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WASHINGTON (AP) – The escalation of President Donald Trump's legal problems has angered some of his Republican compatriots. Despite his brazen stance, they think the turmoil makes him more and more vulnerable as he prepares for a nasty battle for reelection.
Trump, still confident in his ability to hold the thread of history as he pleases, mocks inquiries about his conduct as a candidate and president of "Witch Hunt" and insists that & ### He will survive the threats.
But a change took place over the weekend after New York attorneys linked Trump to a federal attorney for the first time. crime of secret payments of silence. This has left some of his badociates fearing that his usual bravado is unjustified. For some Republicans, the implication that the president allegedly ran a campaign financing violation, which would be a crime, could foreshadow a real turning point in the relationship between Republicans when special advocate Robert Mueller will issue his report on the investigation conducted in Russia. [19659002] "I am sure that there will be much more information coming out of the Southern District (of New York) and, at some point, from the Mueller investigation as well," he said. said Senator John Thune of South Dakota. the next Republican No. 2 of the chamber, said Monday. "What they imply there, obviously, is something I guess the president will have the opportunity to respond to."
Thune continued: "Violations of campaign finance are something that … is serious business, but obviously it depends a little bit on how it is treated."
While the legal drama is draws, the political challenges that could threaten the re-election of Trump accumulate.
Republicans continue to face criticism. months of the House of Elections and looking for someone to blame. The departure of John Kelly as the White House Chief of Staff triggered a disorganized search for a replacement who could stay on the job thanks to the 2020 campaign. After Trump's first choice, Nick Ayers , vice-president's chief of staff, pbaded the torch. Few remaining candidates have political experience.
Moreover, Democrats will soon take control of the House of Representatives, exercising the power of summoning and potentially exploring. impeachment procedure. Meanwhile, financial markets have been nervous, in part because of Trump's trade wars and worries that higher borrowing costs could eventually trigger a recession.
Faced with Mueller 's pressure and the imminent onslaught of democratic investigations, Trump could still go further to the right. , speaking exclusively to voters he fears losing, according to a Republican close to the White House who conducted consultations on early re-election efforts. This instinct would echo the President's dual reaction to the crises that hit his 2016 campaign, including the "Access Hollywood" tape about forcing women, and may make it harder to seduce independent voters or voters. dissatisfied democrats. Maybe you need it.
Could Trump face a first election challenge in his own party? He does not seem worried.
The president is eager to release his re-election device and begin to collect pledges of loyalty from across the GOP in order to quell any insurgency, according to a campaigner and a Republican aware. the inner workings of the campaign, but is not allowed to speak in public.
The Trump team raised the possibility of a challenge on the part of someone like the outgoing Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, or Senator Jeff Flake of l & # 39; Arizona. A week after the mid-term elections, Kasich traveled to New Hampshire for a public speech and private talks with prominent Republicans.
Flake, who has been involved with Trump several times, takes no personal commitment, but his feelings about a challenger are clear.
"Someone has to run" against Trump, he said Monday. "I hope someone will do it."
While some White House Democrats are expected to announce campaigns in the first weeks of 2019, a Republican challenger could move more slowly, according to two GOP members involved in hypothetical talks. about taking Trump. Waiting for early spring, for example, could give Republicans time to gauge whether Trump will be weakened by Mueller's investigation or by a slowdown in the economy.
One of the leading Republicans in the House, said the situation around Trump remained unstable and had urged his colleagues to wait. the Mueller report, which according to some might come out early next year. This Republican, who requested anonymity to badess the situation frankly, urged fellow GOP lawmakers not to defend the indefensible, but also to not believe all the accusations. The legislator expressed the hope that the findings of the special advocate would be made public as soon as possible, so as to allow more time before the 2020 elections.
Despite the concerns of private parties and non-private, many close to Trump predict that he will not only survive the investigation on Russia but will be re-elected in two years. They point to his remarkable ability to get out of the scandal, his grip on his GOP voter base, the fear that his Twitter account has sparked among many Republican elected officials and what they believe to be the lack of talent among Democrats who might face him in 2020.
Echoing the president, they argue that the special council has shown itself helpless in its efforts to prove the complicity of the Russians and that it is ready to settle for a charge of campaign funding that they deem to be minor and that will be ignored or not understood by most voters.
The president said that the lesson to be learned from the mid-term elections of 2018 is that Republican candidates abandon him at their peril. And the Republicans who remain in Congress after these elections are not likely to back down.
"Do not forget that the remaining Republicans have won in fairly solid Republican districts of Trump," said moderate representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. from Florida, who is retiring. "So he's very popular with the base. I did not think that they would like to distance themselves or fear to badociate with it. "
Associated Press editors, Julie Pace and Zeke Miller in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.
Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Fram at the address http://twitter.com/@asfram
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