Don’t let Trump’s primary dominance deceive you. Behind the curtain, the GOP is tearing itself apart.
Keeping with his habit of being the worst person alive, Donald Trump reacted to his victory in New Hampshire’s Republican primary Tuesday by being a sore winner. Despite besting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by 11 points, Trump screeched and whined as if she were a prosecutor handing down more indictments. He threatened to «get even» with her, mocked her clothes, and baselessly accused her of secret crimes. He even took his narcissistic injury out on Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., forcing Scott to say «I just love you» in a maximally humiliating fashion.
Trump kept it up on Truth Social afterward, issuing all-caps posts about Haley like «DELUSIONAL» and «SHE CAME IN THIRD LAST WEEK!»
He later claimed that anyone who offers Haley financial support «from this moment forth» will be «permanently barred from the MAGA camp.»
Part of this, of course, is Trump’s severe personality disorders, which have only intensified in recent months, likely due to his advanced age and the stress of being under 91 felony indictments, along with his numerous civil lawsuits. But he’s also likely freaking out in large part because his wins in both Iowa and New Hampshire, upon further investigation, aren’t as impressive as they look. Despite the headlines about Republicans lining up behind Trump, there’s significant evidence that, in fact, his leadership is causing the party to fracture and go to war with itself. Which is not where Republicans want to be going into a presidential election.
The tension caused by the MAGA takeover: What pleases the extremist base — fake investigations, the Big Lie, far-right theatrics — turns off everyone else, including some voters Republicans need to win.
NBC exit polls showed only 50% of voters in the New Hampshire GOP race self-identified as Republicans and 44% were independents. While proud Republicans broke heavily for Trump, Haley got 58% of independents, most of whom said they were «moderate» or «conservative.» These numbers suggest a large number of people who would have called themselves Republicans in the past have left the party and turned out to vote against Trump.
This comports with analyses from Politico, the , the Hill and Reuters that suggest that a small but significant number of Republican voters have left out of disgust for Trump, and won’t return until he’s gone. These people aren’t just sitting on their hands at home, either.
