just odd that … the president spends so much energy focusing in on putting his name on it, and this whole thread around a demolition. I mean, the idea that the Kennedy center would be demolished because he can’t get his name on something — outrageous seems to be just too small a word for how fundamentally stupid this is.”
At that point Abdul popped in with a confession.
“I’ll say this, and I’ll be the Republican to come on CNN—and they’re probably going to attack me for it,” said Abdul, referring to a Newsweek article he wrote called “What’s Left of Trump’s Legacy if He Burns It All Down.”
“In that article, I talked about these very sort of things, the things that are not your kitchen table sort of issues that voters are concerned about, things that are symbolism. And Donald Trump spends a lot of time fighting for this symbolism. And what could possibly end up happening is that, unlike in his first term, you see a lot of asterisks in the second term — things that courts had to overturn, things like the Kennedy Center. So, it ends up being a lot of asterisks because he’s fighting for symbols that really only appeals to the base of the party.”
“I talked to Republicans today. They probably won’t come on here and say it, but we would much rather Donald Trump talk about the midterms and his policies and how we win the midterm and keep his governance in place than talking about things like [the Kennedy Center.}
In his article, Abdul argued that Trump “wasn’t elected only to win. He was elected on the promise that a working-class, multiracial coalition could outlast him and remake the Republican Party for good.” But instead, he blew his credit “turning inward, chasing fights that thrill the faithful but build nothing durable.”
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